Addiction: Part 2

When we left off yesterday, Fat Julia was in the back of a pickup truck in Big Bend National Park.

How'd she get there?

How did my thin, athletic, flexible fiance become an overweight couch potato who struggled with stairs?

One bite [of ultra-processed food] at a time, that's how.

I remember noticing little things.

Like how, at the steak house, she would eat all her bread, half the kids, and then a bite of mine.

Then the pantry had more and more junk food - cookies, crackers, cakes.

And then more pseudo-health food - cereals, granola, and Gatorade.

There was less packing lunch for work and more grabbing a quick bite.

Less fruit and more fruit-flavored.

All of this happened very slowly over a few years.

When the occasional half-empty ginger ale in the fridge turned into cases of Canada Dry stacked in the garage, I knew we had a problem.

So did Julia.

But she couldn't stop.

On a rational level, she knew there was a problem. Having to buy new clothes every six months hadn't gone unnoticed.

The blood markers couldn't be ignored.

Nor could the aching joints, headaches, and worsening depression.

But she couldn't put down the processed food.

Like I said yesterday, that's by design.

Sugar acts on the same part of the brain as cocaine and heroin, and that's why Big Food puts it in every damn thing they can.

75% of the items in your grocery store have processed sugar added to them.

For Big Food's coffers, it works wonders.

Look around the next time you're there. Check out the carts - maybe it's your cart even.

-->Pop Tarts

-->Gatorade

-->Multi-grain Cereal

-->Granola Bars, Oatmeal, and Breakfast Bars

-->Peanut Butter

-->Condiments

-->Boxed Dinners

-->Bread

-->Yogurt

-->Fruit Juice w/ added sugar

This is what Americans are buying week in and week out.

So, while Julia was addicted, she was not alone. The majority of us are addicted; we just don't know it.

By the numbers, 7 or 8 out of 10 people reading this eat mainly processed and ultra-processed foods.

Hardly anyone would eat 30 teaspoonfuls of sugar in a day, but most of us consume that much in processed foods.

Every day.

That's 100 pounds of sugar a year.

And that is precisely how Julia went from slim and fit to fat and struggling - by eating the Standard American Diet for about four years.

Today, her weight floats around 120 lbs. Her old clothes are at Goodwill, and she's comfortable in mostly twos and fours. On our recent trip to Jackson Hole, she bought a new puffer jacket - size XS - because her small one was too big to keep her warm.

There's no more joint pain, muscle pain, headaches, or midnight fridge raids. She's back to kicking ass in yoga and takes the stairs by choice.

Everybody wants to know how she did it.

"OMG, you look great! What's the secret."

This may be a letdown for those of you waiting on that secret.

But there's no damn secret.

No crazy diets.

No insane workout schedule.

Just cut out the sugar; very quickly, you'll feel better and look better.

And you'll live longer.

It'll be hard at first, but unlike Isbell's song, where for an alcoholic, it never gets easy, not eating sugar gets easier and easier.

Last night, our daughter LuLu came home with cookies she baked at grandma's house. Three years ago, they would have been gone by morning.

Today, they're still on the counter.

Not only did Julia not want them, she was repulsed by them.

"No, thanks."

The truth is, once you stop eating sugar - once you switch your diet to whole, natural, real food - you realize that shit doesn't really taste all that good.

We've been tricked.

It's not there for the flavor or the nutrition.

It's there to line Big Food's pockets.

They are the pushers.

We are the addicts.

And it's killing us.