What is SUGAR?

What is SUGAR?

What’s the most common element of human existence besides breathing? If you said “eating,” you’re right! Besides the mundane act of drinking and needing water to sustain life, we all need to “eat.” The simple act of putting sustenance into our mouths, chewing (if necessary), swallowing, and digesting is common to all global inhabitants.

Without water, we die.

Without food, we die.

But let’s explore the positive, happy, and yes – even fun side of “eating!”

There are so many avenues we can explore. Let’s go straight to the really good stuff – the thing we crave after our first taste as an infant, the addiction we develop as a toddler, the obsession of childhood, and the crutch we have as adults – sugar.

Sweets

Candy

Confections

Desserts

A few rare individuals don’t yearn for the stuff as normal people do, so we’ll disregard them for now. They’re okay, but I don’t think I trust them.

Introduction to the sweet stuff usually begins as infants through fruit – a beautiful, simple introduction. The intro is innocent enough. Bananas are most common, whether it’s from a jar (processed in mass production facilities and bought at the local store) or hand-smashed by the attentive, loving parent/caregiver. It’s long been the most common introduction to fruit because of its taste, texture, and easily digestible nature.

Okay, enough for logical justification.

Now for the good stuff.

Whether it was grandma giving us our first candy cane at Christmas – Aunt Grace cutting a generous slice of pecan pie – OR – here’s the clincher: the first birthday smash cake – we’re hooked.

Nothing can replace the sweet stuff once we’re addicted. Nothing – not meat – not vegetables – not bread – not even innocent fruit. Nothing. However, our attentive, loving parent/caregiver urges us to consume those foods. Sometimes they use bribery. Sometimes they use threats.

“No dessert until you finish your Brussel sprouts.” Surely no one has ever heard that one! (By the way, Brussel sprouts are one of the FEW foods I won’t eat to this day.)

After the ultimatum is issued, the challenge begins. Whose willpower will win the challenge? Will it be the mini-human with the super-human streak of stubbornness? Or will it be the adult-type human with the ability to out reason the mini-human?

Get real. The kid will win.

When semi-adulthood hits (between the ages of nine and – intentional pause – oh hell, who knows), we all seem to believe we know what is best for “ME.” “I” can eat whatever the hell “I” want, including copious amounts of candy, sugary gum, desserts, chocolate bars, etc.

If we haven’t already developed any number of diseases resulting from over-indulgence of sugar in our diets, we’ve surely suffered from a mouth full of cavities. High blood pressure, heart disease, fatty liver disease, and the seven-letter illness we all cringe hearing “diabetes” are only a few.

Sugar, in moderation, is okay. Harvard geniuses even say so! Moderation for them is no more than 150 calories of added sugar a day – around nine teaspoons or a 12-ounce soda. https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/the-sweet-danger-of-sugar

Really? Well, I guess the reasoning is valid. After all, a gram of cocaine is still a gram of cocaine.

Sugar is still sugar. And can still be as addictive as cocaine.

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Cut to a shady back-alley scene with dim lights and a foggy overtone. A grown man in questionable attire approaches an obvious dealer of some kind leaning against the lamp post.

“Man, I need a fix. Bad.”

“I got what you need,” the dealer says in a low voice.

“Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar.”