Friends are always amazed at how much food I can put away. And by put away, I don’t mean into cupboards and refrigerators, I mean eat. I’ve always had what I thought of as a “healthy appetite,” and as a kid I was regularly encouraged (weren’t we all?) to “finish everything on your plate” after all, there are “people starving in Africa.”

Only recently, I’ve made the startling realization that I’m an emotional eater.  I eat sometimes because I want to be comforted, or feel safe. I eat because it “feels good.”  Until recently, I’d drink caffeine for a similar reason: the energy it provided was great “fuel” for my afternoon workouts when I feel sluggish or tired.  Upon quitting caffeine, I’ve observed a new tendency toward sugar emerge.

“Any person who is trying to lose weight really has no business eating sugar,” one of my clients mused bluntly today.  I think he’s right. Other people do, too: After years of unsuccessful dieting, the no-sugar approach is what Jerry O’Connell attributes to his transformation.