I have got to confess to you, my children, I am an addict. I have spent the bulk of my life in thrall to a dangerous chemical that I took every day. It has made me miserable, even though I did not know what was causing my misery. In my innocence, kids, I passed my addiction on to you, too.

Every day since I reached the age of majority I took a huge dose, starting at breakfast, and extending straight through my day. Sometimes I would only imbibe at meals, but usually I would hit it again even between meals. Sometimes I would hit it until only a few minutes before I went to bed.

Every night I suffered night sweats and restless sleep. I used to blame smoking cigarettes, and when the withdrawal symptoms continued, even after I quit smoking, I started to blame drinking beer and liquor. The sweats and tossing and turning continued, even after I quit drinking.

Now I know what I am addicted to, and I am so ashamed and embarrassed that I hooked all of you as well. I am a sugar junky.

I quit sugar cold turkey back in 2002, for three months. I couldn’t stay away, and I started using again after I went on a Caribbean cruise, the desserts were too good. I thought I could just use on vacation and stop again when I got back home. That plan failed and I used straight up until 2015, 13 more years. In fairness to myself I thought I was hooked to carbohydrates, and I blamed an entire class of foods, and its really hard in America to quit eating carbs–they are everywhere. It turns out they are not my Huckleberry.

Sugar has fattened me, kept me from sleeping, made me cranky when I didn’t get enough during the day. It makes me jittery, with trembling hands and muscles. It makes my heart pound. It makes me sweat. I never knew what sugar did to me until I was able to quit eating sugar long enough to feel it’s effects when I next ate too much of it. Kids, you must get your kids off of sugar. Do it before you pass our affliction on to them. As kids they will not miss it. For your good I will pass on to you what I know about sugar, having learned the hard way.

Sugar is far, far worse than the starch in potato, rice or flour. I have never gotten a ‘sugar rush’ from eating any fruit or vegetable–ever. I get a sugar rush every time I eat candy, cake, ice cream. If I eat these things after a big healthy meal I will not get the rush quickly, but I will get unrestful sleep and night sweats. It wont be a rush, but it will be a reaction, and it makes me crave the evil stuff all the more the next day. The only sweets I can eat without a huge reaction is fruit. Still I cannot recommend fruit juice. It is as bad as candy. If you feed your children fruit juice you might as well be feeding them Fruit Loops.

I am sorry, kids. I did not know. Now I do. Now you do, or should. If you can’t quit using sugar for your own good, do it for your babies. Get them off the Merry Go Round, and you can’t wait for the ride to stop, because it wont. You just gotta find a way to jump off on your own, like I did. I love you all too much to just let you keep harming yourselves like I did. It’s not too late, stop now.

Yours in Love…Dad