Susan Peirce Thompson wrote a great book called Bright Line Eating. She has a Ph.D. in neuroscience and is one of the world’s leading experts on the psychology of eating. Before all that, Susan was addicted to cocaine and food and basically everything else — which gives her a very nice vantage point from which to talk about how to recover from addiction. In her book and programs, she applies the bright lines of Willpower 101 we talk about all the time to the fundamentals of Nutrition 101 we talk about all the time. Her top two bright lines for eating? Eliminate sugar and flour. Don’t reduce or eat them more moderately. E L I M I N A T E. Susan walks us through all the reasons those edible foodlike substances act more like drugs than food and she points out the havoc they cause in our bodies. But today I want to focus on a question she often gets asked when she encourages people to make a 100% Commitment to those two bright line rules. People often say (insert at least a slightly whiney voice): “But… Isn’t that extreme?” “I mean, really? I have to say no to donuts and cookies and pastries and pizza and…?” “Isn’t that just sooooo extreme?” NO, she says. Cutting off your limbs because you have diabetes is extreme. Getting checked into the hospital one Tuesday afternoon then losing half your stomach after having gastric bypass surgery because you have a cancerous growth near your pancreas that is a serious threat to your life? THAT is extreme. Removing sugar and flour? Not so much. Today’s +1. Eliminate the sugar and flour. Like, jumbo 100% eliminate. Unless you think it’s too extreme and you’d prefer the alternative down the line.
