As we finish picking on the last brownies, homemade cookies and countless boxes of candy, popcorn and other sweet goodies we received for the holidays, or the “season of eating” as I like to call it, it is time to consider the effect of eating these “foods.”

While sugar is a celebration and for some of us it’s love, it is also dangerous. In recent studies and many that date back 40 years, it has been proven that sugar contributes to development of heart disease, fatty liver disease, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, kidney disease and attention deficit disorders.

Sugar is addictive yet we cannot resist. It is addictive in the same way that drugs are and, unfortunately, the food industry is doing everything they can to keep us and our children hooked.  Until a few hundred years ago, concentrated sugars were not part of the human diet.

On a average, Indians consume 250 grams sugar (refined carbohydrates) daily.

Compared to a few hundred years ago you can appreciate how much our environment has changed. Natural sugar sources like whole fruits and vegetables are not concentrated because they contain water, fiber and other phytonutrients. Processed sugar sources are unnaturally potent and quickly provide a big hit. When naturally whole foods are stripped of their water, fiber, vitamins, minerals and other beneficial components all that is left is pure, white crystals.

When it comes to drugs developed through various refinement processes which transform plants like poppies and coca into heroin and cocaine, refined sugars also affect people’s bodies and brains.  In animal studies, sugar produces many of the symptoms used as criteria for substance abuse, for example, cravings, tolerance and withdrawal. There are other properties of sugar which are drug like in nature include cross-sensitization, cross-tolerance, cross-dependence, reward, opioid effects and other neurochemical changes in the brain.

This is why I tell the parents of the children I treat who are on the autism spectrum or have autoimmune disorders that they are addicted to carbohydrates.  They have become addicted to the sugar and experience it as a drug. As a result of brain stimulation that affects serotonin and dopamine mechanisms, they crave the sugars in the same way drug addicted patients crave cocaine or heroin. Yet when this is discussed with patients the incredulous looks of disbelief are obvious to me.

Sugar is added by an industry whose goal is to engineer products to be irresistible and as addictive as possible.

So, how can we kick the habit? One step is to make foods and drinks with added sugars less obtainable through cost and higher taxes. Remove sugary beverages from school and regulate them like drugs, tobacco and alcohol by restricting advertising and making warning labels the rule on every product.

One wonders how quickly this can happen in the face of lost profits to the manufacturers and stockholders. A better approach to “sugar rehab” is to promote consumption of whole, natural foods. When it comes to substituting whole foods for sweet industrial concoctions might be a hard sell, but in the face of an industry that exploits our biological nature to keep us addicted, it may be the best solution.

About the Doctor:

Dr Saxena is the founder and director of Dr Saxena Integrative Medicine Pvt Ltd,  recognized by the DIPP Government of India. It is popular for developing a plan for the transformation of health care in the India, which includes strategies for developing effective and affordable care for all Indians.

Dr. Saxena considers each patient to be unique, and seeks to combine treatment methods in both conventional and biological medicine to formulate protocols that are best suited to the individual patient. He has practiced holistic and Integrative medicine for over fifteen years, and worked for over ten years as a Board-Certified specialist in Clinical Metal Toxicologist.

Over the years, Dr. Saxena has helped people with chronic health problems using latest advances in complementary & integrative medicine, which emphasizes science based natural therapies in place of surgery & prescription medications. With vast experience in the field of Radiology  (interventional), he has done extensive work in AUTISM & Vaccine safety.  He adopted chronic disease management programs using novel treatment procedures like detoxification, metabolic weight loss, nontoxic cancer therapies (immune modulation, nutraceuticals), external counter-pulsation (non-surgical bypass), Ozone & HYPERBARICS therapy for addressing various ailments.  The essence of his practice is balancing the physiology and biochemistry  at the cellular  level by removing toxicity and  & correcting oxygen levels.