Dealing with Sugar

Look at this.

It wasn't supposed to be my afternoon tea but the kids left the packet on the bench. I'd just had a handful of almonds to quell the afternoon sugar craving and thought, "Oh well, I'll just break it in half" and then ate the larger half. In the time it's taken me to write this, it has disappeared and I don't recall eating it and neither do the kids.

Interestingly, I know how naughty chocolate and sugar are, being a Robert Lustig fan - "Sugar: The Bitter Truth" is essential viewing on YouTube - and occasional follower of Sarah Wilson's I Quit Sugar blog. I also know firsthand the impact of sugar having once worked for a chocolate manufacturer where the staff warned me, "the average weight gain of a new start is 7 kilos". I managed okay. I think I put on an uncomfortable 3 kilos. In the short period I was working for them I got my first ever tooth filling at 36 years old and the three pregnant women at work, including me, all gave birth to babies bigger than 9lbs (4kg approx).

I am a normal size, active woman and so are the rest of my family members. All the senior family members, however, have Diabetes Type 2 and in my last pregnancy I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes which now determines an annual blood test to check for the onset of Type 2. My mum was a shocking sweet-tooth and there was always a bag of snack size chocolates in the fridge crisper and a packet of mint leaves lollies in the top cupboard. Sweet biscuits in the pantry, juice in the fridge. Cordial and milo on the bench. She dealt. We consumed. And the history repeats in my household minus the juice and the cordial.

With the insistance of my husband, I've made a small change to our diet already though starting with breakfast. I've found a small selection of sugar-free cereals in the supermarket namely Uncle Tobys  (whatever happened to the apostrophe in that brand name!) "Weeties", "VitaBrits", rolled oats and the puffed rice and puffed corn in the health-food section. I wish and I hope, with the rising popularity of the anti-sugar movement, that more sugar-free variety would appear on the cereal shelves and extend to the other shelves. I think the secret to avoiding sugar is going to mean avoiding supermarkets, purveyors of all things processed, and continuing to grow as much of our own produce. I don't want to deal in the sweet stuff anymore. It's time the love-hate relationship ended.