Sandie Leonard couldn’t wait to get her next fix. She would wake up with cravings and search her hiding spots when she felt low – in her kitchen, her car, her desk at school.
“Little Debbie was my best friend,” she said, adding that she ate at least box a day of Swiss rolls, fudge rounds or cupcakes. “She was always in my car with me. She was in my dressing room as I was getting ready in the morning. She was, you know, everywhere.”
So the teacher from Tennessee went to Malibu Vista, one of the first treatment centers for people hooked on sugar.
“The effect of the sugar on the reward center is to cause changes that literally keep you addicted,” said Dr. Pam Peeke, author of “The Hunger Fix” and senior science advisor at Elements Behavioral Health Centers.
After a month of therapy, Leonard can pass on Little Debbie, and says she uses exercise to soothe herself.
We should declare sugar to be the addictive substance that it is. Indeed, if we are craving something, chances are it’s got sugar in it — be it “natural sugar,” “pure sugar,” “molasses,” “syrup,” etc.
Putting these sugars in processed foods — as is the case with most cereals, breads, sweets and drinks — we soon get addicted and helpless to resist.
Nor can we rely on our government to come to our aid, as it has proved impotent in even educating us on the mechanism of this addiction.
No matter, we shall learn on our own — and we will do so before it’s too late. The grave is not the best place for us to change course.