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Excerpts

Foreword

While we think of sugar as a food, it is actually a drug -- an external substance acting throughout the brain and body on cellular receptors designed for an internal chemical called glucose. Since glucose is usually the only fuel the brain can ever use, and is critical to mental clarity, mood states and the controlled release of energy in the body, it is astounding how cavalierly we sprinkle sugar, its inferior substitute, into everything from children's breakfast food to ketchup. If sugar were to be put on the market for the first time today, it would probably be difficult to get it past the FDA.

Like many drugs that work through receptors, sugar has a paradoxical effect characterized by two phenomena: First, the more of the drug you take, the less of the drug's internal analog is produced in your brain and body. Second, the receptors for sugar or any other drug become less sensitive -- sometimes actually decreasing in number -- as protection against the drug bombarding them. We can easily become physically dependent on exogenous sugar for mood boosts -- but our habit now results in depression instead of well-being, exhaustion and anxiety instead of a burst of energy. I have long suspected that the increase of clinical depression in our society is linked to the increased consumption of sugar.

How exciting it was for me, then, to hear about Kathleen DesMaisons's efforts in developing a working hypothesis about sugar sensitivity and its role in addictive behavior. I have been aware of her work for many years. Her vision, personal warmth and passionate commitment to finding answers have always touched me. Potatoes Not Prozac now moves her vision into concrete, specific guidance that brings her clinical skills to a wider audience.

Dr. DesMaisons has a unique gift for taking very complex ideas and making them accessible for regular folks who are trying to feel better. Her thesis is persuasive. Her combination of clinical experience, personal honesty and scientific curiosity have led to real benefits for her clients. While the stories remain anecdotal from a scientific perspective, they are powerful to hear. As Dr. DesMaisons suggests, something is going on in the relationship between diet and behavior -- something beyond what scientific research has already shown about biochemistry and mood.

As a scientist I could never entertain that the size of my childhood trick-or-treat bag at Halloween could have any meaning. But as a woman who has struggled with some of the problems Dr. DesMaisons talks about, I would not be so quick to dismiss her ideas. Sometimes science is nudged by pioneers from the field who put studies together in new ways and ask questions from an unexpected perspective. The scientific story will be tested in the laboratory. But the day-to-day impact of Potatoes Not Prozac will be tested in the hearts and bodies of the people who identify with the profile Dr. DesMaisons has so powerfully outlined.

Foods can act as drugs, and we must be aware of how our moods and physiology -- mental and physical -- are so inextricably intertwined that what and how we eat can have an enormous impact on our lives. I highly recommend Potatoes Not Prozac, which I believe contains novel and important information for everyone from the most sophisticated nutritionist to the individual who is just beginning to realize that what and how we eat helps to explain why we feel the way we feel.

Candace B. Pert, Ph.D.
Author of Molecules of Emotion: Why We Feel the Way We Feel
Research Professor
Department of Physiology and Biophysics
Georgetown University Medical Center

Copyright © 1998 by Candace Pert, Ph.D.