I rarely rant. I’m really a “steady as she goes” kinda guy.
I believe we make our lot in life by just tackling the next thing
in front of us and try to do the next right thing.
But in coaching lots of people to quit sugar and, as you can
well imagine, answering lots of questions about sugar there
is just one thing that really still bothers me about this whole
topic.
Drinking Sugar!
I understand that there is sugar in foods and that sweet treats
are made of sugar and that through hundreds of years sugar
has worked it’s way into the food system and become part of
modern social life. Then High Fructose Corn Syrup was inserted
into the food supply and we ended up a planet battling something
we really didn’t bargain for. I compare it to the evolution of tobacco
into or lives. By the time we figured out it was doing us huge harm
we had a population addicted to the product and the fight was on
to help folks stop.
But drinking sugar is just crazy. It disguises the amount you are
drinking and just leads to weight gain and more intense cravings
for more sugar!
Let’s just make an assumption that if you’re on SugarAddiction.com
you have made an assessment that you have some issue with sugar
and are willing to at least look at your sugar intake.
We’ll also assume that you are a smart and aware person. You like
that right? So what’s with the DRINKING sugar? Our battle is hard
enough as it is. Most times the sugar is to mask the bitter taste of
caffeine and salt. Ohhh you didn’t know soda has salt in it? Well it
does – lots of it.
If you look around the site you’ll see that quitting caffeine first is a
recommendation we make before you attempt to quit the sugar. It
really is helpful to have your sugar to help self medicate your caffeine
withdrawals. I know that sounds a little crazy at first blush but just
trust us on this one. Caffeine may be harder to quit than sugar and
the folks that do it in reverse find it very difficult to eventually ever
get off the caffeine.
So now that we know that we are drinking sugar to help us ingest our
caffeine maybe we can rationalize that quitting all drinks with sugar in
them is the perfect place to start this journey. With the exception of
chocolate and some baked goods we get most of our caffeine from
drinks. So if we start with sugared drinks first and stop the chocolate
we take one huge step toward beating back both addictions.
And let’s not forget the kids in this one. They will do what ever mom or
dad do and won’t even care. Many of you know my passion (and next
section or even website) is going to be about kids and sugar and kids
and caffeine. Many times I find that folks will do things for their kids
before they will even do for themselves. So let’s start with this one. In
helping your kids limit the sugar and caffeine they drink you automatically
limit your own.
You Know I Love You Right?
