End Fatigue

Transcript of Podcast — Dr. T Discusses Sugar Addiction

[The following is a transcript of Dr. T’s September 17, 2010 interview with host Jo Davidson on Zentertainment Talk Radio. You can also listen to the original interview as a podcast.]

Jo: Well, I am excited to bring you my guest today! On this show we talk about holistic health and healing, organic food, and one thing we haven't talked about yet is sugar addiction!

I love sugar (just a "little bit)" ha!

I don't go for the junk food stuff. I love organic dark chocolate, any sweets with organic high quality ingredients.

But even if it's organic, here's the thing, it's still sugar!

My guest today is Dr.. Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D. He is one of the leading integrative physicians in the country. His new book is called "Beat Sugar Addiction Now!" It's a cutting edge program to help you cut out the sugar, white flour....and he explains WHY it is so dangerous for our health.

And in case you are wondering, he is not one of these people who says you have to cut it out 100% or go cold turkey.

He shares ideas on WHY you might be craving the sugar. Not just emotional reasons, but physical reasons. What's going on that is making you reach for that?

Dr. T: The average person is eating 150 pounds of sugar added to their diet each year! But I want people to understand that just because we like something doesn't necessarily make it an addiction. What makes it an addiction is that is unhealthy and makes you feel sick, and you end up craving it because there is some chemical or biochemical problem that's triggered.

I want people to enjoy their sweets, but I just want to put sugar back in desserts where it belongs, as opposed to one of those 16 ounce Dr.inks with 45 spoonfuls of sugar.

Jo: Many diets say cut this out 100% and people try but aren't able to do that. Like you say, keep sugar in desserts, instead of having it for breakfast lunch and dinner in whatever you are eating.

Dr. T: Absolutely. If people are so healthy, they lived to 120 tears and had no pleasures left in life- why bother! Our purpose is to have people really enjoy life.

I tell people avoid sugar — except for chocolate.

But sugar can make you anxious, depressed, tired. It can cause diabetes heart disease and a host of other problems. I want people to understand what is CAUSING the sugar cravings and get rid of those. Then they can have sugar where it belongs — for dessert and savor it.

Jo: Why is sugar so addicting?

Dr. T: There are 4 different kinds of sugar addiction. There is a quiz in my book that will tell people what kind of sugar addict they are. Basically the four types are:

You're watching TV. Or you drive by a Dunkin Donuts. You're doing this and that. It's just everywhere. It's in your face all the time, plus you get the sugar cravings and the other problems going on. Fatigue. Anxiety. Depression. We are self medicating ourselves. It's like an alcoholic.

Jo: Do you think sleep is important in sugar addictions?

Dr. T: Sleep keeps us younger, skinner. It keeps our immune systems working, reduces pain. But when you don't have sleep you're tired, and when people are tired they reach for sugar. They want a quick energy burst. But sugar is a loan shark. If you need something quick, 1-2 tic tacs under the tongue will get your sugar up quickly without putting you on the sugar roller coaster. If you need something RIGHT NOW go for a few tick tacs, or 1/2 teaspoon of sugar under the tongue. Then go for the high protein food. That will give you sustained energy instead of acting like a loan shark that makes you crash later.

Jo: Many of our listeners are vegan or vegetarian, and many eat organic meats as well. I noticed in your book that you promoted a more meat-based diet, and I wondered what your experience is with that.

Dr. T: What I find is that there is no one diet that fits everybody. I go through periods in my life where I am vegetarian, other periods where I eat more meat. A lot of it has to do with what spiritual work I am doing, what parts of myself do I need to grow. I've found that in certain periods of time, being vegetarian works quite well, it helps me be light and clear. Other times, the work I am doing is so heavy that I need more grounding. I'm not a believer in one size fits all. I'm a believer in people seeing what feels best for them, not just in that minute but over the next day, the next week. See what their body is asking for and how it's working.

The vegan diet is a healthy diet, but zinc, B12, calcium, iron, those would be the main risk issues. Sometimes omega 3s depending upon how they're doing it.

The American meat based diet — the risks are nearly everything.

Jo: Yes. Because so much of it is factory-farmed meat. And you're getting hormones and antibiotics. Whereas you're not getting that when you eat organic meats.

Dr. T: Absolutely. There are 85,000 chemicals poured into the environment. If I want to take one chemical and call it a medicine, I have to pay $400-800 MILLION dollars, the FDA tab basically, to put it through the process for safety and the whole thing. But if I want to put it in your food or water, there is nothing. All you have to do is not have anybody prove it can kill you.

