Sugar is Not Shameful and Neither Are You

sugar is not shameful neither are you photo

sugar is not shameful neither are you photoSugar is poison! It’s TOXIC! Most of all, we eat too darn much of it! Read on for why these are dangerous myths that could be making you feel miserable and ashamed of yourself.

I’m sure you have heard all the hype about how sugar is the other white drug, or read the updated guidelines on how much sugar we should eat as part of a healthy diet by the American Heart Association.

Being the notorious bookworm I am, I read the book Fat Chance by Robert Lustig to get a better idea of why this has become a hot topic.  This books points out the ubiquity of sugar in the processed American food diet.  It also makes a strong case for sugar being the leading cause of obesity, especially due to its addictive properties.

Does that mean I was addicted to sugar as an obese child? Before we delve into sugar addiction, I have a confession to make.

I’m not proud of how I used to eat when I was morbidly obese.  Not only did I eat way too much, but I also ate the wrong kinds of food.  But, there is one food I ate that fills me with the most shame.  This food was something I would eat on a spoon.

It wasn’t loaded baked potato soup with extra bacon and cheese, it wasn’t a four scoop sundae with hot fudge, nuts and whipped cream.  Though I ate those things with abandon, they did not make me feel as low as this single ingredient.

This single ingredient also scares me the most as a mother.  Although my daughters are not enjoying it by the spoonful, it is a regular part of their lives.

I would dip a teaspoon into the sugar jar and stuff the crunchy white crystals in my mouth.  Sometimes I would let the crystals evaporate slowly on my tongue, sometimes I would crunch them like candy, and sometimes I would just swallow the whole spoon and lick it clean.  The ingredient is SUGAR.

I would only shoot my sugar spoon in secret.  That was part of my problem. And part of my shame, even decades later.

 

How could I be addicted to sugar? My parents let us drink pop only once per week, dessert was only an occasional treat, and we only baked treats for special days. We ate a home-cooked meal for every dinner.  Meals that often came from a box.

According to Lustig, pre-packaged meals include an extremely high amount of sugar.  As the mother of a larger family on a budget, my mom had to restrict our meals to cheaper items that she could buy in bulk or with coupons.

Many moms today default to the same meals for convenience sake. By the way, Lustig is a pediatric endocrinologist, which means he observes how kids are being impacted by sugar every day.

Some people believe that sugar is the root of all obesity.  Not me.  I still include sugar in my coffee every morning, and I prefer to flavor my oatmeal with a touch of brown sugar. My previous overeating included the white stuff, but it was not primarily caused by sugar.

[bctt tweet=”My obesity was caused not by sugar, but by THIS.” username=”jegoswam”]

My obesity was caused by eating whatever tasted good, and not caring about the consequences. 

I have a sweet tooth, but so does almost every person in the world.  Whether it’s the pleasure of enjoying an ice cream cone on a hot day, caramel corn at a ballgame, or turbinado sugar on top of your favorite muffin, we Americans eat (or drink) it all up.

According to New York Times, the biggest sources of sugar for adults are soft drinks, fruit juices, desserts and candy. A single 12-ounce can of Coke can have up to 10 teaspoons of sugar. The World Health Organization recommends a daily limit of 6 teaspoons. Even if you don’t drink soda, of the 600,000 food items for sale in America, about 80 percent contain added sugar.

As a health coach, I help my clients identify the right foods that support their health goals. Not surprisingly, I often ask my clients to be more critical of what is listed on a food label. However, I don’t tell my clients to quit sugar entirely. Even if they think they should.

This family made a big splash in the news for quitting sugar for an entire year. While I applaud this huge effort (especially with kids who may not have been fully onboard), I feel that this approach leads most of us to failure.

After all, most processed foods contain some amount of sugar, whether it’s one of the many aliases or the unnamed and often unknown category of “added sugars”. As a mom and wife, I cannot avoid ALL processed foods in my daily life, nor do I want to. Yes, I eat convenience foods when needed, and I don’t examine whether the sugar came from a tree, a bee, or a factory.

The biggest problem I see with demonizing sugar (like we did with fat back in the day!), is that there is a certain level of shame involved with eating it.

Moms might turn up their nose at other moms who give their kids a juice box, co-workers might spend 20 minutes at lunch sharing their amazing experience with Whole 30, or wives might nag their husband when he dares to put sugar in his coffee.

  • I don’t know if I was addicted to sugar as a morbidly obese kid.

  • I don’t like how often my own kids currently eat (or crave) sugar.

  • I don’t have any personal or professional interest in quitting sugar for good.

What I do know is there is no healthy diet which includes a daily shot of sugar on a spoon. There is no healthy diet which tells me that any food I love should make me feel shameful afterwards. I know it now, and I knew it as a kid.

My challenge to you today is to examine your eating habits for foods you eat either in secret or with a degree of shame.

Is it worth it to eat those foods anyway?  What would your future-self think of that habit? Share your thoughts in the comments!

20 thoughts on “Sugar is Not Shameful and Neither Are You

    1. That’s funny you mention Mary Poppins, Liza! The whole time I wrote the post, I kept thinking “Just a spoonful of sugar…helps the medicine go down” 🙂

  1. When we put the kids on diets to adjust their behaviors, sugar was NOT the first thing to go. It went eventually. This is the first time I’m thinking of it, but it’s been a year or maybe 2 since I cooked anything with those white crystals and, while I’ll have dessert on a date, face is I FEEL a ton better. I imagine it’s the same for the kids. Can’t even explain, I’m just less wiped out and blah feeling than I’ve ever been. Good for you – I’m interested in the book too!

    1. Thanks for commenting, Gina. The book was awesome! It also made me see sugar in a whole new light. I agree that tuning up your diet should be more of a gradual process, and you should focus on those items that are the biggest concerns for your family. For many families, sugar is not at the top of their “bad guys” list. Maybe it should be?

    1. Hi, Toni,

      Thanks for commenting! Unfortunately, even the most willing are often not able to walk away from sugar forever. However, anything is possible in small steps. Have you tried decreasing a little bit every day?

  2. When I went through the Mamavation Bootcamp, I stopped eating processed foods. It was AMAZING how much LESS I was craving sugar. Didn’t mean I didn’t have some in my coffee, like you said. I do think there’s an element of addiction.

    1. Thank goodness for Mamavation Bootcamp! That’s great that it helped you crave less sugar, Lydia. I still crave sugar, but I’m better able to deal with my moods, which is usually what triggers it. Thanks for commenting.

  3. I shared your post, as I especially like the idea of the avoiding shame based approach. Perhaps I have gone a little overboard with this one, since I would like my father with cancer to fuel his body with sources that cancer cells do not crave so much. I stopped pushing any agenda, and he has been open to some small changes in his diet. (He is also doing much better than he was a few months ago.)

    1. Hi, Tracy,

      Thank you for sharing this post! I’m sorry to hear that your father has cancer. My father passed last year from two kids of cancer, and it was tough on all of us.

      I find that the less you push on anyone, the more likely they are to hear you. So glad to hear your Dad is improving!

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