Obituary for the -ose

I have been conducting funeral services for the last few weeks, donning the black robes and all. More anger and physical frustration than tears I must admit. I didn't invite anyone, it was just me and my sugar. The problem was it kept offering to revive or resurect itself if only I would change my mind and give in. It was like our family's one-day turtle we named Scooter. You put him in the sandbox and think he will stay there, but he found his way out ever so slowly after I was certain he would stay put. My internal scrapbook of memories that I have carefully crafted kept opening to pictures of me making brownies with my mom, or those after-school chocolate chip cookie soirees I loved as a youth. How could I deprive my children of similar memories? But as often happens with memories there is more to the story than the one captured frame. As I allowed those memories to lengthen out I remembered the tummy aches and lethargy that replaced my youthful energy and before long I was camped out on the family couch or window seat out for the count while my body tried to recover from the sugar overdose. Memories are powerful. So now every time I pass my favorite chocolate in the grocery store (I know I shouldn't go down the middle aisle anyway) or smell those cinnamon rolls baking in IKEA I force myself back in the black robes and will myself back to the funeral. Then I remember that funerals are supposed to be short, for good reason, they are miserable and painful and heart breaking. I don't have to pay my respect to sugar. Let's make this short and sweet and get on with life. But wait there's a problem, or should I say a whole gang of problems.

Sugar is a bit like the mafia, it has lots of friends in many places hidden between safe ingredients like added vitamins and minerals or whole wheat flour. Do you just sever the relationship with the most lethal members, or avoid them all? I'll let you in on some of my mental chatter: "Table sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup are the most obvious culprits, maybe I could just mourn for them..... but what about cane juice, evaporated cane sugar, succanat, agave nectar, maple syrup, brown sugar, molasses, stevia, and then all those sugar alcohols......on and on and on". How can I possibly create a life for myself and family without these ingredients that have offered supposed comfort for so long? Don't you need some form of sugar for balance in life? Again, balance in life? That's the goal....

Alright, I am still in mourning, still sitting at the funeral but I may have company.

to be continued