Howard was consuming the equivalent of 24 Hershey bars a day last season

A series from CBSSports.com on nutrition in the NBA has shed some light on the disastrous eating habits of Dwight Howard while he was with the Lakers last season.

Dr. Cate Shanahan, a nutritionist from Napa Valley, held conversations with the Lakers about spearheading a change in the players' diet program, and found the ultimate guinea pig in Howard.

"It looked like he was wearing oven mitts out there," Shanahan said. "It reminded me of patients who have diabetes and neurological problems because of how sugar impacts the nervous system. That's where I became really concerned."

Shanahan's book "Deep Nutrition" resonated with Lakers trainer Gary Vitti, and it has since become the standard approach to eating in the franchise's locker room. Her book illustrated how food can impact athletic performance, and she told Howard, "if you don't feel better in two weeks then I don't know what I'm talking about and I'll quit."

Altering Howard's diet began with sugar, and it turned out that the big man was consuming the equivalent of 24 Hershey bars a day in the form of candy and soda.

"We knew Dwight had a sugar-intake issue," said Luke Shanahan, co-pilot of the implemented food program. "We just didn't know how bad it was."

Howard apparently had candy and sugary drinks stashed everywhere from his kitchen to his nightstand, and he agreed to get rid of it all.

"It was absolutely like a family intervention," said Cate Shanahan, who believed Howard's return from back surgery was being heavily compromised by his poor diet.

The program eventually led to Howard removing processed foods and unhealthy oils from his diet too.

But it appears to have all paid off.

Howard has continued to follow the program in Houston, and has even gotten a few of his new teammates to implement some of it.