I know a bit about addiction having been through both the smoking and gambling varieties; and taught a lot of people how to quit smoking. David's description of how addiction works is spot on.

Some of his approach to quitting sugar addiction is similar to Bob Newhart's $5 cure (see  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1g3ENYxg9k).  But just saying STOP doesn't work for the truly addicted. He rightly distinguishes the small problem, chemical, from the big one, habituation.

Cold turkey is cold comfort for these folk. What does work is a combination of weening to deal with the chemical addiction and concurrent behaviour modification exercises to deal with the habituation. Smokenders is an effective program for smokers. I doubt that anything similar exists for sugar addiction. Perhaps some creative psychologist could come up with one :-)

[Control + left-click will activate the above links].

For myself, I'm a 79yo bloke in excellent health but with a desire to get my weight down to somewhere between 70 & 75kg, and my waist to well under 100cm. Currently 84kg & 102cm.

BTW I notice that there is no mention of type or quantity of sugars in alcoholic drinks on the web site. With a bit of luck I can continue my daily (moderate) tipple with impunity :-)