Can 10-day sugar detox curb your desire to eat?

More than two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, but Dr. Mark Hyman believes there is new hope. "The Blood Sugar Solution 10-day Detox Diet Cookbook" offers a plan to help combat what he calls the body's biological addiction to sugar and flour.

In his book, Hyman, the director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, says, "It's not overeating that makes you fat, it's being fat that makes you overeat."

"The science is showing us that your fat cells are like hungry monsters and they want more and more," Hyman said Tuesday on "CBS This Morning."

Fat cells in the stomach inhibit the "hunger-reducing" hormone leptin, which in turn, can increase desires to eat.

"Once you start building up those hungry fat cells in your abdomen, they literally suck in the fuel in your blood and it makes you actually feel hungry," Hyman said. "It slows your metabolism .. and it actually stops fat-burning."

According to Hyman, Americans eat about 146 pounds of flour and about 152 pounds of sugar a year.

"We're learning from the science that it hijacks your brain and your tastes buds and your metabolism," Hyman said. "Many people walk around with what we call 'FLC syndrome;' that's when you feel like crap and you have all sorts of symptoms that make you feel sick."

Some of those symptoms include acid reflux, fatigue, migraines and joint pain.

"It takes about 10 days to get rid of the inflammation in your body, to unhook your brain from the biological addiction to sugar, flour and processed foods," Hyman said. "We had 600 people do this and in 10 days they had a 62 percent reduction in all symptoms from all diseases simply by giving their body the right food."

The problem can't be solved completely in 10 days. It's important to continue eating well and strive to include more healthful foods like nuts, fruits and non-starchy vegetables.

"Ten days is to get you started to understand the connection between how you feel and what you eat," he said.

Hyman said those who have never tried a "sugar detox" may not know what they're missing.

"I'd say you probably don't know how bad you feel," Hyman said. "Most patients say to me, 'Dr. Hyman, I didn't know how bad I was feeling until I started feeling so good.'"

"If you put in the right stuff you literally can reset your system and in 10 days give yourself a chance to feel good for the first time in a long time," Hyman said.