Sugar! I don’t even miss it. But there was once a time when I craved anything with sugar.
I remember when I was young. My mom baked a lot. She always told me, “Brown sugar is just better.” And she was right. Anything she made with brown sugar just seemed to taste better.
Of course, as a child, I didn’t know anything about sugar being refined. And way back then, in the sixties, I’m sure that we didn’t have the packaged foods we have today. (I actually remember seeing a “TV dinner” for the first time. Why anyone would want to open a box to find meat and potatoes. Why not just cook it up from scratch? LOL!)
And I certainly didn’t know the difference between natural and artificial sweeteners. Nor did I realize that sugar was becoming ubiquitous.
But, over the years, my diet changed. I was consuming more and more processed food. At the same time, my health was taking a drastic downward turn.
I was forced to make some changes. One was to cut back on sugar. I chose to go back to raw sugar, honey and maple syrup, as well as coconut sugar, as my chosen sweeteners. Eventually, I replaced some of my sweeteners with stevia, as my “sweet tooth” disappeared.
Over the years, there seems to have been more and more discussion about the impact of sugar on our health. (Here’s one of the latest articles I’ve read on the subject.) I became more aware of the presence of sugar (primarily high-fructose corn syrup) in so many processed foods. So I cut processed foods from my diet. (Yes, I do still sometimes eat processed food, but 99 percent of the time, my food is cooked from scratch, with little to no added sugar.)
Now, so many years later, I crave savoury. Yup, savoury. Like the bitterness of turmeric, maca and raw cacao, and the aromatic flavours of rosemary, onion and garlic. Mmmm….I’m so happy I married an Italian! LOL!
Cutting way back on the amount of refined sugar that I consume is only one change I made in my healthy lifestyle. But I think it was likely the most impactful change. It led the way for other changes … all of which have resulted in my steadily improving health. And at age 61, I think that’s a pretty cool thing to boast about.
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