So 85,000 chemicals. Then we think, gee, I wonder why people are having these problems.

Jo: There are many natural products that won't be approved because nobody is going to pay that money to get them approved since there is no profit.

Dr. T: And you can't patent it. That is the operable word. You can't PATENT IT. The only natural things that have made it through the FDA process are calcium because there is SO much of it being used. But people who take calcium — it is basically toxic if you take it without the other nutrients balancing it.

And folic acid, these are the only natural things approved by the FDA because most things are not patentable.

Jo: What do you need to take with calcium?

Dr. T: Magnesium, vitamin D and vitamin K, for starters. People with osteoporosis should NOT be taking calcium by itself.

Strontium is almost twice as effective as medications. It is now a first line treatment for osteoporosis. But I will bet you that 99.9% of doctors will never hear about it, because there is no big money in it. It's cheap.

Jo: I don't generally go to western medicine doctors. I would if I needed to, and I definitely do occasionally. There are a lot of things western medicine offers, but it hasn't helped me much in my life. I tend to see naturopathic doctors, herbalists, acupuncturists, homeopaths, etc.

Dr. T: There's a word for that Jo. It's called being sane!

Jo: When you get into the healing world, it's not something you can contain in a box, there is not a set of fixed in cement rules, and I feel like doctors are really limited by the rules they are under when they get degrees in western medicine. They are not allowed to go too far outside of those.

Dr. T: It's part of it. But it goes beyond it. It's important for people to realize that virtually everything that physicians learn comes from the drug companies. If you look at the conferences, they are almost all paid for by the drug companies. You have these professors giving these very themed, scientific sounding talks. And they are on the payroll of the companies sponsoring the conference. The journals are on the payroll. Look at the drug ads. It's all drug ads. No golf clubs or Lexus cars. It's all drug companies. Basically, medical education is a big advertisement masquerading as science and education. Whatever is most expensive is going to be pushed to doctors. That's all they're going to hear about.

Jo: What did you think of the whole swine flu...what should I call it...a hoax?

Dr. T: I wouldn't call it a hoax, but I would call it a scam. They did the exact same thing 10, 15 years ago.

There is a lot of money to be made on fear. And there is this damned if you do, damned if you don't. I didn't take the vaccine. I didn't recommend it. It's not unreasonable for people to have taken it, but my impression is that for most people who are not immune suppressed, it was a scam. I think if you want to prevent catching all these infections, because there are hundreds of infections coming down the pike, get your sleep, get good nutritional support, there's a nice vitamin powder that makes it easy, get some sunshine, cut back the sugar, and your immune system knows just fine how to fight these infections. You don't need to be a pin cushion.

Jo: Fructose corn syrup. It's a ton of things. Is it worse than sugar or the same as sugar?

Dr. T: It's worse. It's even harder on the metabolism. Worse on the heart. More likely to cause high blood pressure.

(Jo's personal note — have you all heard about how the food industry is now trying to get fructose corn syrup re labeled to corn sugar, to give it a new image?)

What I want people to do is if they are looking at the nutritional labeling, everything on the front is the advertising. Turn it around and look at that little nutritional box. Look at the grams of sugar. Divide by 4 and that's how many spoons of sugar are in a serving. Now once you know that, you can make an informed decision. Is that worth getting the 26 spoons of sugar that's in that thing or not? Then you put it back.

Four grams makes 1 teaspoon. So if it says 32 grams, divide by 4. That's 8. And you have 8 spoons of sugar in a serving.

(Jo's personal note — I realized that in one organic fruit yogurt, I was getting almost as much sugar as I would in an entire organic chocolate bar! So now whenever I eat yogurt, I go for the plain grass fed organic yogurt, and might add my own fruit and sprinkle a tiny bit of raw honey on it. I get much less sugar this way. This is just an example of a small change that makes a difference!)

But Jo, let me give you something for folks out there with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. These things represent an energy crisis.

There are many things that can blow a fuse. You can go through lyme disease, injuries, chemicals, all kinds of things. But once you've blown the fuse, the SHINE protocol will restore energy production. On my website at (www.endfatigue.com) you'll see a FREE symptom analysis program. I'm going to invite you to do it. I made this so people with chronic lyme, chronic fatigue and fibro can get better. It will look at your symptoms and analyze them. It will tell you what is causing your body to not be able to get rid of lyme disease. It will go through each of the things and tailor treatment to your case. And it's free.

(Jo's note — Make sure to do this FREE analysis if you have never tried it!)

