There ain’t no difference between the two.

Cocaine.  Its running all around my brain.

 -Jackson Browne

 
I’ve never tried cocaine.   In the 1980’s,  I watched a lot of people get hooked and never get un-hooked.  I didn’t want to be one of them.

 Food is another matter. I’ve battled my weight  all my life.

 When a study came out that said sugar was more addictive than cocaine,  I  didn’t doubt it for a minute.

 I’ve never had a problem with cocaine.  Kicking sugar is a whole other experience.

 I never thought of myself as a sugar addict.  I am not big on deserts or candy.  I can go years without cake and ice cream.  I used to drink sugared soft drinks but gave them up.

 I was caught by the “hidden sugars”.   Stuff like white bread, pasta and catsup.

 White bread didn’t look like desert.  I had no idea the stuff was loaded with sugar.

 I knew I could live without cake.  I wasn’t  sure about white bread and catsup.

 Early this year, I set out to lose 100 pounds.  I took off  over 50 and moving steadily forward.

 It is a protracted war and not a battle.  In comparison to the great wars of history,  my struggle is more like the Hundred  Years War than the Six Day war.

 Maybe my battle with food is extreme but I have some idea of what people trying to kick a drug like cocaine go through.

 I couldn’t imagine how a great baseball player like Dwight Gooden could throw away hall of fame talent to snort coke.   No matter how many times he tried, and how many rehab people helped him, he couldn’t shake the habit.   

 There are million stories like Gooden.  And millions more who fight sugar addiction.

 In the war against obesity,  I’m  making progress.  The first step is realize that I am never going to be cured.

 I wish my addiction were something like drugs or cigarettes.  You can stop those completely and never do those again. 

 You can’t do that with eating.

 Really, my line about giving up food  is a cop out.   I have to eat something but it doesn’t have to be a 12 inch pizza or two Big Macs.  It could be lettuce or carrots or celery.

 I understand when I “fall off the wagon” and have some fast food.  I got really angry when I thought I was doing good but taking in hidden sugar.

 I had taken time to educate myself, I might have realized my poor decisions.

 I have the ability to eat correct, just like a cocaine addict has the ability to give up drugs.

 It requires life style change and life time commitment. 

 I eat when I am under stress. I’m always under stress.   It’s the way I operate.  I suspect a lot of addicts turn to drugs, booze, cigarettes or whatever when stress hits them.   They hope a substance can bring sanity to an insane world.

 Thus the crash and burn of  many people in the spotlight.   If they slow down their lives, they give up the fame and fortune.   If they keep up the fast pace, they become the next Britney Spears.  

 I’ve had a personal trainer and a health educator and they have taken me a long way.  We have a long way still to go. 

 If there is a redeeming quality in sugar, I have yet to see it.  We have better health facilities  than any time in human history but the rate of diabetes is skyrocketing.   Something is going wrong. 

 It would help would be a complete and total war on sugar, like the war on drugs in the 1980’s.

  People laughed at Nancy Reagan and the “just say no” campaign but a lot of people avoided drugs.  I did. 

  I never had the money or the lifestyle to do cocaine  in my youth and shortly thereafter, basketball player Len Bias died from a cocaine overdose.  That was a scared straight moment for me.  I figured that if I tried  cocaine once, I would be the next Len Bias.

 Sugar  will not cause you to drop over immediately but diabetes and obesity knock years off people’s lives.

 Quick death or slow death, death is death.

 There ain’t no difference between the two.

 Don McNay is Chairman of the Board for McNay Settlement Group and the Author of Son of a Son of a Gambler: Winners, Losers and What to Do When You Win the Lottery. You can write to him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or read other things he has written at www.donmcnay.com