I broke up with sugar years ago…or so I thought. You know how it goes with an old flame. You hate them when it’s almost over and then when it is, you only remember the good parts. Like the song says “there’s always something there to remind me”. In this case a gnawing, unbearable, craving and a blood sugar drop.

Like many of us, my sugar love started when I was just a kid. We had a refrigerator in the basement that my siblings and I were not allowed to open. One day, while retrieving my red rubber boots from said basement, I passed the frig and tempting fate, boldly opened it. What could go wrong?

There before my eyes was a half-eaten dark chocolate cake decorated in a corsage of pale pink and yellow flowers. This was not my mother’s frostless, neon Jell-O Bundt cake that she made once a year for each of our birthdays! No! What I was seeing was a fancy bakery cake violently gouged out as if someone had taken the very largest spoon and just kept killing it. I rapidly closed the door. What was I going to do with this new information?

Forgetting about the boots, I trudged upstairs to get the lo-down on the cake. And bent on not divulging in any way that I had opened the frig, I cleverly asked mom, “Did you know there’s a cake in the downstairs refrigerator?”

Like a mean ol’ twister, mom whipped around a sink full of dirty dishes and glared at me. “Did you open the refrigerator?”

“Not really,” I replied. “I kind of had to look in there because I was looking for my boots.”

“You’re not supposed to go in there!” said mom in a rage.  

“But whose cake is it?” I said as innocently as possible hoping I’d be offered a piece.

“Your dad’s! End of story.”

Holy bakery cakes, Batman! I had just made the discovery of a lifetime. There were probably scads of confectionaries regularly coming in and out of the house that only dad was allowed to eat. It was so unfair. Couldn’t he spare a mere sliver of crumbs for one of his five children? And so my infatuation for sugar began. From that point forward I got my revenge by eating as much sugary stuff at other people’s houses as I could. And it didn’t end until cancer called.

Multiple studies show that people who eat a lot of sugar are at a much higher risk of getting cancer. I’m not saying that my childhood obsession led to cancer. I’m just saying sugar is something to avoid if you have cancer. And when I say sugar, I’m talking high fructose corn syrup, Agave Nectar (yes, it’s highly refined), brown and white cane sugars and to a certain extent honey and maple syrup because they feed candida and parasites, which can inhibit healing. 

In 2018, when cancer first made its appearance, I gave up the refined sugars. When the cancer reoccurred, I tossed the honey and maple syrup as well. Since I’ve been luxuriating in treats sweetened solely with coconut sugar only to recently find out that coconut sugar has the same molecular structure as cane sugar! Back to the drawing board.

What does it mean to finally break-up with sugar? It means choosing fruit instead (but not a lot) and for sweeteners using plant-based monk fruit and/or stevia. However, there’s a caveat. When I taste something sweet even if it’s stevia or monk fruit, I always want more. So I’ve had to dump those babies as well. Breaking up is so very hard to do.

On the bright side: Gone are the gnawing, unbearable cravings as well as the devastating blood sugar highs and lows. I’m high on life now, sugar. However, I must confess, I still love you and always will. 

RAMONA JAN is the Founder and Director of Yarnslingers, a storytelling group that tells tales both fantastic and true. She is also the roving historian for Callicoon, NY and is often seen giving tours around town. You can email her at callicoonwalkingtours@gmail.com.