Sugar Gets No Respect, Rodney Dangerfield and You.

Sugar Gets No Respect, Rodney Dangerfield and You.

 

At the risk of dating myself, one of my favorite comedians of all time was Rodney Dangerfield.

Rodney has passed on now but his signature catchphrase was, “No respect, I don’t get any respect from anyone!” For those of you not familiar with Rodney you can only imagine the jokes around that phrase: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwu-6GxBHN4

With over 29,000 results on YouTube alone, you can still revel in his greatness:

“He was quite simply the greatest stand up comedian there ever was” – Jay Leno

I feel the same about sugar in our diets and in the discussion around weight gain, health and other eating disorders that Rodney did:

Sugar just gets no respect.

It doesn’t matter how many studies, books 100% dedicated to this topic, YouTube videos and full length documentaries explaining the concepts that emerge … most people just do not take the information seriously.

Take what seriously you ask?

Most people refuse to embrace the idea that sugar may be as powerful a psychoactive drug as cocaine. That it affects the exact same centers of the brain that cocaine does. That tests with rats prove they will sacrifice more for sugar than cocaine …even their lives.

More importantly, in the context of simple weight gain, people refuse to take seriously the concept of trying abstinence from sugar — just for a short period — to see if that has any effect on them. They also refuse to believe that they might need help quitting. Again, giving no respect to its power.

Could I be “addicted” to sugar?

For me this question is easy now but it wasn’t always that way. I struggled for years, mostly alone, to prove it to myself.

Could the addiction make me act in ways I would never do “sober”. Like a “real” addict or alcoholic? I threw the “real” addict in there, half as sarcasm and half to make a point.

Most people, who struggle with sugar issues, just won’t let their minds go to that place. The place where we are addicts, addicted to a substance that our body just does not process well or that we like so much because it does something, however subtle and “not really like a drug buzz”, to our brains.

I know this is hard information to digest. It’s harder still – to act on.

The only way I was able to understand what the sugar was doing to me was to get a bit of abstinence under my belt.

It wasn’t easy.

It took me over two years just to get off sugar.

I would wake up every morning and put two Tylenol in my pocket for the inevitable headache that would occur. I remember one pair of white shorts that had a stain of the two little tables in the pocket area. Still, I would go for a day, two days, maybe a week and fall back. After a while I did stop. Sugar, like drugs and alcohol, I could rationalize was not really necessary.

Each day the withdrawals hit late in the day. I was OK at breakfast, even lunch, but around four-ish I just started to feel I “needed” some sugar. If I got past dinner the evenings were just brutal. I felt alone, even if I wasn’t, and sugar could be my friend.

But with each little success I felt better. Less anxiety, less worry and here’s a big bonus “side” take away – I have not had a headache in over thirty years! Was it the sugar that was giving me headaches? It seems that way to me.

Now I know exactly what you’re thinking.

How do I know? Because I’ve been helping people quit this drug for over 25 years. I’ve heard every fear, worry, concern and rationalization known to man.

What you’re thinking is:

One – This guy is crazy with a capital C.

Two – I can’t do that.

Three – I won’t do that.

Four – All the pleasure will be sucked from my life.

I can assure you, with the possible exception that I am a little crazy, that none of the above is true.

You can do this and your life will get so much better you won’t even recognize the life you’re living now.

Here are two things that have helped many of the folks I’ve worked with.

  1. They see themselves as pioneers of sorts
  2. They want to do this thing so they can then help others.

Quit Sugar Now.

Is the science 100% available in diagnosing addiction as it is in other modern day maladies like say diabetes? Absolutely not. You can NOT take a diagnostic test for sugar addiction. When we can, at least our ability to rationalize away the idea, will be removed.

You have to believe, because of what you feel in your own body and the things you have read and the folks that you know that have had some success, that if you step out on faith and let someone help you – that you too – might find peace around sugar.

We wish that for you. Quit Sugar Now.

Modified Version Originally Published on our sister site BingeEating.com: http://www.bingeeating.com/rodney-dangerfield-might-have-said-sugar-and-flour-get-no-respect/ 

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