One of the least-discussed but most widely experienced health hazards of our modern diet is sugar addiction, which is also known as sugar cravings.

One of the first people to speak out about the health dangers of sugar and other refined carbohydrates was William Banting, who struggled for years to lose weight. He exercised relentlessly, tried a number of different diets recommended by a long string of physicians, but continued to gain weight.

Banting then learned of a local physician, a Dr. Harvey, who had recently attended a lecture on diabetes by a famous French diabetes specialist. Dr. Harvey came to believe that excess weight and diabetes are just different manifestations of the same syndrome. This was back in 1882.

Mr. Banting was cured of his obesity by Dr. Harvey, and was so excited about his recovery that he personally published a widely-read pamphlet about his new diet, which left out the bread and pastries that made him fat.

Dr. Harvey called attention to the diabetes-obesity relationship, which has been variously called the saccharine disease, Syndrome X, insulin resistance syndrome, and most recently the metabolic syndrome. Weston A. Price, a dentist who studied diets around the world in the early 20th century, proved conclusively that sugar does, indeed, lead to obesity and a variety of other illnesses.

The health dangers of sugar have been known for many years, and most people who eat too much sugar know that their health is endangered because of it, if only because the extra sugar makes them fat. So why do so many people eat so much sugar, if it’s obviously not good for them? The substance we call sugar is addictive, and kicking a sugar habit is far more difficult than most people realize.

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