What Could Be More Addictive Than Cocaine? Dr. Daryl Gioffre Tells Us

0:04Hello, I'm Anthony Scaramucci, and this is Open Book, where I talk with some of the brightest minds out there about everything surrounding the written word, from authors and historians to figures in entertainment, neuroscientists, political activists, and of course, Wall Street. Sorry, I can't resist. Before we get into today's episode, if you haven't already, please hit follow or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a review. We all love a review, even the bad ones. I want to hear the parts you're enjoying or how we can do better. You know, I can roll with the punches, so let me know.

0:38Anyways, let's get to it.

0:47Due to our heavy reliance on sugar-rich processed foods, we all know the American diet is deadly. Sugar is eight times more addictive than cocaine. Can you imagine that? It's toxic. Dr. Darrell Jufre is a former sugar addict turned health machine, and he joins me today to tell us how we can all beat the cravings and go from stress eating to strength eating. I mean, let's face it, who doesn't want that? So let's get into it.

1:22Joining us now on an open book, Dr. Daryl Joffre on get off your sugar, burn the fat, crush your cravings and go from stress eating to strength eating. There's a little hate out here, Doc, let me just talk about the envy, okay? Because I'm looking at you, I can actually see your cheekbones. You don't look like you need male breast reduction surgery like some of us might need. And so what's going on, Doc? Talk to me about your latest book. Were you always this thin and this good looking? Or were you a before picture on the Slim Fast commercial ever? Or tell us about you. You're very sweet, Anthony and kind.

1:59Thank you so much. But I can tell you, I was the shoemaker with no shoes. This was definitely not me many years ago. I was the guy who was 50 pounds over my weight today. So I definitely had more on my body than you're seeing today. But I was back in my chiropractic wellness center back in New York City. And I remember going out and adjusting clients and patients and telling them, don't eat sugar, don't do that, and don't do these bad things. I'd be going in the back office and doing what? Eating a Nestle's Crunch Bar or a Caramello Bar or drinking a can of Coke. I mean, I was acidic. I was doing all the things that I was telling my clients not to do.

2:30But in my early 20s, I got away with it. But what happens is over time, your metabolism changes and your body changes. I was wearing the same clothes, Anthony, which is the funny part. So the crazy part of the story is I was leaning down to adjust the patient and my pants put right down the backside. So that was like the painful moment. That was when I literally threw a stake in the ground and I decided to step up my game and raise my standards and say, I'm not going to be a walking contradiction anymore. So I started becoming an investigator, a health investigator. As I followed the evidence, the evidence led me to acid, this acidic lifestyle.

3:02Sugar equals acid, acid equals inflammation. And I was eating tons of it, as most Americans do, by the way. The average American is eating 130 pounds of this white stuff every year. That equates to 38 teaspoons a day, which is crazy. And the problem with that, I talk about this in Get Off Your Sugar, is that after six teaspoons every day, your body can't metabolize the sugar. It literally becomes a liver poison, a neurotoxin to your body. And what happened with me is my body kept on dumping so much insulin out to try to bring the sugar down, I just started gaining weight. And that's what insulin does.

3:31It's your fast storing hormone. So I just started adding in all the foods that strengthen my body. I started with a green juice, which is what I call the strength or the core of a strength eating diet. And within about, I would say 12 to 14 days, my cravings for sugar were gone just by adding in foods that make me healthy from the inside out. I was saying about three and a half months or so as a byproduct of strengthening my body, I lost 42 pounds. And I'm telling you, I'm 47 right now. My biologic age is 32. I feel better than I have in many, many years. So one thing everyone has to understand is that your age is just an age.

4:03It's not your true number. Your true number is based on how you live your life. All right. So I got to make some confessions here, okay? You're not a priest, but I'm going to make some confessions, okay? I am a sugarholic. I will tell you that. Also, I get stressed. Sometimes I go through days where I can't sleep because I'm working. You know, as an example, I just did my SAW conference. I probably slept three hours a night. Wow. It's 4 p.m. And let me rephrase it. I'm a great sleeper if I'm allowed to sleep. But if I've got, you know, a 24-hour schedule, can't sleep, I'm going for that Nestle's Crunch Bar that you just mentioned or the Carmelo.

