Today, it is assumed that sugars are added to many of our foods to sweeten them and make them taste a little better. The sweetening of our diet has become something that we hear a lot about as it undoubtedly contributes to excess calories, promotes further intake, and adds on pounds. Despite more and more Americans opting for a “sugar free” lifestyle whereby we actively attempt to choose foods lower in sugar, Americans are still consuming more sugar than we should, 3-4 times more than recommended by the American Heart Association.

Dr. Nicole Avena examines and debunks the most common food and weight loss myths that refuse to fade away. Low carb dieters hear all the myths - here is the truth about nutrition for the low carber.

Dr. Nicole Avena offers tips and strategies that may be the key to aiding your weight-loss and healthy-eating goals this year.

Under normal conditions it is clear that drugs and food are very different, however, because the brain reward systems responsible for making drugs of abuse so addictive are the same pleasure systems that are activated by the foods we eat, our brains can have a very hard time differentiating between the pleasure derived from mild doses of some drugs of abuse and some types of food. Dr. Nicole Avena shows us the primary differences between food and drugs of abuse and how these differences contribute to food addiction.

With so many decadent dishes on the table, many just can't refrain from the inevitable overeating that occurs. Dr. Avena shows us the potential down side of the Thanksgiving feast. Over eating has real life physical consequences we should all be aware of.

While the topic of “food addiction” remains controversial, scientists have found significant overlaps between the effects of overeating certain palatable foods and drugs of abuse. There are innate biological processes that occur in our brain daily which reinforce the feeding behavior as well as other behaviors that are essential for survival. Dr. Nicole Avena, noted research neuroscientist/psychologist and author of Why Diets Fail explains the science behind the truth of sugar addiction.