Sugar addiction? Really?

Recently homemade banana cream pie... at My Beloved's request.

Have I mentioned before that My Beloved doesn't like sugar?

Oh, he loves all sorts of things made with sugar, especially all things pie... he just doesn't like sugar.  Thinks it's bad for us.  I, on the other hand, think it should be part of every food group.  Not it's own... part of each one.

You understand.

He is coming from a family history of diabetes and... research.  Turns out, sugar really is bad for us.

I am coming from a family of left over cake for breakfast and no one judging when you eat your 10th s'more. 

Some of you understand.

Nearly six years ago when we began changing our diet to a more natural, more healthful one, we had to address sugar.  We stopped buying regular old "store sugar" (as they call it in the Little House books) and started buying the less processed more expensive sugar.  For a while it was only the very brown, strange tasting Rapadura sugar for us.  Then the slightly-more-processed-but-still-better-than- "store-sugar" entered our house in the form of evaporated cane juice crystals.  Way better.  Problem is, I really didn't change the amount of sugar we used... I just used better (more expensive) sugar.  Sure, I also worked raw honey in here and there, but mostly, it was just the "better" sugar.

Turns out, it's still not all that good for you.  At least not in the quantities that make me happy.  And then there's the "occasional" restaurant dessert or chocolates just because that add back in all that bad processed sugar.  It adds up to a lot of sugar pretty quickly.  Not good for us at all.

Not that I cared.

Then the fall after Little Man was born, I detected a case of Mastitis coming on.  Nasty thing, mastitis, if you've never had it.  And once you get it, you need to get rid of it quick and antibiotics are the way to do that.  I didn't want to take the antibiotics, so I hit it hard as soon as I detected those signs.  Lots of fresh garlic and herbal tea and the like.  Then My Beloved reminded me, "You know," he said, "If you're going to all this work to fight the bacteria, you shouldn't be eating sugar.  Sugar only weakens your immune system."

I wanted to fight that infection without antibiotics, but I wasn't sure I wanted to do it sans sugar.   Still, I grumbled a bit and then accepted the fact that he was right.  No sugar for me until this infection was gone.

Ahem.

That very weekend we went to a wedding for a couple in our church.  Sweet, simple, little wedding.  They did such a great job making it simple and beautiful.  I already knew I wouldn't be having cake.  Sigh.  Between the ceremony and reception, we were ushered into the courtyard for a short time while they readied the room.

During that time I had to walk through the reception room for something and I saw dishes of chocolates on each of the tables.  My first impulse was to reach over and grab one on my way by.  And then the deep sadness when I realized I couldn't have any.

As I walked down the hall toward the church office, I was upset.  So. Upset!

Over chocolate.

It was then that I realized, for the first time, that I had a problem.

Sugar had become an idol.

Over the next couple weeks I had little to no sugar.  And it became easier over time.  Then over the Christmas season I lost my resolve and my momentum.  And again I was eating more sugar than My Beloved wanted me to.  And even being sneaky about it.  It was aweful.


A few weeks ago, this post was waiting in my inbox.  I read the title, "Freedom from Sugar Addiction", and promptly decided not to read it.  I knew it was going to hurt and I didn't have the time or attention to give it at that time.  I saved it for later.  Over the course of the next few days, before even reading the post, I began to be convicted about my sugar problem.  Finally I read the post.


Next:  What it meant for me.

Labels: In the Kitchen, Life Lessons for Mommy

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 9:19 AM