Former sugar addict, “Sugar Liberator” and holistic health counselor, Connie Bennett is an experienced journalist and author of SUGAR SHOCK! She has worked as a staff reporter, colum-nist and freelancer for  many media outlets, including The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, TV Guide, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Dallas Morning News, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Living Fit, Entertainment Weekly, and many more. Connie, who jokingly calls herself an “Ex-Sugar Shrew!” now coaches people worldwide break free of their addiction to sugar and refined carbs. Conquering your sugar  and carb habit could help you to lose weight, become more cheerful, improve your memory and even boost your libido.

CRAIG PEPIN-DONAT: So, Connie, I want to start off by talking a little bit about your book, SUGAR SHOCK! It’s an excellent text and I had been speaking with so many experts during our symposium, talking about different things like chemical and toxic exposure and how we’re ex-posed to all of these different types of diseases. But, I have to tell you that your book, SUGAR SHOCK!, which is subtitled How Sweets and Simple Carbs Can Derail Your Life -- and How You Can Get Back On Track, really covers an issue that I think is unique and that people really need to know about. Sugar is something that we’re all constantly exposed to, and according to your research, it can have some major implications on our health.

CONNIE BENNETT: Huge implications. Your sugar habit can send you to your grave early, and I am not exaggerating in any way.

CRAIG PEPIN-DONAT: Yes, and people don’t realize it. You started out as a sugar addict, and you had many health problems yourself, right? So, why don’t you give us a point-by-point descrip-tion about all of your symptoms and how you came to realize that you had a sugar problem your-self?

CONNIE BENNETT: So you want to know about Connie the “Sugar Shrew”? [Laughter] In 1998, I was besieged by a host of bewildering ailments. I was waylaid by ferocious headaches, excessive fatigue and inexplicable moods swings, which were quite embarrassing. I also had difficulty concentrating, anxiety and severe PMS, which I’m sure a lot of women will relate to.. The list goes on and on. In my book, SUGAR SHOCK!, I actually included a list of list my 44 ailments at the time.

Now, at the same time, I was a huge sugar addict; I loved red licorice, chocolate and hard candies. I would go clear across town to go buy these special hard candies. But, they were low-calorie hard candies, which was very important, I thought. But even though they were low in calories, they had no nutrients. At the time, I was a freelance journalist, and I would go from sugar high to sugar high in order to meet my deadlines.
So I had a huge sugar habit. I had these 44 ailments. But, I hadn’t put the pieces together that they were connected. Then, my boyfriend at that time decided to bid me goodbye. He could not handle some of my strange behavior, such as picking arguments for no reason. In retrospect, I was picking these arguments about maybe an hour to an hour and a half after I’d eaten sweets. Now, I’m seeing the connection. He also used to call me “Sleepyhead,” because I would sleep for 9-10 hours because I was just so tired all the time.

So, I went to one of many doctors I’d seen over the years. He actually was an MD, but he also had knowledge about acupuncture and homoeopathy. He very quickly put the pieces together after running me through a battery of tests. He said that I had severe hypoglycemia and that all I needed to do was to kick the sugar and refined carbs habit. He claimed that all my ailments would go away.
Now, as you know I’m a journalist – well, I’m a very skeptical journalist. I kind of pride myself on that. So, I have to tell you, when my doctor told me that I all my ailments would go away, I was somewhat dubious, to say the least.

CRAIG PEPIN-DONAT: Yes, you were a little skeptical, I’m sure.

CONNIE BENNETT: I really had hit rock bottom at that point, though. I felt physically awful; I didn’t have energy; and I was heartbroken because of the ex-boyfriend. Thus, I decided to quit eating sugar and refined carbs. It’s important, by the way, to talk about refined carbs, as well.

CRAIG PEPIN-DONAT: That’s not an easy thing to do in this day and age, because everything is loaded with sugar.

CONNIE BENNETT: Right. But ultimately, every single one of my ailments went away. It was pretty remarkable. At the risk of sounding very trite, I felt reborn. There’s no question about it. All of a sudden, I had more energy; I could focus better; I felt more cheerful; I had more excite-ment and a renewed zest for life. My life totally changed, just from kicking sugar and refined carbs. That’s why now, my mission is to spread the sour scoop about sweets; to help people to break that pattern so that they can become more energized, become more focused, boost their libido, and become reborn themselves. People need to know that the benefits from kicking sugar and refined carbs are tremendous. That’s why I coach people to break free of their sugar addiction.

CRAIG PEPIN-DONAT: Excellent. Well, it’s a great message. Now, you wrote this book with the help of Dr. Stephen Sinatra. Tell us a little bit about Dr. Sinatra; how you hooked up with him on this project and a little bit about how you worked together to develop your book SUGAR SHOCK!

CONNIE BENNETT: Dr. Sinatra is great. I’d already been researching and writing SUGAR SHOCK! for three or four years before I had the pleasure of meeting him. While I was able to interview some 200 doctors, nutritionists and other health professionals for the book, it became clear that, although I’m a journalist, people would be more receptive to my anti-sugar messages if I had a doctor with whom I partnered.

CRAIG PEPIN-DONAT: Right.

CONNIE BENNETT: I was fortunate enough to meet Stephen (that’s Dr. Sinatra) at a medical conference. After I heard him speak, I did some research on him, and I knew that he had spoken out about the dangers of sugar for years. That impressed me quite a bit. He was truly on the cutting edge. So, I invited him to come on board as a contributing author. Now, I like to say that by having him on the project helped to give the book angel’s wings. He wrote the second chapter in the book, and he, of course, read the rest of the book and made suggestions and comments aimed at improving the text. He looked at everything that I’d written, and he checked to see if it made medical sense.
I was very, very concerned about the integrity of the book, and I wanted it not only to be easy to read but also to be accurate.

Now, Stephen is a renowned cardiologist. Not only that, but he’s an anti-aging expert. Plus, he’s also a certified nutrition specialist. He went back to school for that, and he’s a certified bioener-getic psychotherapist, too. So, I was eager to have him on board. He’s also very, very respected within the medical community. He has like 30 years of medical experience, and he even integrates conventional medicine with complimentary nutritional and psychological therapies. Furthermore, he has written a few books, as well.

Stephen’s chapter is absolutely fascinating. First, he talks about how he began watching his mom’s dangerous blood sugar swings, as she was a brittle diabetic. Then he discusses the much-accepted theory that high cholesterol is what gives you heart disease. But Stephen reveals little-known information – he explains that sugar can give you heart disease much faster than choles-terol ever can. So he talks a lot about the connection between eating sugars and refined carbs and getting heart disease. Even though I interviewed so many people for this book, Stephen is one of a select few, who is actually out there talking about the role of sugar in developing heart disease.

CRAIG PEPIN-DONAT: This is excellent information. As I read through each chapter, I learned something different—something new. It’s the kind of information that I think is going to be shock-ing. People will be shocked when they read SUGAR SHOCK! because I don’t think that they would suspect that sugar could have such a devastating impact on our health.

CONNIE BENNETT: Yes, it’s so innocent-looking, and it looks so pretty.