A long time ago, around 1940 or so, our forebears ate foods that grew within driving distance of where they lived. All food was local food. Back then you ate lots and lots of real food. You could get canned goods, of course. They were cooked, brined and canned pretty close to where you lived, too. Most people just ate what they grew, and what they had stored away for winter from their gardens or the gardens of neighbors nearby. We were an agrarian society.

Now we are a convenience society. Fast food is SO convenient. There are one hundred choices in town for pizza alone. The average American no longer cooks every day, even though cooking has never been easier. If you go to a restaurant on a weekend you will wait an hour just to get a seat, in just about every eating place in town. It takes way more time to eat out than it does to cook and eat at home, but its SO convenient. When we do eat in we opt again for convenience. Pouring dry food out of a box and adding water and meat are SO convenient. Taking it out of the freezer and heating it in the microwave (the oven is just too inconvenient) is quick and easy.

If all that mattered was easy then why not keep on living like this? However, all of those convenient foods are loaded up with sugar. The sugar is in there because processed food doesn’t taste very good without it. Eating all of that sugar is causing a lot of things to go wrong with us. Here is a partial list:

Obesity, overweight, high blood pressure, heart disease, high blood sugar, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, autism, ADHD, MS, cancer, liver cirrhosis, etc, etc, etc…

Every one of those diseases and maladies is now being looked at with its connection to sugar and fructose as the item of concern.

So, if you are like me and you are trying to give up sugar, how on earth do you do so in a society whose food supply is built with sugar as a primary ingredient? Well, It’s Not A Religion.

Let’s start there. If you are going to quit the sugar habit, first you have to admit you have one. For a few weeks you should be religious about it, but after that, people have been eating sugar for centuries and not getting so sick and fat. Only lately has the amount in our food supply gotten to the level that it is hazardous. Keep that in mind. You can have sugar, and you will feel it when you have too much, but a little bit is not poisonous. Sugar is a chronic poison, like lead in your water. It’s use chronically will build up over time and after a few years of uncontrolled consumption you will have problems. I say a couple of years because currently there are a huge number of grade school children waiting for new livers all over the country. It is probably from eating breakfast cereal and having fruit juice, or fruit made with real juice, or a sweet drink with fruit in the name for breakfast. Then at lunch they are having chocolate milk because it has milk in the name. Then at dinner they are getting a happy meal with a coke. Too much sugar, by far. Even kids’ yogurts have as much sugar in them as a can of soda pop…

When you are getting off the sugar habit you just have to try every meal to not have any. If you are eating dinner out you just have to know that any breads will have sugar. Any sauces will have sugar. If you don’t eat much sugar normally you will taste the sugar, and you will get a physical reaction to the sugar, so you will know that it is in there. If you are just starting to kick, then you should go for a week without eating dinner out.

More on religion…if you are new to quitting, give yourself a lot of slack. You have to accept that you are making a huge change in the way you live. You wont be able to eat processed foods any more. You will quickly find that you save time cooking at home, compared to trying to eat out. You also save money. There is a side benefit that in addition to saving time and money you think better, feel better, lose weight without being hungry, lose weight without spending hours per week at a gym or jogging or swimming or any other time consuming activities.

You will eat dinner out. You will eat processed food. You will crave sugar if you do and if you eat sugar, remember this…its not a religion. You did not commit a sin for which you must make atonement. You ate sugar, but you don’t want to. The solution is to not eat sugar the next time you eat. Try to eat sugar from now on ON PURPOSE. Eat sugar when you mean to. We will get a dessert after dinner when we eat out, because we want to and we don’t eat sugar all the time. It’s not a religion. Back when there were a lot less fat people in the US people used to eat dessert. If you go back to not eating processed food, if you go back to cooking your own meals, guess what? You will be able to eat real dessert again, and enjoy it, and not feel guilty about it! Full sugar and fat in your cake and icing! Enjoy it when you eat it. Savor it because for the first time in a long time you will be eating the real thing, it will be sweet, and since you don’t eat sugar at every meal and drink you will be able to really taste the sugar. Side benefit–you wont have to feel guilty at all because — its not a religion!