 Watch this to break your sweet tooth addiction. All right, you heard me say it over and over again, but it bears repeating. Sugar is incredibly dangerous. And even worse, it's highly addictive. In fact, the average American eats 153 pounds of sugar every year, whether they know it or not. That's a lot of sugar. Ready for another fun fact? You know this, sugar is highly addictive. And believe me, I know how hard it can be to kick a sugar addiction. I'm someone who could go through a two pound bag of peanut M&Ms in a single sitting. I know how addicting sugar can be. That's why today I'm gonna teach you how to kick your sugar addiction in just four easy steps. All right, step one, you gotta know where sugar is hiding. These days, sugar is everywhere and it's no wonder people are addicted. They don't even know they're consuming it. That's why I recommend you memorize the different names that sugar can go by, such as brown rice syrup, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, glucose, fructose, agave. These are all code words for sugar. And it gets worse, maple syrup, honey, all natural cane sugar, somehow that's different. So next time you're at the grocery store, make sure to check for those names on the label. Or better yet, if you're looking at a label, you probably should put it back because a packaged food most likely is gonna have sugar in one form or another well hidden on that label. All right, step two, here's another label trick. Don't look for sugar on the label. It's purposely misleading. These label laws were changed by the federal government during the Reagan administration because the Department of Agriculture realized that their business is to protect agricultural products and make sure agricultural products were being consumed. So the amount of sugar on a label is well hidden. Now, recently the label laws were changed to put added sugar as a separate ingredient, but that's not there to make you aware of how much sugar is added, that's to distract you again. So don't look at sugar, don't look at added sugar. Now, naturally if you see a lot of sugar in both of those, run. But where it's hiding is under total carbohydrates. So look at total carbohydrates per serving size. And serving sizes are getting smaller and smaller to fool you about how much sugar is actually in that package. Take total carbohydrates, the next line down is fiber. Fiber is indigestible, so it doesn't count against carbohydrates. So you subtract the fiber from total carbohydrates. That number that you get is actually the grams of sugar in that serving size. Now, grams don't mean a lot to people, particularly in the United States. So here's the easy equation that I've talked about and written about. There are four grams of carbohydrate in one teaspoon of sugar. So take that number of total carbohydrates that you got, divide it by four, and that'll show you the actual amount of sugar in that product serving that you're eating. And when you do that, you may never read a label again because it's so shocking how much sugar is actually being consumed in this country. And it's all hidden in these packaged foods. And read the label, do the math. It's quick and easy, and when you do that, you'll be shocked with how many things you'll start putting back. Step three, give fruit the boot. Believe it or not, most fruit contains incredibly high amounts of sugar. And no, there's no such thing as good for you or healthier sugar. Sugar is sugar. And that goes for coconut sugar, brown sugar, agave. Sugar is sugar, fructose is sugar. And the problem with fructose, as we now know, is that fructose goes directly to your liver, where it's converted into fat, triglycerides, and it's converted into uric acid. Now, increasingly, we're realizing that uric acid, which most of us have heard of, causes gout. Uric acid causes high blood pressure. Uric acid causes kidney damage. And increasingly, we're realizing that uric acid is a big culprit in producing diabetes and insulin resistance. Additionally, fructose, in the form of fruit sugar or high fructose corn syrup, is now the leading cause of fatty liver disease. And we have an epidemic of fatty liver disease in this country, particularly in our kids. Part of the problem has been that we now have fruit available to us 365 days a year. And we inherited a system from Great Apes that takes fruit, sugar, and converts it to fat because fruit used to be only available a few times a year, even in the jungle. And we have the ability to convert fruit sugar into fat. But now fruit has been raised for sugar content. I mean, it's obvious. I mean, an apple today is the size of a grapefruit. An apple when I was growing up was the size of a crab apple now. And even the names give it away. Ambrosia apple, honey crisp apple. It's pure sugar. And they've been bred for this content. The safest fruits, believe it or not, are blackberries and raspberries, followed by strawberries. Blueberries are down the line now because they've been bred for sugar content. If you want to have something in your hand that you can eat, a kiwi is actually the lowest fructose-containing fruit. And grapefruits are actually low in fructose. So those are your best options if you just have to have fruit. Pomegranates are an incredible option. Number one, they're hard to eat. And they're only available at certain times the year, fall, and early winter. So pomegranates are perfectly acceptable. Step four, don't quit cold turkey. The key to maintaining any healthy lifestyle choice is to ease into them gradually. Keep track of your progress and always keep an end goal in mind. Deprivation is not the goal of any healthy lifestyle. It never works. So for instance, let's suppose you're used to putting two teaspoons of sugar in your coffee every morning. Well, you got two options. Drop down to one teaspoon. Believe it or not, in a week or so, it will be every bit as sweet as you remember and keep dropping back. Alternatively, choose one of the safe, no-calorie sweeteners. My personal favorite right now is allulose. Allulose is a true, simple sugar. It was first discovered in figs. Allulose is readily available, get the non-GMO variety. It actually is a prebiotic fiber in its own right. Monk fruit works well, stevia works well. Try those as sugar substitutes. But remember, your tongue has no sugar receptors. Your tongue has sweet receptors. And the only things that were ever sweet way back when was fruit. And fruit stimulates you to produce insulin. So when you use a non-caloric sweetener and you taste sweet, your brain is convinced that you're eating fruit. And when sugar doesn't arrive, your brain is convinced you've been cheated. And you should go back and find some more. How do I know this? I was addicted to Diet Coke. I would have eight Diet Cokes a day. I always had a hand wrapped around a Diet Coke. If I could sterilize Diet Coke and have it in the operating room in surgery, I'd do it. But my brain didn't understand why sugar was not arriving because my tongue tasted it. And so just be careful of all these no sugar sweetened foods. They will fool your brain every time. All right, final, dark chocolate. Dark chocolate is a great way to transfer into having a more healthy treat. But be careful, even dark chocolate has a lot of sugar. My personal favorite, and I have no relationship with them, is lilies. Lillies uses stevia as their sweetener. And they have a great 85% dark chocolate that virtually has no sugar in them. And finally avoid these non-sugar added drinks. Just because it says no sugar added or just because it says sweetened with stevia or sweetened with monk fruit. Again, your brain doesn't understand that that sweet taste wasn't sugar and your brain will literally make you go looking for more of this stuff. Now I know how wonderful soda is, but over five years ago on YouTube, I introduced the concept of a healthy Coke using sparkling water, Sun Pellegrino or other Italian sparkling waters and balsamic vinegar. And if you haven't seen it, look it up. I was the originator of the healthy Coke recipe. You get all the benefits you're looking for, the flavor you're looking for, but you're gonna get the health benefits of balsamic vinegar, a prebiotic fiber, a polyphenol. And there you go. So there's ways around this sugar addiction. Don't look at quitting sugar as a prescription, as a thing you are being made to avoid. Look at it as a way of getting control of probably the most addictive substance in our diet. And as any addict knows, giving up an addiction is difficult, but well worth it in the end. Let's get rid of our sugar addiction. I think you're gonna love this next one. So if you wanna age rapidly, eat your sugar. If you wanna age slowly, stop eating sugar.