If You Are Addicted to Sugar and Need to Lose Weight, Bright Line Eating Could Be the Answer

This means no added sugar including white, brown, and coconut; natural sweeteners like maple syrup, honey, and agave; and artificial sweeteners. Sugar elevates insulin levels, which block the hormone leptin and overload your dopamine receptors, which leads to insatiable cravings. This is why you eat cookie after cookie and still want more — eating sugar makes you crave it. In order to break this cycle, you need to stop eating sugar, and the cravings will disappear.

Fresh fruit is allowed since the fructose in fruit doesn't affect your brain the way refined sugar does and because fruit also contains fibre, which slows down digestion. Dried fruit, fruit juice, and blended fruit (like smoothies and frozen banana ice cream) are not allowed since the sugar is more concentrated. Remember: we want to keep dopamine receptors quiet.

Like sugar, flour raises insulin levels and is one of the most addictive foods. When grains are processed, the surface area is increased, so it hits our system too fast and too hard. So this means no flour — not white, not whole wheat, not oats ground into flour, not gluten-free or lentil flour — none whatsoever. You are instead encouraged to eat whole grains, which take longer to digest.

It sounds shocking to be told never to eat sugar or flour, but this isn't just another diet telling you what not to eat. In the Bright Line Eating book, Susan explained that Bright Line Eating is designed to shift eating behaviours from the prefrontal cortex (decision-making part of the brain), to the basal ganglia (the part of the brain where things are automatic). It does take willpower to begin and set up, but after consistent repetition, it requires no willpower at all because eating becomes automatic.

Research shows it takes about 66 days to form a new habit, so if you feel like Bright Line Eating might be for you, give it at least two months. Reading the Bright Line Eating book is helpful, and Susan also offers a 14-Day Challenge to get you started. After that, there's an eight-week boot camp so you can get the support you need to be successful and live "happy, thin, and free."