Common Interview Questions:

How did you come up with the name Sugarettes?

Sugarettes is the combination of the words “sugar” and “cigarettes”. I was describing how I felt about sugar to a group of people and looking for a word that would describe both sugar’s addictive quality and sugar’s potential to cause harm when I said it kind of like sugar is a cigarette or a Sugarette. The name is perfect; I want people to understand that sugar is both addictive, like cigarettes and harmful, like cigarettes.

Is Sugar Addictive?

If you ask most people if they are addicted to sugar, a surprising number of them will agree that they are. I decided to look and see if there was anything in the medical literature that supports sugar as an addiction and was astonished by what I found: sugar is just as addictive as cigarettes, alcohol, or even hard drugs. Once I discovered that sugar was incredibly addictive, I had to ask the next question: what was that addiction doing to our health?

What are the Signs and Symptoms of Sugar Addiction?

Sugar addicts, and really any addicts, have similar responses. The most common are:

• The tendency to consume their addiction despite knowing it is bad for their health
• Feeling overly compelled to consume their addiction
• Binging, especially when their addiction is removed for a period of time

What is Sugar Doing to our Health?

We have a health crisis in the United States (and much of the rest of the world). The number of people who are overweight, have diabetes, or heart disease continues to overwhelm our health system. Much of the blame for our poor health can be placed on the foods that we eat and amount of sugar that we consume.

Sugar may very well be responsible for more deaths than cigarettes. Cigarettes account for around 5 Million deaths a year. Diabetes for 4 million, Obesity for 17 million, Heart disease for 17 million.

How much Sugar are we Eating Every Day?

Shockingly, most evidence points to us eating somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 pound of sugar every day.

What proof is there that sugar is addictive?

Most of the research has been done on animals (rats), but it has shown some pretty remarkable things. The first is that if you addict a rat to sugar and then remove it from their diet, they shake, their teeth chatter, they are much more likely to bite and be aggressive. Most people would recognize that at withdrawal symptoms. The second is that the brains of these rats look very similar to the brains of other addicts, such as smokers, alcoholics and even hard drug addicts.

You mention that binging is a sign of addiction?

Yes, binging is sign of addiction; especially if you take a drug away from an addict and then give it back to them later. Once they have their drug back, the very often binge and take much more than they normally would. You may have heard this called “falling off the wagon” or “going on a bender.”

Sugar addicted rats will do the exact same thing. Anyone who has ever gone on a diet that restricts sugars and carbohydrates knows how this works. Go on a low carb diet and you have intense cravings, but those cravings are okay until you break your diet and put that first bite of sugar in your mouth. Suddenly, you can’t eat enough.

What are the diseases that sugar causes?

While there is no major medical association that will agree with me, there is research to support that sugar is the root cause of many diseases. The disease easiest to attach to sugar consumption is weight gain and obesity. Sugar causes us to gain weight not simply because it contains calories, but because our bodies handle sugar differently from any other food that we eat. Sugar makes us fat. Obesity, of course, means that you are at higher risk for diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers. But sugar has also been shown to cause diabetes and heart disease on its own.

I thought sugar was safe to eat?

Sugar surely seems safe, but that is exactly what people thought about cigarettes 100 years ago. We now look back and think they were silly to think that cigarettes were safe. But what happens when you smoke is that you feel much better. You become calm, more away, have a boost of energy; how could smoking not be good for you? The same is true of sugar, it tastes good and it gives us good feelings. But those good feelings hide the danger that is associated with eating sugar. The problem is that sugar causes destruction slowly over time: very similar to cigarettes.

How does sugar harm us?

Smoke from cigarettes harms the lungs of a smoker and eventually leads to cancer. High blood sugar damages blood vessels in a very similar way. Some researchers call it the “toxic effects” of sugar. This can be seen in people with uncontrolled blood sugar, such as diabetics: they have more strokes, heart disease and other evidence of blood vessel damage.

Is this a high protein diet?

No, not in the way that Atkins or South Beach is. What I recommend is that you keep your protein level the same and increase the amount of low or below the glycemic index vegetables. Replace every sugar and grain with a fruit or vegetable and you have the right idea.