Dr. James Surrell
Schuler Books and Music, 28th Street location
June 12, 10 a.m.
schulerbooks.com, (616) 942-2561

In the 1890s, the average American consumed approximately five pounds of refined sugar per year. Now, just more than 100 years later, that statistic has jumped to an average of 140 pounds per person per year.

That's a lot of sugar, and, according to Dr. James Surrell, that's a lot of weight.

Surrell, a colorectal surgeon for more than 20 years and director of the Digestive Health Institute, has been studying the relationship between sugar intake, weight management and cholesterol for years. His findings are surprising and have been published in his book, The SOS Diet: Stop Only Sugar.

According to the Doc, the benefits of refined sugar are simple:

"It tastes good. It tastes real good. Makes you want more and more," he writes.

His list of reported and potential side effects of sugar is much more substantial.

"Sugar is stored in your body as body fat. [It] may cause elevated blood cholesterol from excess circulating insulin. [It] may lead to increased risk for vascular disease."

The list ends with, "Likely will cause a shorter lifespan."

However, it is the first item on the list and not the latter that Surrell focuses on in The SOS Diet: Stop Only Sugar. He sets his sights instead on the problem of obesity, revealing the connection between weight gain and a high sugar intake.

"You got to understand the body can only do one thing [with ingested sugar molecules]: it stores it as body fat unless you use it for instant energy," he said. "Every one of our 175 trillion cells uses glucose for fuel. If the body stores all its excess sugar as fat, then when we stop eating glucose the body starts burning body fat."

It is on this concept that Surrell builds his diet. Well, actually Doc says, "this is not a diet. It's a simple lifestyle change. Rule number one: low sugar. Rule two is high fiber and the third-everybody loves this one-is no more rules."

To help his readers adjust to a low sugar lifestyle, Doc provides a list of foods to avoid and a list of foods that fit into the SOS Diet.

"You join the sugar police and once you join the sugar police you will become a label reading detective," he said.
Readers will be pleased to find many favorite foods in the SOS Shopping List, not the "No-No" list.

After discovering it by voluntarily giving up sugar for six weeks, Surrell created the diet using the Make It Short and Simple concept and began suggesting his methods to friends and patients. The average weight loss is five pounds per month exclusive of any other diets or exercises.

"Scientific literature is now supporting my claim," says Surrell. "Low fat diets don't work; two-thirds of the adult population is still obese...I can rest my case with my hundreds and thousands of patients who have tried this. It works: it worked for me and it'll work for you."