4:42I'm a big Oreos fan. And of course, if you tell me I'm dying, I'm probably going to eat 26 Reese's Peanut Butter cuffs just to take the edge off. So what am I doing wrong? How do I get off it? And then when I try to stop it, I get strung out. So go ahead, help me. I'm going to lay down. Let me lay down. Okay. Tell me what we're doing. Go ahead. All right. All right. You get some sleep. I'll just talk for the rest of the show. No, listen, you nailed it on the head and it's not entirely your fault because when we're stressed, what do we tend to do? We stress eat. We're not reaching for the kale or the spinach.

5:16We're going for the crap food, right? C-R-A-P. What that means and what that stands for is completely refined and processed. You see, this has to do with kind of how we were made up. And I want to get too technical or scientific, but when we're stressed, the body basically goes into fight or flight, right? It's like if you see a T-Rex or a saber to tiger, right? This is not a time to burn fat. You want to burn sugar because sugar is a quick, dirty fuel. Your body's going to burn it right away. And that's the thing is like when you eat sugar, your body wants to burn it up because it wants to get it out because it's so toxic to your body.

5:43But when you're in fight or flight and you're in danger, the body wants to get rid of it. So the problem, Anthony, is that your body, your brain is so old. Our brains are primitive. They can't distinguish between a physical stress or like an animal that's going to eat us alive for lunch or that emotional stress. And what happened two years ago with this crazy situation, we all got in with COVID. We were blindsided by COVID, right? And the stress just hit us like a wall. And most of us started crawling into our foxhole and we started stress eating. And the problem is, is when we're stressed, again, the body can't distinguish between the two.

6:13What happens is the body needs a quick source of energy. So it burns up the sugar. So when you burn sugar, what do you think your body's going to actually crave? It's going to crave sugar. And that's what stress eating is all about. So I think for you, what you have to do is you've got to anticipate the road ahead and know that on these specific days when you're going to be busy and working 23 hour days, whatever it is, you have to have some form of a healthier snack that will still taste good. That's not going to make you feel like you're in deprivation, but that's going to be a better source than the one you're doing right now that's going to help your body get through those sugar cravings and the feelings that you're feeling.

6:43Okay. Well, I live in the United States and I know you do too. We have some UK listeners, European listeners. I feel like when I'm in Europe, I'm losing weight. They have less process in their foods. I feel like in the US, we have all of these hidden sugars, doctor. So go over that for me. Be my Sherpa. Tell me what I got to do? What do I eat? What do I avoid? Where are the traps that I wouldn't normally know about that you know about? Expose them for me. Yeah. I mean, here's the problem. You walk into a grocery store in our country, you're going to find that 74 % of those foods are going to have added sugars in them.

7:19And it's the added sugars are the ones that are taking us out. So we have to be conscious label readers. You have to look at, you know, carbohydrates because carbs equals sugar, right? Bread and pasta, those things that we want to be avoiding. And it's true. When you go to Europe, It's wheat. The wheat crop over there is a much different crop than it is here. That's why so many of my clients, when they leave the States and they go to Italy or wherever they're going to be, and they'll eat these types of foods that are typically very acidifying to the body and inflammatory producing here, they're totally fine there.

7:47Now also remember when they go on vacation, there's also less stress. So that has something to do with it as well. But the foods are healthier there. It's the way that they're grown here. The wheat is much more hybridized and it's going to cause a lot more issues on your blood sugar levels. I mean, if you literally eat two slices of bread, that's going to spike your blood sugar as much as a candy bar. I mean, how crazy is that? So the problem is, is that sugar has snuck its way into our diets. It's hiding in so many foods that we eat on a daily basis. Even foods that we think that are healthy for us has hidden sugars in it.

8:16Things like protein bars, salad dressings, pasta sauces, and the list goes on and on and on. But here's the other problem is that the manufacturers know how to get us. No longer are you going to see on that food label sugar? All right. We all know sugar is bad. We need to avoid it, but you don't see sugar anymore. There's 64 hidden names for sugar. Things like dextrose, maltose, sucrose, anything that ends in O-S-E equals sugar. You got to avoid it. So when you go to that grocery store, look at that label, look at the total carb number, look at the added sugar, the most important thing. If you see something that has added sugars, if that doesn't say 0%, put it back, move to the next food, because it's something you should not be putting into the body.

