WASHINGTON – Sugar is more addictive than cocaine and a new book offers tips to break the habit.
Dr. Mark Hyman tells CBS News that Americans consume such high quantities of sugar that they need a 10-day detox to reset their bodies and break the addiction.
Hyman says consumers aren’t to blame.
Americans aren’t adding 15 teaspoons of sugar to their coffee each morning, however they consume that much sugar in a soda. There’s more sugar in a serving of tomato sauce than several cookies. And most breakfast cereal, far from a health food, is 75 percent sugar, he says.
Studies have found that sugar is more highly addictive than cocaine. Even rats prefer the white sweet granules to the white, illegal powder, he says.
“It’s the food industry that’s hijacked our taste buds, our metabolism and our brain chemistry and is driving us to overate these foods. So we need a way to stop that, unhook from that and actually to get our health back,” he says.
In his new book “The blood sugar solution 10-day detox diet,” Hyman lays out a plan to swap sugar, flour and processed foods with whole, fresh foods.
“It’s not about deprivation. It’s really about deliciousness in abundance.”
In a study of 600 people who participated in the 10-day sugar detox, they collectively lost thousands of pounds and and lowered their blood pressure. Other conditions like asthma, depression, joint pain and insomnia were reduced or eliminated, he says.
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