With the introduction of his powerful book
‘Wheat Belly’ Dr. William Davis completed
a triad for me that I have been talking
about for well over twenty years.
I knew flour turned to sugar in your stomach
and that was enough for me not to feed it to
my children growing up (or ingest it myself).
But his book has taken my understanding of what
I call flour addiction (or just plain powder addiction)
to a much higher level. He details why flour has
become so addictive through it’s hybridization and
processing.
Let me explain my theory of the three little
drugs we all take for granted in our daily lives.
Three to five hundred years ago we ingested very
little sugar, flour and caffeine (SF&C for the rest
of the article). They were luxuries and taken in
very small amounts.
So over the ensuing three hundred years all three
creeped into our diet and our society in such a
way that there is literally no history and very
little written record of life without them. Add HFCS
(high fructose corn syrup) in the last 30 years and
we have an explosive combo.
Up until the last thirty years or so, very few people
even worried about them or studied them. Except you
would be shocked to know about the crusaders against
both sugar and caffeine, for their effects on the body
not political reasons, in colonial England.
There is a very nice written record of how scared the
medical professionals of the day were of the abuse of
both sugar and caffeine. This was long before “tea time”
in England was a social ritual.
Words like “the scourge of society” were used by doctors
of the day when describing the use of sugar and caffeine…
and this is the 1500’s through the 1700’s & 1800’s!
It is my belief that SF&C are three of the most powerful
psychoactive drugs on the planet. They hook people
so effectively that quitting becomes very, very difficult.
Add to the fact they are available for effectively zero cost,
or so near zero as to not figure in the decision to use them
and that they are effectively 99.9% socially acceptable – and
you have a recipe for disaster.
Many people squirm just a little when they ponder the idea
that these substances are “psychoactive – like drugs”. But of
the over one hundred drug and alcohol addicts I’ve interviewed
who have also quit flour sugar and caffeine AFTER they quit
drugs, many describe the experience of getting off F, S & C
as much harder.
Why is it that every successful diet book ever written and
every successful diet story you’ve ever heard talks about
“getting off the white stuff”?
This is not just about weight loss. This is about emotional
management. It’s about a society hooked on managing their
emotions, or trying to manage their emotions, with a triad
of perfectly legal and effectively free drugs and then passing
that coping behavior on to their children – physically, by
feeding them to them at way to early an age and in modeled
behavior.
Every truly successful diet story you’ve every heard where the
person lost over fifty pounds and kept it off for years, includes
a story of wild emotional swings and work walking through the
wild emotional swings. The truly honest that have come off both
alcohol and/or drugs and then tackled sugar, flour and caffeine
admit that the later was just as hard emotionally.
If any of this rings true please leave a comment below and let’s
get the discussion going. I believe this is a discussion that is long
overdue.
I’m not so much interested in how to get rid of sugar cravings as I have been fairly successful at that by choosing what I eat and staying off the foods most prone to bring them on. Instead, I am appalled at how instantaneously sugar cravings come back with one little misstep. It has happened to me enough times over the years that I’m really quite frightened by the power of such craving. Here’s the typical scenario. In the retirement home where I live, I don’t take the sugary desserts but opt for fruit. But one of the “bad” desserts is a big temptation. It’s a little “tart” with a graham cracker base and is filled with a lemon mix that must contain sufficient sugar to ring a bell in my brain. On the top is a dab of whipped cream. Right after I eat this tart because I love the lemon/sugar combo (I give myself excuses that I can handle it this time and will eat just this one), I immediately crave another one of those desserts, and since I can’t have one, I start looking for anything else that is sweet, and I consume such things to excess. This is after weeks and weeks (even months!) of being scrupulous about eating healthy and being free of sugar cravings. I’m convinced that it wouldn’t matter how long I had been off sugar, certain trigger foods bring on their addictive punch right away, and then I’m off on a binge of the wrong foods. Getting back on the straight and narrow can be very, very difficult after such an episode. It is the speed and force of what happens that I find terrifying and demoralizing. I also tend to withdraw from others during these binges. Nobody on line seems to be talking about this aspect of sugar craving, at least not in the places I’ve been to do research.
Jeana,
I’m not sure how I missed this but you may have just described THE most important
effect of sugar on the body. The one that has helped cause the obesity epidemic.
First my congrats on were you are now and your awareness of your body.
If you’ll look around the site you will see that I believe that sugar is one of the most powerful drugs on the planet. That the symptom you describe is just one of many.
With people like yourself we will be able to get this message out. What a great description of how it works in your body.
No more lemon tarts! hehe
Keep up the good work.
