Pour Some Sugar On Me...Or...Actually...No Thanks!

60 Minutes had a segment awhile back entitled Is Sugar Toxic? which I had unfortunately missed in its original airing.  But a friend of mine emailed me the youtube link since she knows this is a topic close to my heart. (My mom is a breast cancer survivor and three of my grandparents had, or have, severe heart disease so I am always trying to watch what kinds of food I consume).  Needless to say, after watching this video, I am so glad I gave up soda as my New Year's resolution this year.  Because, holy heck...WOW!!!

(NOTE:  The link to the video Dr. Gupta mentions, "Sugar: the Bitter Truth" by Dr. Lustig is HERE.  It's long (an hour and a half) and heavy on science, but it's interesting. He is way more extreme than I am in the evils of sugar, but he makes some really good points.)

For me, one of the most disturbing parts of the 60 Minutes segment is where they talk about sugary drinks as being as addictive as cocaine.  This is something I said during the great soda purge of 2012.  But I usually said it in jest.  When I gave up soda in January I would joke with my friends and be like "soda is worse than drugs", or "I think I'm going through withdrawals" and we'd laugh.  Cause it was just soda, so it couldn't really be withdrawals...right?!  But after watching this video, maybe it is addictive.  Of course I am not a scientist and I can only speak from my experience but what I can say from that experience is that giving up soda was awful.  I had headaches, was moody, and I couldn't sleep, among other not so pleasant symptoms. The experience sucked but it was worth it in the end.

What do you think? Is this report just another example of alarmist reporting or does the concern over sugar in our food (and sugary drinks in general) have merit?  Sound off below!