8:57But then you also want to look at that other label and look for any of those other sources of hidden sugars. If we become conscious label readers, I promise you we're going to be doing better. But I think the easiest way to go about this is really eat the foods that are going to go bad, right? Go to the produce section. Yes, I'm talking about vegetables, guys, those fruits, you eat more of those foods, those are the ones that are going to really alkalize your body, strengthen you from the inside out, and lessen the sugar cravings. Why is kale so good? Why is spinach so good? Why are sprouts so good?

9:23Why are healthy fats like avocados so good? They're high in minerals like magnesium. So for you, Anthony, the one nutrient you need more than anything in your body is magnesium. Because when we crave sugar, it really means that our body is deficient in magnesium. Why is chocolate so something that we crave so much? What's the number one ingredient in chocolate? Magnesium. So look at the food that you're craving. Look a little bit deeper inside of that food. That food is going to tell you what your body really needs. So what can you do for magnesium. Think green juice, green smoothies, green soups.

9:53Think healthy fats like the green ones, like avocados. You can do an Epsom salts bath where you're just doing a 20-minute bath with some Epsom salts and some baking soda. You can put some magnesium lotion on your arms once a day. You've got to do just like exercise variation. You need diet variation. So how do you feel about these alkaline waters like Ascensia and things like that? You like those? Don't like those? Is that a gimmick? No, I like them. I mean, there's definitely some good research behind it. I talk about it in both of my books that when you put water in that is alkaline in nature, usually you see like a 9.5 pH, which is a higher on the level, it can strengthen your digestive enzymes.

10:26But the water that I'm a really big fan of is something called hydrogen water. It's becoming a very big buzzword. In both of my books, I interviewed, he's a very good friend of mine, Dr. Paul Baratero. He's the foremost authority in the world on hydrogen. So hydrogen water is amazing because hydrogen is an antioxidant, is a very powerful antioxidant. and it's really good for your gut health. The gut should make hydrogen every single day, about 10 liters. But the problem is because we consume so much sugar and we're so stressed, we're not producing enough of that hydrogen. So when you put hydrogen water into the water that you're drinking, you also need to have the water become filtered because you got to clean the water.

11:00But when you add hydrogen water to it, you're not only going to get the antioxidant properties to it, but it's a powerful reducer of inflammation. So again, you got to look at the quality of the water. I'm totally good with alkaline water. I love hydrogen water, but paramount, it has to be clean water. I mean, they did a study on New Yorkers, by the way. We all know that like New York water is the best, right? Well, maybe amongst tap waters, but they actually found so many toxic chemicals in New York tap water, including Prozac. I mean, how crazy is that? Where do you think the Prozac came from in the water?

11:27Take a guess. I would say that it's recycled out of the sewer system, right? Yeah. It came from the urinary discharge of people taking the drug that ended up in the sewers that ended up in the drinking water. So again, we got to get that water cleaned. any form of filtration is going to be better than none. So Dr. Nicholas Parricone, I don't know if you recognize that name, Nick Parricone, he has a hydrogen water, came out with it five years ago, and he swears by it. And he does say that it has all of these anti-inflammation properties. But could you just go into one more? We're going to go to another question, but just tell me why.

12:00What is it about hydrogen water that allows for that? Hydrogen is what we call a selective antioxidant. Again, scientifically, scientifically hydrogen is two hydrogen molecules, H2. So when you put the hydrogen into the water and that goes into the gut, not only is it something that can outpace the damaging effects that an antibiotic does, because what does antibiotic mean against life? And what do most people tell you to do when you take an antibiotic? Take a probiotic, which means for life. But here's the deal. You should take a probiotic, but it's not going to touch the damaging effects that an antibiotic does.

12:30I mean, antibiotics are so overwhelmingly powerful. They wipe out your gut microbiome for two years, the research shows. So hydrogen is the only nutrient out there that can actually build up your anaerobic mycloflora faster in your gut than the antibiotic can break it down. Plus, as that selective antioxidant, it can take out two free radicals, all right? This is one for two of what's called the hydroxyl free radical. One of the most damaging free radicals in your body. What is a free radical? Something that makes you rust and rot from the inside out. Basically, what that means is that we can develop cancer, heart disease, if we don't take care of these free radicals.

