I have an enormous, unrelenting sweet tooth.  As a child, my excitement for Halloween and the candy it promised far outweighed my enthusiasm for any of the "gift" holidays, such as birthdays or Christmas.  My favorite perk as a new driver in high school was being able to drive to a store any time I wanted to buy Oreo's, ice cream, or a "pounder" bag of M&M's.   In college, my love affair with sugar intensified. It was not unusual for me to wake up and greet the day with a sleeve of Chips Ahoy cookies before heading to class.

My love affair with sweets did not come without consequence.   Between sugar binges followed by desperate attempts to regain control over my eating,  I had volatile fluctuation in body weight.   One season I wore a size 2 and a year later I would be a size 12.  Friends who had not seen me for long periods of time would never know what to expect, since there could have been a 20 pound weight difference since our last visit  (which looks double that amount on my small frame).

By sophomore year of college, my health deteriorated.  I fell into patterns of anxiety and insomnia, and fatigue.  I suffered from headaches and mysterious muscle pains.  I caught colds and viruses easily.  Eventually, I left college before graduating and sought medical help to try to identify and cure my "mystery illness."    However, my blood work always came back normal all other tests that were performed were negative.  The consensus of the panel of doctors that I enlisted was that the problem was "all in my head" and I needed anti-depressants.  

But I didn't need anti-depressants! I needed to get to the root of what was causing me so much discomfort.  So, I did what any Diva would have done, and I took matters into my own hands.  After tireless research, phone calls, and discussions with the owners of local health food stores,  everything pointed to the fact that I needed to cut out refined sugar.   

The only way to describe sugar detox is to say it like the Jersey girl that I am.  It's really freaking tough.   I had cravings, painful cravings, 24 hours a day.  I would wake up in the middle of the night and want sugar.  But I was fierce and refused to give in.   Gradually, the cravings went away.  And gradually, so did the fatigue, and the anxiety, the muscle pains, the headaches, and the weight fluctuations.  Coincidence?

Twenty-something years later, I still don't eat refined sugar.   I don't "cheat" at birthday parties or Christmas.  I don't eat a slice of the hostess' pie when I am a guest in someone's house just to be "polite."   Fierce Divas never ingest any food, drink or substance into their bodies for the sake of being polite.  Period.  Even if that slice of pie were only to give me a headache the next day, it would also give me that intense and seductive craving for more sugar, that I would then have to fight all over again.  And who is to say I would win this time?

Since my mystery illness two decades ago, the research on the detrimental effects of white sugar has become much more accessible and legitimized.  Two of the Fiercest Divas I know,  Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, whose #1 New York Times bestseller Skinny Bitch, is the modern manifesto for plant based diets,  devoted an entire chapter to the evils of sugar, aptly entitled, "Sugar is the Devil."

Freedman and Barnouin discuss the addictive quality of sugar and also report, "Refined sugar has been linked to hypoglycemia, yeast overgrowth, a weakened immune system, hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder, enlargement of the liver and kidneys, increase of uric acid in the blood, mental and emotional disorders, dental cavities, and an imbalance of neurotransmitters n the brain.   In addition, refined sugars make you fat. Excess amounts are stored in the liver as glycogen. But when the liver is too full, the excess amounts are returned to the bloodstream as fatty acids.  Guess where those end up?  Hips, stomach, thighs, and ass."

The Skinny Bitch girls offer a comprehensive list of sweeteners that are not processed and absorb in the bloodstream more slowly, lessening the impact they will have on your blood sugar level.  Their suggestions include agave syrup, Stevia, evaporated cane juice, Sucanat, brown rice syrup, barley malt syrup, raw sugar, Turbinado sugar, beet sugar, date sugar, maple syrup, and molasses.   They also advise heavily against turning to artificial sweeteners as an alternative, since most of them are made of chemicals that will do just as much harm, if not more, as refined sugar.  

I'm not suggesting you never have refined sugar again (although I would not stop you if you chose to be that radical), but if you are struggling with weight and find that you have a hard time putting down the sugar once you start, or if you find yourself tired and moody and headache-y the morning after a night full of too many desserts, you may want to consider trying the alternate sweetener route instead.       

Over the years, I have found many foods that satisfy my sweet tooth while keeping me from plunging back into the madness.  Health foods stores and specialty foods stores such as Whole Foods have a wide variety of cookies, brownies and muffins, all made with natural sweeteners from the list above.   I also bake a lot of items at home and will share some of my favorites in future posts.  Below, to get you started,  I have included a recipe for peanut butter cookies without refined sugar or flour.  Simple, sweet, and satisfying.

Namaste, Divas!             

What you'll need:

1 egg (or equivalent of 1 egg using an egg replacer product)

 1 cup of natural peanut butter (that's right, Divas, the kind without sugar)

1 cup of raw or Turbinado sugar (Sucanat works well too)

Heat oven to 375°

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and roll the dough into 1-inch balls on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Press down into each ball with a fork to make a crisscross design.

 Bake 10 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are brown.

Remove from oven and cool

© 2012 Ilene Evans

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