Aww... Sugar, Sugar

Dear Mom,
If you're reading this, please don't feel bad again like you did when I told you in person.
Remember, it wasn't your fault.  It was Betty Crocker's.
Steve

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Growing up as a child I believe we ate the same thing for breakfast that everyone else in America did.  Boxed cereal.  Pancakes on the weekends.  During the week, though, breakfast cereal.

My Mom knew enough about good health that she avoided the ones with sugar-coating, like Kellogg's Frosted Flakes.

Ahh but oh those Fruit Loops!  Captain Crunch!  And of course the boring Cheerios (no sugar on the outside and no color).

Yummy!

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As I grew older and into my teens... or maybe it was my 20's... I noticed that if I didn't eat a good substantial breakfast of some kind of protein, that I felt pretty crappy and just generally "down" by mid-morning.

A friend named Gary once told me the same thing.  He needed to eat protein in the morning.

So eggs every morning.  Scrambled eggs.  With salsa.

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By this time I've moved out on my own.  Eggs in the morning.

No eggs... feeling crappy and low and down.

Eggs... feeling good!

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And I got married and continued the eggs in the morning, most mornings.

Then one day I finally decided to get my cholesterol checked, because a loving husband who loves his wife will have some life insurance as a gift of love for her should he ever suddenly leave the land of the living.

Ooops!  High cholesterol!  The guy giving me the test was "in the know" and told me that although my "bad" cholesterol was high, my "good" cholesterol was high, too.  He wasn't worried, but he admitted that it was a good idea to get it all lowered because the insurance companies just go by "high cholesterol".

(Never mind for now that "cholesterol levels" are a joke... it's not cholesterol that hurts your arteries, it's the inflammatory artificial grease that we eat...)

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So suddenly I'm eating oatmeal every morning instead of eggs.  My cholesterol levels drop.  Now I can get some insurance.

Meanwhile, however, it dawns on me...

Hey!  I don't need to eat protein in the morning.  This oatmeal is suiting me just fine.  What the...?

OF COURSE.

It wasn't "lack of protein" all those years that caused my mid-morning drop, my foul moods in the morning, my general just... just... crappy feeling.

It was something else.  Something white and evil and awful that was in all that breakfast cereal.  Even the ones that weren't blatantly frosted.  Like the innocent-looking Cheerios.

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Flash back a few years.  Yes, this is all out of order, because I'm generally a slow learner, and so I hadn't put two and two together yet.

My mother sends me a book called "Sugar Blues".  Okay Mom, thanks.  I put it on the shelf.

"Did you read that book yet?" she asked.  "I think it'll really help you."

After a year of not reading it, I finally picked it up.

The references to a 1930's movie starlet intrigued me immediately. The writing style kept my interest.  And I kept reading and reading over the next few weeks...

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Okay, so now I know that the history of refined sugar use and the incidence of schizophrenia climb the charts nearly neck and neck. And a whole bunch of other stuff.

Heroin.  Opium.  Morphine.  Refined sugar.  What's the difference?

Yeah well now I know.

Do I still use sugar?  Oh yes, of course, but it's a conscious choice.

In the mornings, though, on my oatmeal or in my tea, sugar is no longer allowed to throw it's skinny white arms around my neck for a choke-hold.

Stevia extract powder.  Or Xylitol crystals.  Or honey.

And I'm very happy.

Very clement.

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Epilogue...  that book was such a pleasant, entertaining life-changer for me that I ordered several used paperback copies online so I could always have a copy to loan to any friend who was interested.
Ask me and I'll mail you one of the copies!