13:04So one H2 molecule can take out two hydroxyl free radicals. That's going to lessen the toxic burden on your body. It's going to lower inflammation. In fact, Anthony, they did a study on hydrogen water and colorectal cancer cells. When you add the hydrogen and the study was done in combination with a drug called 5-fluoracil, it actually, there was 100 % apoptosis of that cancer cell, which means when the hydrogen entered the cell, it actually killed the cell 100%. So this is the power that we're dealing with. This is what biohacking is all about. When you biohack your body, you're changing your internal terrain and the terrain around you for your longevity, for your health.

13:39So these are things that we want to be adding in when you can. Okay. Very, very, very helpful to me. More questions if you don't mind. Sure. Do you ever have ice cream? Do you ever, you know, you're at your mother's house. I mean, probably. Absolutely. Do you have ice cream? Do you ever have cookies? Do you ever stray? Do you ever do something sugary? Yeah. I mean, it's not about deprivation. It's about moderation. You know, one of the things that I love, you know, about Kelly Ripa so much is she talks about that 80-20 lifestyle. 80 % of the foods that you put into the body need to be foods that make your body healthy, strong, that strengthen you from the inside out.

14:10Guys, you have a little leeway, right? But the problem is, is that most people are 80-20 the other way. And then when they add in that cookie, that ice cream, it's gasoline on the fire. But my whole mantra in life is, okay, never better best. These are foods we should never have in our diet. This is a better version of that food. This is the best version of that food. It's about healthy swaps. So most of the time, when we have ice cream in my house here, you're going to find coconut milk ice cream, almond milk ice cream. You're going to find healthier versions of the typical, sad, standard American diet, which is what that means.

14:41Well, listen, if I'm out with my family and I'm out with some people, whatever, we're at an ice cream shop, I'm going to have some ice cream, but I'm going to make sure that I'm doing what I need to do to neutralize the acidity that's going into my body. Being healthy is all about the balance act. And it's about if there's something coming up, you have to anticipate that, like I mentioned before, and make sure that you're putting the right nutrients, the right minerals in the body, because minerals is what neutralizes the acidity that comes from those specific foods. So if we have what our body needs to deal with what comes next, then we're totally fine.

15:09It's not going to cause any problems. Okay, sounds good to me. Doc, I got so many questions for you. I want to start with what you referred to as strength eating. So what is strength eating, your definition of it? Strength eating is basically putting in the foods in the body that nourish your cells. I'm talking down to the cellular level. Basically, every time we eat, we're making our body stronger or we're making our body weaker. We're either lowering inflammation or we're building inflammation. We're building health or we're making cancer cells. So strength eating foods are foods that alkalize your body and they strengthen you from the inside out.

15:44So what's the number one strength eating food? Dark green leafy vegetables. All right. So you've got to make sure at least 50 % of that visual plate is dark green leafy vegetables. A big side salad. I love things like apple cider vinegar, not regular vinegar because regular vinegar is high in yeast and sugar. So you avoid that. But apple cider vinegar, lemons, limes, olive oil, that's what we use for our dressing. And then lots of rainbow vegetables. And then the next category is what we call healthy plant-based fats. So I'm talking about avocado, which I call God's butter, healthy nuts and seeds like macadamia nuts, walnuts.

16:17And by the way, macadamia nuts will not break your fast, which is why I love them. Walnuts look like the brain because the high omega-3 fats are going to actually help cognitive function and memory and processing speed and focus. Seeds like chia seeds and flax seeds and hemp seeds. I mean, one of the biggest deficiencies we have in our diet is fiber. 5 % of the population is getting the 25 to 35 grams of fiber that we need on a regular basis. That number should be up in the 50 grams category, which is why I came out with my internal shower. This thing went massively viral. I mean, over 105 million hits to it.

