As a child of the 70’s, born in Southern California, I was raised by a mom who was “granola” and more “health conscious”.
My friends had names like “Cricket” and “Dove”, and pure local honey was a staple in our cupboard from my earliest memories of climbing on the counters to get stuff.
We briefly lived with my grandmother in 1977, and my mom even opened one of the first “health food stores” in Milwaukee, WI. And, though it was short-lived, I was surrounded by foods and ingredients that were better than what you’d find at most supermarkets.
We ate granola, drank Hansen Grapefruit soda, and ate organic stuff. I was oblivious as to why any of this mattered back then.
But, the truth is, I still loved sugar, despite my mom’s best efforts.
Visiting my Grandmother over summers was a highlight because she’d give me Kellogg’s Corn Flakes and pure, white sugar, with zero limitations. We’d get glazed donuts, and ice cream was in the freezer at all times.
And, like most kids of that era, we knew exactly when to expect the ice-cream truck so we could buy a Popsicle. When any of my friends and I had extra coins, we’d pool our cash and run to the corner store and buy candy necklaces, Ring Pops or the latest Chu-bobs bubble gum record album (they made the best Barbie decorative accessory).
But, thanks to my mother, we never had sugary products in the house in any meaningful way. Thanks, Mom!🥰
Becoming Sugar-Free(ish)
As an adult, I instinctively limited sugar in my diet.
But having kids made me even more aware that sugar was a problem, and led me to be sugar-free(ish). Meaning, I never had table sugar in the house as an ingredient, or sugary cereals, etc.
Over the years, of course there were exceptions like birthdays, holidays, and weekend “treats” and cheats (sugar in moderation was the mantra).
I didn’t monitor my blood sugar, nor did I understand or even care about that aspect at the time. But, I’d read enough to know that sugar is evil.
My first introduction to this notion seems like a lifetime ago. While perusing the shelves at a used book store, I stumbled across a book titled “Sugar Blues” by William Dufty.
I bought it, and read it cover to cover over a week. It was a book that confirmed ideas that swirled in my head from time to time in observing my health, and observations I’d made in my children’s health and behavior.
It dives deep into the sugar industry itself, and its exceptionally dark and dirty history, as well as the addictive and negative impacts sugar has on the human body. It was a revelation for me, and still a good read today.
The Sugar-Free Revolution
This book started a revolution.
Across the nation, moms like me decided to reduce sugar significantly, and find healthier options for our families.
Sadly, I believe this revolution also led to the innovation and popularity of chemical sweeteners and “natural” alternatives like high fructose corn syrup and so many others.
Corn syrup, agave nectar syrup, and other “healthier” and “more natural” alternatives popped up, and replaced sugar in pantries across the country.
Of course honey gained even greater popularity, but its flavor profile isn’t suitable for every recipe, so we added agave syrup to our pantry too.
The marketing was strong: Sugar is bad. This is better, and more natural.
But, sugar is sugar as far as a body is concerned.
While I knew that sugar was bad, it would take decades of research, and navigating my own health battle for me to assemble all the pieces together to truly understand why and how.
I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I actually believed I was mostly a sugar-free mom through the 90’s, and into the 2000’s.
Oatmeal with agave, puffed wheat with honey, bread with honey, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pasta, Prego Spaghetti sauce, ketchup, orange juice in the morning (for extra vitamin C), Capri-Sun juice pouches, fruit roll-ups, and all the other packaged food products that made it easier for me to pack lunch boxes and feed my family of 6.
Of course, I had no idea that we were consuming over 300g of carbs a day, and that nearly all of those carbs, even if they weren’t declared as “sugar” turned into sugar in our bodies.
Bread, pasta, grains, no matter how organic or “natural” all turn into sugar inside the body. Almost immediately. And they all do exactly what straight sugar does.
Weekends started at Blockbuster Video, with pizza delivery for dinner, followed by popcorn, soda and gummy worms. And, the weekend would end with Sunday brunch of pancakes with syrup, eggs and bacon, with orange juice for everyone. This was soon followed by afternoon tea with “a little sugar” in our imported treats, and capped with a lazy evening battling our sugar comas.
Of course, I didn’t know that what we were experiencing as “lazy Sunday” was the result of the insulin roller-coaster back then. Sorry, kids.
Sugar in moderation is still too much sugar. Even if it’s not candy. Low sugar is still BS.
The fact is the body is not equipped to manage more than 4g of sugar at any time. This isn’t hyperbole, it’s biology. That’s just ONE teaspoon. And it doesn’t matter if that sugar is from candy, in a condiment, or in the form of bread or chips.
Wear a CGM for a month. See for yourself what these ingredients do INSIDE the body. My goal is to empower you as a consumer and human living in a world where sugar is everywhere, and it’s a problem.
I feel, this is the first key to fixing a broken metabolism. I’m not a doctor. And no, this isn’t medical advice. It’s just a common sense approach to learning why weight loss might be hard, why mood swings are a daily problem, and why restful sleep might feel out of reach.
For me, the switch to sugar-free has been life-changing. Zero sugar. Zero blood sugar spikes. Stable mood, mental clarity, less inflammation, restorative sleep, and peace of mind.
This is a completely different way to live. But, once you feel it and see it, you can’t unsee it.
And now you understand why my first criteria in every ingredient we use is that it can’t have sugar or any hidden sugar, and it can’t spike blood sugar, period.
Because sugar sucks. But sugar-free doesn’t have to.
Great article. Thanks.