Lick the Sugar Habit

asked by h2o on November 21, 2006 1:34 PM

There's the old saying that sugar is poison. After reading Lick the Sugar Habit, you'll be convinced of that. Americans each consume more than 150 pounds of sugar and related sweeteners each year. It's pretty easy for it to add up when you consider that there are 17 teaspoons of sugar in a single can of Coke. Author Nancy Appleton delineates how this sugar overconsumption wreaks havoc with our immune and endocrine systems, leading to chronic conditions including arthritis, osteoporosis, diabetes, asthma, and hypoglycemia, along with the usual suspects such as cavities and periodontal disease. Appleton admits that she herself used to be a sugar addict, preferring to take her sweets in the form of chocolate, and consequently suffered from numerous allergies, plus bronchitis, pneumonia, and even a chest tumor that turned out to be a huge calcium deposit that resulted from her body's inability to process the pounds of sugar she consumed.

The book starts with thorough quizzes to determine if you really are a "sugarholic" and to test for sugar-related food allergies. Appleton then offers three distinct plans for weaning yourself from the sweet stuff and starting your new "low-sugar life." The best part is the dozens of easy, low-sugar, high-flavor recipes such as Hot Asparagus Soup and Pumpkin Pie.

While Appleton has a Ph.D. and has been studying nutrition for years, she doesn't go into unnecessary scientific details when she explains what those little sugar cubes do to your body. This is a thoroughly readable, eye-opening guide to changing your diet--and your health--for the better.

Buy this book

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Reviews

This book was awful. I read "The Sugar Addict's Total Recovery Program" (DesMaisons) first, and I was spoiled by more rational, documented approach to the subject. To be fair, I only got through the first part of this book before I put it down in disgust. This book is the rantings of someone who feels passionately about something. Great. Now back it up. You can't just say, "This is bad and you have to do this!" Well... I suppose you can. But in my opinion that makes for a lousy book for someone who is trying to learn and separate fact from hysteria.

reviewed by carrots on November 26, 2006 5:05 PM

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This is a WONDERFUL and ENLIGHTENING work! Thank you for compiling this information and for sharing your own personal experience with Sugar Addiction Nancy Appleton . I have an interest in sugar addiciton and it's affects on the human body and found your book to be a great learning source.

reviewed by bigdv on November 27, 2006 12:33 PM

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Nancy Appleton has clearly declared her personal agenda against sugar, but her lack of objectivity, organization, credibility, or substance leave much to be desired in this book. I was frustrated by the constant repetition throughout the text, and I found myself skipping paragraphs at a time to find any new information. In addition, I was hoping to find concrete, applicable suggestions on HOW to kick the sugar habit. While Dr. Appleton does attempt to include "food plans," they are simply lists of the good, the bad, and the ugly. I do NOT recommend this book to others.

reviewed by formula on November 29, 2006 7:42 AM

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Nancy is onto something here. If you do just a little bit of research into the beginnings of cardiovascular diseases in the United States you will find a correlation between sugar and heart disease. Prior to the 1940's heart disease was not common then refined sugar hit the market,processed foods became readily available, and the fast food industry took off. Everyone claims that heart disease is caused by cholesterol from eating animal fats but consider the diet of the Eskimo. They eat a diet that is almost exclusively meat and fish and the rate of heart disease among Eskimos is shockingly lower than the rest of us. Why? They don't eat sugar. Constrastingly, India has the highest rate of heart disease and the majority of them are vegetarians! Why? Because too much sugary sweets!! Think about it !!

reviewed by fabio on November 29, 2006 8:32 AM

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Whenever you read one of these advice books, the first thing you always need to do is make sure that the source of the advice is a credible one. Nancy Appleton holds a Ph.D. from Walden University, which is one of those bogus online universities that will basically give you a diploma if you're willing to shell out enough money. Secondly, her Ph.D. is in healthcare administration or some other such field, so she's not really an expert on the topics she covers in this book. Third, there's nothing in this book to indicate that she did any sort of scientific research on this topic. It seems like she basically just read a bunch of research papers on sugar intake written by other people and compiled them together into an advice book for publication.

Even if you overlook Appleton's credibility, the way in which this book is written also leaves the reader in suspicion of the author. The advice given in this book is no better than what you mother probably told you when you were 5-years-old. On top of that, the length of this book is not indicative of the detail and thoroughness of its content. This book could have been written in 5 pages or less. Virtually every piece of information in here has been repeated at least twice. In fact, there are times when the exact same piece of information is repeated twice on the same page. There are also numerous mistakes in spelling and grammar. Whoever edited this book clearly didn't do a very good job of it.

reviewed by linda on November 29, 2006 10:22 AM

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