16:47Why? Because so many people are suffering from constipation. So this is a healthy hack that basically helps remove the constipation. So what you do is you take two tablespoons of chia seeds, the juice of a slice of a lemon. Then you take six ounces of water and a pinch of Himalayan salt. Let those chia seeds sit in that water for about five minutes to basically plump up. They're hydrophilic, which means they're going to soak up to 27 times their weight. And then you drink that on an empty stomach. What happens is those chia seeds go into all those little nooks and crannies of your gut. And they begin to hydrate and lubricate the mucous membranes of your gut.

17:17And what happens is it's like an internal shower. It's a healthy, gentle way to move the bowels. So again, we need more fiber in our diet. So those seeds are essential. But that's a really quick, easy way to kind of get more fiber in. I'm telling you, finally, there was a TikTok trend out there that actually helped people. It was amazing. A lot of people got much better intestinal health and improvements from doing that. So it's because of the fiber. I'm in. I'm going to try it tonight. So I have a relative that has something called Hashimoto's disease. Have you heard of that? It's like he's got an attack of the thyroid.

17:47What do you recommend for somebody like that? You got to really reach out to somebody. That's something you don't want to navigate on your own. I can tell you this is that there's obviously antibodies that the body makes, you know, goes against the thyroid, which is hallmark of Hashimoto's. But the thyroid gland is the first gland that gets hit by toxicity that leaks through the gut. So I can tell you from dealing with thousands of clients, one of the biggest clienteles they see is thyroid issues. In the past 15 years, we're seeing the incidence of thyroid issues skyrocket. I'm going to tell you, our genetics haven't changed for 40 ,000 years.

18:16It has nothing to do with our genes or if you're male or female, though it is more likely with females. You have to look at your gut health. Usually when the gut is out of balance, when we have low levels of stomach acid, which is something I believe is one of the biggest causes of all disease in the body is low hydrochloric acid in the stomach. When you eat your food, you can't uptake the nutrients to get it to the thyroid. So listen, Anthony, people say you are what you eat. It's just not true. You're what you digest, absorb, and assimilate. And when you're eating those foods, if you have enough sufficient levels of hydrochloric acid, you can break down those foods so that you can absorb those foods to get those nutrients to the thyroid gland that the thyroid gland needs, like magnesium, iodine, selenium, vitamin C.

18:58And what we find with most of these clients is that they're massively deficient in those nutrients. So ultimately, we got to be an investigator, we got to follow the evidence and go back to the gut. Once we clean up the diet, and we begin to get the pH balance in the stomach, lower the inflammation in the gut, then many most of the times the thyroid cases actually start to fix themselves. But after that, you still want to post test the thyroid, see where they're at. And we have to maybe do some thyroid support. So I would definitely reach out to a healthcare provider to do that. Yeah. So the Hashimoto's is reversible then or no?

19:27Yeah. I mean, I've reversed it in clients many times. All right. Well, that's very helpful. I want to go to other sugar options and supplements, and I want to tie it to something you write about in the book, that sugar addiction is actually worse than cocaine addiction. You're just totally tied into it. So how do you get off it? And then what are your recommendations for some replacements and what supplements are you recommending? Yeah, I mean, sugar, it's not even a food, it's a drug, and it's become America's drug of choice. And you said it. I mean, it's hard to even contemplate the fact when you said it, like, it's more addictive than cocaine.

20:00I mean, this is not my opinion. This is research proven. It's eight times more addictive than cocaine. So we have to start calling this for what it really is. And it lights up those dopamine receptors in your brain eight times more than cocaine. And that's how we prove this with the scientific literature. So ultimately to get off sugar, listen, many people go with that deprivation mindset. You know, albeit it's a noble approach. It's not my favorite way. I tried many times over, Anthony, I couldn't do it that way. Why is that? Because sugar is so powerful. You know, we got to like, we white knuckle it through it that way.

20:27And it just doesn't work. You know, people can do it for two months. They could do it for two weeks. I mean, when do most people try to get off sugar? January 1. It's like the New Year's resolutions come and most people associate change with the flip of the calendar. And what happens is that they're not doing the right things inside their body to actually address why we're craving sugar in the first place. So to answer your question, I think the first thing is let's take that add, not take away approach. It might take us a little bit longer to get there, but that's okay. This is a lifestyle. This is not a die it.