I agree with you.  When cravings hit, I am never motivated to eradicate the taste of sugar.  If they come up with something to take away the cravings, that would be something.  And yes, temptation is everywhere.  Most people don’t even realize that there is sugar in most things, so when I decline something and say I am not eating sugar, they look at me like I’m crazy.  I think it would be better to say, “No thanks, I’m full”.  They can’t argue with that!

Seems to me if you have the mental energy to reach for the pills, you could just not eat the offending food.

David, thank you for mentioning my product Stop-It on your website. You are one of the fortunate , who has the strength and fortitude to defeat your sugar cravings. Congratulations on your accomplishment! Unfortunately there are so many others that may not be as strong as you, like some of my patients with diabetes who know they shouldn’t eat the cake, but without the willpower to stop, they may become very ill. My hope is that the bad taste of the sweet food after Stop-It, will provide a negative reinforced conditioned response. So next time you look at the sweets, you will remember how bad it tasted the last time. And not eat it.

Hi Dr. Carlson,

On this page of the Stop-It website, the advertising copy states, “Put a Stop-It™ lozenge in your mouth and you’ll see what happens. You won’t care anymore what the cause of sugar cravings might be because yours will be gone.”

A person won’t be able to enjoy the sugar they crave because the pill will have numbed their sweet receptors and most everything they put in their mouth will taste gross until the effect of the lozenge wears off, at which time they’ll have to make a choice about their sweet cravings once again. 

Pills like yours can be a positive and useful tool but only when people stop thinking there is a rare and magic fortitude that exists beyond themselves.

David- I know we both agree of the health issues associated with sugar consumption. Sugar (and more specifically fructose) is required to trigger the symptoms of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. These conditions are strongly associated with Heart Disease, Diabetes, Obesity and persistently elevated sugar levels have been suggested to ignite and promote malignancy. So the fight to conquer our sugar cravings and the addiction caused by sugar is not only a way to reduce weight and feel better, but a way to avoid heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. So David, Please keep up the hard work in the battle against sugar cravings. Dr. C

Dr. Carlson, are you a sugar addict? Do you have trouble regulating sugar in your diet?

I do struggle periodically, especially with stressful days. I am not a chocolate or candy craver, but do like milk shakes. I have really controlled those urges nicely by maintaining a low carbohydrate diet (really a lifestyle), which reduces the rollercoaster effects of insulin. I am also an avid runner and that helps me optimize my physiology and avoid the black hole of the metabolic syndrome. Controlling my milkshake cravings has been made successful with Stop-It. Leaving my office late in the evening after a tough day , i throw a couple Stop-it’s into my mouth and sometimes I will stop for a shake, just to reinforce how bad they taste with no sweetness. Ice cream is essentially 8 pounds of sugar, salt and some rotten milk. Tasting that salty ,rotten milk makes me have second thoughts when i start to crave those milkshakes. With that type of control , I have melted away about 15 pounds over the last 45 days. Thanks for asking David, and again keep up the great work. I also saw you had some commentary on another of my favorite subjects vitamin D. I love the stuff!!!!

I appreciate your work and your product. My point is that you still crave sugar/have the urge for a milkshake when stressed. There’s no pill to makes that go away—not yet anyway. Let us know if you come up with something!

In support of free market principles, you can get a bottle of gymnema sylvestre 100 caps for as little as $2.29 , gymnema being the main ingredient in Stopit; sprinkle on your tongue for the same effect. Nora Gedgaudis has this trick in her book Primal Body-Prinal Mind.

David- Actually, as I stated, with the use of Stop-It I have controlled my cravings to the point that I was able to lose 15 pounds in 45 days. I now control my cravings, not my cravings controlling me.

Digby- I have tried eating straight Gymnema and it was terrible. The grainy consistency and the awful taste created more of an aversion for the gymnema than the sweets it was intended to reduce the cravings for. I carefully formulated this product to not only provide a nice sweet taste with erythritol, a sugar alcohol that is immediately absorbed in the stomach and excreted in the kidneys, as well as peppermint to provide a satisfying minty flavor, both blocking the foul taste of Gymnema. But in addition I formulated and researched the product , creating a delivery system with a oral disintegrating lozenge that provides excellent coverage of the sweet receptors.

Stop-It blocks the sugar receptors on your tongue for a period of time, which can be useful for someone to realize that their favorite snack is nothing but sweetener mixed into a fizzy water, flour, or waxy gel concoction. In that way Stop-It can be a useful tool in the battle against overeating and sugar bingeing. However, Stop-It does not make sugar cravings magically disappear.

Your weight loss over the last 45 days is not the result of taking Stop-It alone. According to your blog you are running and exercising, eating a special low-carbohydrate “Sarasota Diet,” (”essentially a form of starvation” —your words) and are taking injections of HCG, which is a controversial hormone treatment used for rapid weight loss.

On April 5, 2011 you wrote in your blog, “I really needed something sweet.” That, to me, sounds like a sugar craving. As for trying to convince me that your product does more than I described, please stop it.

I never implied that weight loss occurred just by me taking Stop-it. If that was inferred I certainly apologize. Weight loss is a very complex process, and anything we can do to optimize our weight loss process including optimal hormonal balance, sleep, controlling sugar cravings, vitamin D levels, exercise, water consumption and a reasonable dietary approach that we can make a successful lifestyle are all paramount. My response to"essentially a form of starvation” was in reference to the 500 kcal diet often used in the classic HCG diet. I prefer the low carbohydrate approach, keeping your intake below 20 grams of carbohydrates, for 28 days but absolutely no caloric limitations, in fact i may have consumed in excess of 2000 kcal…that’s not starving, and studies at Harvard,Duke, Stanford, and Cinncinnati have all proven that the low carb approach is healthy and much better than a low fat approach..  I understand the philosophy of HCG may be considered controversial, however having a tremendous understanding of physiology,hormonal balances and the effects of neurotransmitters, I realize that this approach makes physiologic sense.  Please listen to my radio interview at your convenience:  Day 17 Sarasota Diet
  I believe you understand the importance of avoiding excess sugar intake, and that is why you strive so fervently to avoid sweets. What I have seen repeatedly is that once someone replaces the positive feedback of a sweet taste with something negative, that the next time they encounter it, they will not have the same urge or craving. That is what I experience and that is what hundreds of my patients have experienced. David - I wish you the best in your journey and I know that your cause is a good one, because it will give hope to so many people struggling with their cravings and allow them to avoid the health dangers of excess sugars.  Dr. C

Stopit/gymnema can work to the extent aversion therapy has some known, limited success. There was a fad in the early 80s of clinics that would have a people bring in a favored sweet treat, like cookies, and as they bit into the food an electric shock would be administered. Shows how desperate people can be.

Hi David and Dr. C…

Not everyone has sheer will power to keep from putting sugar in their mouth. If that was so, we wouldn’t be a nation with obesity and diabetic epidemics. 

If there’s a product that can get them off the sugar rush cycle one day at at time (because sugar really is an addiction) that’s a good thing.

Imagine how this could help diabetics!  My aunt and cousin are diabetics. She takes insulin daily yet every afternoon, has to have something sweet.  Does it make sense?  Absolutely not nor can she resist. 

I am going to get this for her. Thanks David for posting this on your site.

Digby - That’s fascinating. The idea makes sense but the practice seems a bit extreme and flawed. Maybe we can make a product that gets implanted in a person so that when they eat sugar they get a shock.

Rhianna - Good luck! Let us know how it goes.