The Health Guy
I’m not so much interested in how to get rid of sugar cravings as I have been fairly successful at that by choosing what I eat and staying off the foods most prone to bring them on. Instead, I am appalled at how instantaneously sugar cravings come back with one little misstep. It has happened to me enough times over the years that I’m really quite frightened by the power of such craving. Here’s the typical scenario. In the retirement home where I live, I don’t take the sugary desserts but opt for fruit. But one of the “bad” desserts is a big temptation. It’s a little “tart” with a graham cracker base and is filled with a lemon mix that must contain sufficient sugar to ring a bell in my brain. On the top is a dab of whipped cream. Right after I eat this tart because I love the lemon/sugar combo (I give myself excuses that I can handle it this time and will eat just this one), I immediately crave another one of those desserts, and since I can’t have one, I start looking for anything else that is sweet, and I consume such things to excess. This is after weeks and weeks (even months!) of being scrupulous about eating healthy and being free of sugar cravings. I’m convinced that it wouldn’t matter how long I had been off sugar, certain trigger foods bring on their addictive punch right away, and then I’m off on a binge of the wrong foods. Getting back on the straight and narrow can be very, very difficult after such an episode. It is the speed and force of what happens that I find terrifying and demoralizing. I also tend to withdraw from others during these binges. Nobody on line seems to be talking about this aspect of sugar craving, at least not in the places I’ve been to do research.
Jeana,
I’m not sure how I missed this but you may have just described THE most important
effect of sugar on the body. The one that has helped cause the obesity epidemic.
First my congrats on were you are now and your awareness of your body.
If you’ll look around the site you will see that I believe that sugar is one of the most powerful drugs on the planet. That the symptom you describe is just one of many.
With people like yourself we will be able to get this message out. What a great description of how it works in your body.
No more lemon tarts! hehe
Keep up the good work.
The Health Guy
Hi , I feel desperate. I have attended different programs and have not been able to kick my addiction, to sugar. I went to oa, fa, aa, counselling, taken medication, retreats, etc. I am obsessed with sugar, and I am fearful I will never be free from it. It runs my life, I isolate and become depressed but am unable to stop eating. I am 46 and have struggled since I was about 5.
Hang in Michelle. We’re here for you.
The Healthguy
Hi , I feel desperate. I have attended different programs and have not been able to kick my addiction, to sugar. I went to oa, fa, aa, counselling, taken medication, retreats, etc. I am obsessed with sugar, and I am fearful I will never be free from it. It runs my life, I isolate and become depressed but am unable to stop eating. I am 46 and have struggled since I was about 5.
Hang in Michelle. We’re here for you.
The Healthguy
It burns me up that the USDA knew about sugar addiction and uses that in their mission to make tons of profit,without any concern about our health.This is just another population control technic.
It burns me up that the USDA knew about sugar addiction and uses that in their mission to make tons of profit,without any concern about our health.This is just another population control technic.
We are dealing with an 8 year old (not our own child) with Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Along with this he is a raging sugar addict. At times he will sound just like a sick alcoholic– "I need my drink, can I just have my drink now?" meaning a "juice" drink which of course is mostly water and sugar. He refuses to drink water and says his mother never gave him water at home. It's heartbreaking. He is the spitting image of his mother, who is a meth addict and recently had him taken away by the courts. Sugar addiction is real and it's deadly. Thanks for this website and support.
We are dealing with an 8 year old (not our own child) with Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Along with this he is a raging sugar addict. At times he will sound just like a sick alcoholic– "I need my drink, can I just have my drink now?" meaning a "juice" drink which of course is mostly water and sugar. He refuses to drink water and says his mother never gave him water at home. It's heartbreaking. He is the spitting image of his mother, who is a meth addict and recently had him taken away by the courts. Sugar addiction is real and it's deadly. Thanks for this website and support.
I KNEW IT! Not intellectually, but my suspicions have been confirmed. However, I had no idea it was *this* bad. And the English history – that's definitely been covered up.Now, how do I get myself and my kids off this stuff? It's EVERYWHERE & in EVERYTHING, even stuff you'd never think it would be. Just yesterday I went to purchase some frozen Chinese stir-fry vegetables – and they had wheat flour in them! What for?! Thanks for this exposure.
~Naomi in OH
Naomi, you are so right. It is ridiculous the things that are in prepackaged foods…scary really. I am a crazy label reader now and try to just make all my own food. Because then I know EXACTLY what's in it! 🙂
I KNEW IT! Not intellectually, but my suspicions have been confirmed. However, I had no idea it was *this* bad. And the English history – that's definitely been covered up.Now, how do I get myself and my kids off this stuff? It's EVERYWHERE & in EVERYTHING, even stuff you'd never think it would be. Just yesterday I went to purchase some frozen Chinese stir-fry vegetables – and they had wheat flour in them! What for?! Thanks for this exposure.
~Naomi in OH
Naomi, you are so right. It is ridiculous the things that are in prepackaged foods…scary really. I am a crazy label reader now and try to just make all my own food. Because then I know EXACTLY what's in it! 🙂