Dr. T: The book Beat Sugar Addiction Now! and the other book From Fatigued to Fantastic — I had CFS and fibromyalgia back in 1975. It left me homeless. The professors were clueless on how to help me. But I almost became a naturopath instead of an M.D, because the naturopaths helped me so much to get well.

Jo: You talk about ribose a lot. I didn't do well with D Ribose (Corvalen).

Dr. T: A study showed, 61% increase in energy, but you will find that in a small percent of people, what happens is that it stresses their glands. When you start getting the energy again, it causes the adrenal to crash because the adrenals can't keep up with the need to make energy.

So what I would do is lower the dose and take it with food. But treat the adrenals. You want to get some licorice, licorice tea, licorice herbal — not the candy. You want to get some adrenal glandulars, the vitamin C, B vitamins, there is an adrenal stress product, a bio identical adrenal support, I would treat the adrenals. If people get kind of hyper on it, that's a sign of adrenal exhaustion. Treat the adrenals, then go back again and take the ribose in lower doses with food.

(Jo's personal note — I was allergic to the bio identical support, and very well respected doc said I needed to be careful to avoid glandulars. Work with a very experienced doctor on your individual path. Every one is different!)

Jo: I've found that kinesiology is very important for me. It's muscle testing, and helps you tell what is right for you to take. I have found few people who can do it accurately. That's the problem. Many people think they are accurate, but they are not. Then you think it doesn't work.

In 10 years, I have met 3 people who I think were accurate with me. It's important. Some product might work just great for someone else, and it's not right for you.

Dr. T: Absolutely. And let me give you an interesting thing on that, I don't take money from any of the natural product companies or pharmaceutical companies, and the profits I make from our supplements go to charity. That's why I can unabashedly give a thumbs up or thumbs down to stuff. One of the studies the foundation funded was using an applied kinesiology technique called NAET for treatment of autism. Of the 30 autistic kids in the treatment group with NAET, 23 were back in regular school at the end of one year, as opposed to 0 out of 30 in the untreated control group. If you have somebody who is a gifted practitioner, the muscle testing can be very helpful. It's an art.

Jo: You can't just go to medical school and study this. Your own thoughts, if you already have a conclusion in your head, you can affect the muscle testing. You have to have somebody who is really clear. That's a challenge.

Dr. T: Absolutely. My wife is the editor of the journal of NAET. For anybody in Hawaii looking for somebody, she is awesome!

Jo: Great, so if any of you happen to live in Hawaii, look her up at www.naethawaii.com.

I wanted to ask you a quick question about white potatoes. Are they the same as sugar in your body?

Dr. T: Potatoes and white flour are broken down very quickly into sugar and absorbed. So for some people they can handle it in moderation. Better to have it along with a fiber, like the skins. Fiber slows down the absorption.

It comes down to listening to your body. Not seeing just how you feel right after you eat it, but how you feel hours later.

Jo: Many times it is hard for people to make a connection to how they feel around dinner time to what they ate mid morning. But it's connected.

Dr. T: And food allergies — I want to give a caution. I do not recommend the blood testing that is out there for food allergies. It is inaccurate, and will make most people neurotic. A better thing to do is the elimination diet. We have some information on our website. And I also want to note that when you treat the adrenal issues and the yeast, most food allergies go away also.

Jo: Thank you so much for the book and the work you do.

The website is www.endfatigue.com. The book is called Beat Sugar Addiction Now!

Dr. T: It has been a pleasure. I want people to know that these things are very treatable. Once you figure out what is going on, the trick is not to cut out everything you like and have a miserable life. The trick is to have a life you love. And that's what this is all about.

Jo: Thanks!

Dr. T: It has been a pleasure!

Jo: I want to thank Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum for being on the show today. His book is called "Beat Sugar Addiction Now!"

Thanks for joining me at Zentertainment Talk Radio. Have a great week.

— Jo

Personal note — The great thing I got from this book for my own personal situation was to remember things I already knew — for example, look for the hidden sources of sugar and make better choices. This is something we can all do. Then if I AM going to have some sugar, organic chocolate or whatever, I know I haven't had it all day long hidden in other products on top of that!

Ann Boroch who was on this show and talked about her experience in healing MS. She has to cut sugar out completely for quite awhile. You can read her amazing story in the book "Healing MS."

* Check out Dr. Teitelbaum's Health A-Z guide for many other conditions!

This week, take note of how much sugar you eat. Write down every time you eat something with sugar in it and note the grams or teaspoons. At the end of each day and then the week, add it all up!