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UNDER IDEAL CONDITIONS, EVERYONE WOULD BE BORN PERFECT and without flaws. In reality, we all carry genetic and metabolic weaknesses and are constantly bombarded and attacked by potentially harmful bacteria, viruses, fungi, and industrial toxins.

I'm convinced that we all have predetermined weaknesses in our bodies. Mine was the gut, but yours may be the lungs, the cardiovascular system, the blood, or the kidneys. If we eat unhealthy foods and adopt unwise lifestyles, we may well see these predetermined weaknesses present themselves as devastating symptoms.

Unfortunately, many of us exist in a state of subclinical illness (often unawares). That means we can't afford to go through life without taking certain precautions.

It's a common refrain: "I'm addicted to sugar."

Now a study by Princeton University psychologists suggests that such urges really may be a form of addiction, sharing some of the physiological characteristics of drug dependence. Although the term "sugar addiction" often appears in magazines and on television, scientists had not demonstrated that such a thing as sugar dependency really exists, said neuroscientist Bart Hoebel, who led the study.

Hoebel and colleagues studied rats that were induced to binge on sugar and found that they exhibited telltale signs of withdrawal, including "the shakes" and changes in brain chemistry, when the effects of the sweets were blocked.

These signs are similar to those produced by drug withdrawal. Sugar, said Hoebel, triggers production of the brain's natural opioids.

"We think that is a key to the addiction process," he said. "The brain is getting addicted to its own opioids as it would to morphine or heroin. Drugs give a bigger effect, but it is essentially the same process."

Metabolic Type

Many people come to my office eating very high-quality nutritious foods and are still quite sick. They haven't touched sugar or junk food in ages and still suffer with many health problems. There are a number of reasons for this, but one of the major physical ones is related to the fact that they are not eating appropriate foods for their metabolic type.

If you are interested in truly optimizing your health, your weight, and your energy -- and in avoiding premature aging -- one of the most important steps you should take is to learn your metabolic type and eat according to it. What may be very healthy for others is not necessarily as healthy for you, and vice-versa, and eating according to your metabolic type is really the only way to ascertain what is really good for you.