The most commonly used white drug with the greatest cost to society is

none other than ordinary sugar, available without control at grocery and

convenience stores.

The addictive properties of sugar are well documented, not only in the experiences of many ordinary people but in countless laboratory experiments that clearly demonstrate the addictive nature of sugar and certain other foodstuffs in animals.

You can teach a rat to run a maze compulsively with sugar just as you can with cocaine or heroin. This is particularly true of certain forms of sugar such as high-fructose corn syrup and is also true of certain types of food additives such as trans fats.

The addictive nature of the modern diet accounts in large part for the epidemic of weight-related disease sweeping the world. Costs are staggering. Sixty-eight percent of the adult population in the United States is overweight. Thirty-four percent of the adult population in the United States is obese. These percentages are higher than any of the other 33 developed countries in the world and are most likely higher than any other country in the world.

The rate of obesity in the United States is 16 times that of China where the percentage of the adult population that is obese is 2 percent. It is no wonder that the “fat American” has become a term of derision in China and around the world.

A recent study calculated that obese men in the United States lose $2,646 a year due to their weight and women lose $4,879 a year. This is the result not only of direct medical costs but higher non-medical costs such as disability and premature mortality.

Estimates of the total adult medical expenditures in the United States attributable to being overweight and obesity is estimated to be between $51 billion and $78 billion per year. In Oregon it is estimated that $781 million dollars are spent on medical care related to obesity. It is estimated that in the United States we spend 1 percent of our GDP on obesity-related costs.

If we continue the same pattern, it is estimated that 85 percent of adults in the United States will be overweight or obese by 2030. Fortunately the growth in the rates of people obese or overweight show some evidence of slowing, but there is no evidence of a reversal in any developed country. Unfortunately there is now evidence that the medical consequences of being overweight, including risk of diabetes and hypertension, can be passed down for several generations through epigenetic mechanisms, which suggests that the effects of the current epidemic of overweight and obesity will take several generations to dissipate.

It is critical that we as individuals and as a society understand and start to deal with all our addictions. These include not just alcohol, tobacco and drugs but certain kinds of food. Food addiction is the most common of all addictions because everyone is exposed to sugar, high-fructose corn syrup and other addictive foodstuffs so a higher percentage of individuals become addicted. Unfortunately, it is not much easier to stop our food addiction than it is to stop our nicotine, alcohol or drug addictions. However, the first step is the same. We must educate ourselves as individuals and as a society.

Addictions, whether to cake or cocaine, do not respond to “just say no.” Losing weight is not simply a matter of deciding to lose weight. How many doctors who advise their patients day in and day out to lose weight are themselves overweight?

One of the lessons learned by investigators of addiction treatment is that it is not an individual process. It takes a group. It also takes a high degree of honesty. It takes a willingness to deal with spiritual issues such as the struggle between gratitude and resentment. It takes daily focus and meditation. It takes compassion and a willingness to help others. It takes a relinquishing of individual ego and an embracing of a higher calling above individual ego.

Until we are ready as a society to embrace deeper callings we will be stuck mired in epidemics of addiction whether as natural as sugar or as artificial as Oxycontin.

Dr. Joel Rice is a La Grande psychiatrist and addiction specialist.