Giving up Something Good for Something Better

Why would anyone want to go a year without sugar? Isn’t that like going through a year without happiness? Actually, in deciding to go a year without sugar, it’s really happiness that I’m in search of. Let me explain.

For some people desserts, soda, cookies, pies, and ice cream are all things they enjoy but not things that they obsess about. But for other people, and for myself in particular, I’ve found that sugar can act on me exactly like a drug. While I’m standing in the kitchen inhaling the delicious aroma of chocolate chip cookies, I have a desire to eat one. But that desire is not all-consuming. I can walk away without obsessing about it. But once I take a bite, something inside me goes hay-wire. My entire world seems to become reduced to the thought of eating another cookie.

The reason I decided to try to go for a year without sugar is that I came to realization that this wasn’t first and foremost an issue of self-control. It was first an issue of addiction. After finishing one cookie, whether or not I allowed myself to eat another and another and another was an issue of self-control. But that fierce, all-consuming, world-narrowing desire I was feeling, the inescapable pull, the unsatisfied lure that I felt, was something that I was experiencing apart from self-control. It's not a feeling that I enjoy

I don’t think this is a pull that every person will understand. Whether or not science has isolated a sugar-addiction gene, I have seen the genetics of it at work within my own children. Between my two youngest daughters, Abigail will take a few bites of her dessert and declare herself full. Her sister Naomi will then proceed to eat her own dessert and the finish Abigail’s.

This may not strike a chord with everyone. The propensity to be addicted to sugar seems to be built in genetically and those who have felt the pull will relate to what I write here. Others may think it silly.

I believe in enjoying life and the good gifts that God has given us. I believe we should feast--not everyday, every meal, but on occasion. However, shouldn't the point of feast be to lay back and feel satisfied afterwards? Sugar doesn't allow me to do that. I feel much less satisfied after I've had it than before.