Sunday Reflections....................If you gave up one thing what should it be????

Smoking? Drinking? Chocolate? Chips? MSG? Bacon? Fast Food? Food additives? GMO's? Processed food?

That's the question my husband asked a medical examiner when he had a chance. What's the one thing he should give up if he wants to improve his chances of living a long healthy life.(This was a hypothetical question - he doesn't actually smoke and does the rest in moderation).

The answer.......................SUGAR

He came back home with this little tidbit of information in the days when I still hadn't "cleaned up" my diet. I ate sugar like crazy back then. My coffee was laced with french vanilla creamer (and sometime a bit of extra sugar). I ate a chocolate bar almost everyday. I ate cookies, cake, ice-cream and other treats whenever the mood would strike - which was often. I preferred my "entrees" to be sweet. Sweet sauces on most everything - salad dressings, sauces for meats like bbq sauce, sweet and sour, peanut sauce. You get the idea. I liked sugar.

Unfortunately I still do.

So when he told me this piece of news I was a bit shocked. Slightly annoyed. And a little scared.

WTF. Trans fats and fast food were supposed to be the devil. And those weren't my vices. Why was he messing with my world. My sweet and delicious world.

Fast forward 3 or 4 years and I don't need anyone to tell me that sugar is not good for me.  I don't need anyone to tell me that it is causing damage in places I can't see.  I have now experimented (several times) with going on a sugar free diet and I know that I feel leaps and bounds better without it in my life. I have more energy. I sleep better. I think clearer. My moods are stable. I'm happy. Patient. I'm a better Mom. I'm a better person.  I have anecdotal evidence that sugar is poison to my body.

And evidence is finally coming out, real scientific evidence, that sugar may be the culprit in a vast number of diseases: Alzheimers, cancer, heart disease, diabetes.................the list goes on.

That scares me because my battle with sugar cravings never seems to end. It starts from the moment I wake up and never really goes away. It gets better the closer I stick to a sugar free diet but it never seems to go away. It will never be easy for me.

But what scares me even more is how I am going to teach my kids to eat a diet that has a reasonable amount of sugar.  And I'm not talking about never having a treat. I love treats. I love giving my kids treats. I take joy in food and I want them to as well. Having one or two cookies for a snack is not the problem.

The real problem is that the food industry is putting sugar in everything. Even you lucky people that think "this isn't my issue I don't like sweets" are at risk. All our processed foods are filled with sugar - soups, bread, cereals, dressings, condiments, spices...........its everywhere. Trust me.

Try going on the Candida diet and then start reading labels. Its EVERYWHERE. Its almost impossible to get away from it unless you eat at home.

And only 4 grams of sugar is 1 tsp. Go to your pantry. Read your cereal boxes. Read your soup cans. Go to your fridge. Read your yogurt label. Read your BBQ sauce label.

You are probably eating a lot more sugar than you think. And its probably not just coming from treats.

Why am I talking about this?

Because I think we all need to. We need to educate ourselves about what we are putting into our mouths. And we need to pay attention to how much sugar we are feeding our children. Because there are no real guidelines on how much sugar we should be eating and at what point it becomes an issue.

Tomorrow when you make breakfast for your kids do a little test. Read the labels. How many teaspoons of sugar are they getting for breakfast?

I bet its more than you think.

NOTE: BTW, since I know some of you were concerned about me last week since I was so completely overwhelmed, my moods turned around dramatically and I had a much better week. No yelling. I am slowly weaning myself back off sugar and carbohydrates and its helping.............now to just stick with it!