Q: Help! Quitting smoking was nothing compared with quitting sugar! I am addicted and can't stop eating it. I want to eat a healthy diet, but seem to be unable to because of the sugar. What can I do to combat this? -- Anonymous

A: Keep trying! You're right that it's tough: Recent research on rats found that they get the same neurochemical kick from sugar as from morphine, cocaine and nicotine. We think that this surge of pleasure is behind sugar addiction in humans, too. (We also think the companies that are selling you added sugar know it and are trying to keep you addicted. But they won't miss you if you quit.) The good part: The principles we teach smokers to help them quit will help you kick your sugar habit. Here are six ways to set yourself up for success:

1. Make a pact with yourself to cut sugar out of your life. Studies show that making a serious commitment to doing whatever it takes to break an addiction is one of the most important steps toward beating it.

2. Set a quit date at least a month from today. Give yourself time to mentally prepare for the quitting journey and clear your pantry, car, desk and gym locker of sugar in all its forms, including food and drinks containing honey or rice syrup and high fructose corn syrup (that includes most ketchups, many sports drinks and even coffee creamer).

3. Start walking 30 minutes a day. Exercise, like sugar, releases mood-enhancing hormones. Later, when sugar abstinence causes a dip in feel-good hormones, you can add a tension-relieving five-minute walk to this regimen.

4. Gradually cut back. Begin by reducing the sugar you add to tea and coffee. Then substitute something healthy, like yogurt without added sugar and berries or unsweetened applesauce, for two or three of the sweet foods you usually have.

5. Visualize a slimmer, healthier you going for a walk, sipping on water or practicing deep breathing when you're stressed. A little role-playing helps you practice alternatives to eating under pressure.

6. Think of the three biggest reasons why you want to live a sugar-free life, write them on a card and read them several times a day.

With a month of practice behind you, you'll be ready to weather the cravings that come when you first abstain from sugar. In time, your brain chemistry will readjust and those cravings will stop. You will beat the addiction the food companies taunt you with. BRAVO.

Q: Will crunches get rid of my belly fat? -- Theodros, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

A: Not by themselves. Combine ab work (hit all the muscle groups there, including the obliques) with other resistance exercises, aerobic exercise and calorie restriction, though, and you'll lose the bulge and maybe even have a six-pack to show off. Traditional crunches strengthen and tone the muscles that connect your rib cage to your pelvis, helping you stand tall and look more slender. But to lose the roll, you've got to empty those little (or not so little, for some people) fat storage depots that sit on top of the muscles, and that's what diet, muscle-building and aerobic exercise do. Raising your heart rate helps reduce the unhealthy, deep fat that lies beneath your abs -- another storage depot that crunches don't touch.

Q: Why do I get skin tags -- and how do I get rid of them for good? -- Lea, Amesbury, Mass.

A: As we age, some skin cells tend do go a little wacky and reproduce themselves haphazardly, forming odd little growths here and there. Almost everyone over 65 has a skin tag -- medically speaking, an acrochordon (we won't test you on that later). No one knows for sure why these often spring up where skin tends to rub on itself (in spots like the armpit or under the breasts), but it may be that the continual irritation spurs some cells to grow abnormally.

In less than a minute, using a topical or local anesthetic, your doctor can snip, burn or freeze off a skin tag without scarring. Don't try clipping them off yourself; that could cause an infection that would give you far more trouble than the skin tag did. That particular mini-bit of skin won't come back, but there's nothing to stop a new one from growing in another place.



The YOU Docs -- Mike Roizen and Mehmet Oz -- are authors of "YOU: Being Beautiful -- The Owner's Manual to Inner and Outer Beauty." To submit questions and find ways to grow younger and healthier, go to www.RealAge.com, the docs' online home.