I have been reading, watching Ted videos and attended seminars about Food, Diet, Nutrition and Healthy Living. My wife has officially confirmed that I have become obsessive, crazy and extreme about food that she is rolling her eyes everyday what other crazy thing that I am going to do. To be honest, I am totally confused. I am really not sure what diet I should follow, how should I eat? what should I eat? in what portions? Should I eat meat? After weeks of looking into all this material, I can say without a doubt in my mind, it is hopeless.


One of the mountain of books that I am currently reading is The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet: Activate Your Body’s Natural Ability to Burn Fat and Lose Weight Fast by Dr. Mark Hayman, this book was referred by my good friend Gudni Gunnarsson
the author of the book Presence Is Power: Seven Steps for Living a Life of Prosperity again a great book. You can see why I have not been blogging, just been reading voraciously all these books to get upto speed on this whole Food, Diet and Nutrition thing. Anyways, I digress. What was fascinating to me from Dr.Hayman’s book was the following excerpt:

Why are we failing?

Why are nearly 70 percent of Americans and almost 1.5 billion people worldwide-projected to be 2.3 billion by 2015-overweight?

Why do so many of us eat the foods that we know aren’t good for us, that cause us to gain weight, that aggravate chronic symptoms, or make us feel sick, bloated, and guilty?

Why would anyone choose to use a substance they know destroys their life?

The answer is simple. Addiction. We are a country-no, make that a world-of food addicts. The industrial food complex has hooked us with a steady stream of hyperprocessed, highly palatable, intensely addictive foods that are sabotaging our brain chemistry, our waistlines, and our health.

The Proof is in the Milk Shakes

The science of food addiction is clearer now than ever before. A powerful study recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition proves that higher-sugar, higher-glycemic foods are addictive in the same way as cocaine and heroine.

Dr. David Ludwig and his colleagues at Harvard proved that foods with more sugar- those that raise blood sugar quickly or have what is called a high glycemic index- trigger a special region in the brain called the nucleus accumbens that is known to be ground zero for conventional addictions such as gambling and drug abuse. This is the pleasure center of the brain, which, when activated, makes us feel good and drives us to seek out more of that feeling.

Previous studies have shown how this region of the brain lights up in response to images or when the subject eats sugary, processed, or junk food. But many of these studies used very different food for comparison. If you compare cheesecake to boiled vegetables, there are many reasons the pleasure center will light up in response to the cheesecake and not to the vegetables. The cheesecake tastes better or it looks better. This is interesting data, but it’s not hard proof of addiction.

This new study took on the hard job of proving the biology of sugar addiction. To be certain of their results and to ward off any potential criticism (which the $1 trillion food industry inevitably churns out in response to studies that don’t reflect well on its products), the researchers did a randomized, blind crossover study using the most rigorous research design.

So, we have an addiction problem and it is not because you and I are not trying to do our best. I cannot speak for others but I actually workout quite a bit. I run, take the stairs where possible and walk if I have a choice. The only bad thing physically that I need to fix is sitting. I plan to fix that soon as well. The physical activity is not the problem or I don’t think it is the problem with me so it has to be the diet, nutrition and food. My wife observes that I snack a lot, yes I eat nuts from what I understand that is not such a bad thing. Never the less, the nuts are gone too. I have been watching what I eat and I have been eating a lot more greens and fruits but my weight has not changed. There is something wrong. I cannot put my finger on it. I am taking diabetic pills and a cholesterol statin drug. I have been monitoring my blood sugar every morning before breakfast and it is quite interesting. It is on the borderline.

Coming to my depression, I shared openly that I feel that I am depressed. The number of people who have reached out to me and offered their empathy has been overwhelming. I feel blessed. Thank you all for doing that. It has given me a lot of strength to openly take on the challenge of dealing with my condition. I am getting professional help there but the recommendation, Facebook comments and likes to the original posts have been extremely helpful. As part of the therapy, I have been given a book to read The Feeling Good Handbook by David D. Burns, M.D. The summer reading list is getting massive, hey on the positive side I will achieve the goal of reading 50 books this year.

Coming back to my body and watching some of the KPI. Since I started watching the blood sugar and what I eat etc I have been watching my weight as well… are you ready? I have gained weight! this is just ridiculous. I am so confused that it is not even funny any more. Next stop, full fledge detoxification! Starting today.