Beyond Sugar
Discover life's orchestra of tastes, textures, and aromas.
Dear Healthy Jew,
Everyone knows that processed sugar is unhealthy. It’s a primary cause of the common metabolic and cardiovascular diseases that kill millions every year. Yet many people still add copious amounts of sugar and its countless derivatives to the few products that weren’t already thoroughly sugared in the factory.
How can we possibly get escape sugar’s grip? One path to freedom is through listening carefully to its menacing message.
What do we seek in sugar? Undiluted and unadulterated sweetness. Whether it’s derived from cane, corn, or beets, the original plant is stripped of all distracting tastes so that the resulting homogenous white powder contains only pure and gloriously sweet sucrose.
Not that sweetness is a bad thing. Our bodies and minds correctly associate sweetness with the pleasures of life at their fullest. We’re attracted to sweet food, talk about “sweet ideas,” and exclaim “that was sweet!” Scripture too counts date honey as the final species with which Israel was blessed, and refers to “sweet palates” both regarding eloquent speech and tasty food.
The tragedy is when life’s vast spectrum of tastes is melted down to pure sweetness, burning away myriad possibilities until all that remains is endless pleasure – or, more precisely, the illusion of endless pleasure, because reality eventually will come knocking.
Did you ever pour glazed sugar over a birthday cake, and watch it cover the whole affair with a shimmering shine? The cake might have previously offered a variety of savory and tangy flavors and textures: cinnamon, nutmeg, raisins, lemon, and all the other wonderful ingredients that people more talented than I know how to use in the kitchen. Then comes along the glaze and drowns them all in sticky, caramelized sweetness.
The same thing happens, quite literally, in our bodies. When we consume more sugar than the pancreas’ insulin can infuse into our cells, the extra sweetness hangs out in the bloodstream, ending up wherever blood goes, which is pretty much everywhere. It’s kind of like glaze invading every corner and flavor of a cake. Eventually the pancreas gets weary, insulin stops working efficiently, and welcome to Type 2 diabetes.
What happens next? Sticky, caramelized blood doesn’t flow very well through tiny vessels and capillaries, which is why diabetes causes of all sorts of nerve and tissue damage, with complications ranging from non-healing wounds to heart disease and even gangrene. The retinas deep inside the eyes are particularly vulnerable: their delicate vessels are damaged by high blood sugar, making diabetes the leading cause of blindness.
The same thing happens, quite literally, in our spirits. When we experience pure and intense pleasure that’s been stripped of all complexity and effort, our primal instincts scream for nothing else but more said pleasure. And more. And then some more. The stronger the rush, the quicker it fades, and the sooner we need more. Life turns into a never-ending feast, and we become heavier, slower, and sicker. Most dreadful, all other flavors of life are drowned out by the monotone clamor for sweetness. Emotionally dulled, deafened, and dimmed, how can we energetically meet challenges as opportunities for growth? When we’re mired in sweetness, all effort seems much harder and feels less natural, whether the exertion is of the body, mind, or spirit.
In a nutshell, the superficial sweetness of processed sugar calls to sacrifice the complex richness of life for a single, simple, superficial, self-perpetuating, and self-destroying pleasure. Life itself isn’t enough; it must be sweetened. And then sweetened some more.
Now that we understand sugar’s message, it’s possible to find a way out of its stickiness.
Recovering addicts talk of positive sobriety – not merely abstaining from drinking and drugging, but actively practicing a different mode of living. It’s not a bad idea to try the same thing with sugar: instead of futilely fighting the cravings and mental blind-spots, let’s actively explore all sorts of tastes, textures, and aromas: spicy, sour, salty, and, of course, sweet.
I don’t mean to trade the Oreos for onion-free onion rings and pepper-free hot jalapeno chips. Much of what I said about sweetness applies to all processed foods; the industry profits from inventing intense, simplified, and addictive flames of flavor that quickly burn out and leave us wanting more. And even if artificial flavorings mask the sugar, there’s a good chance that it’s lurking deep inside the crunch, powering the perception of pleasure.
Instead, the path to life beyond sugar is through opening up with curiosity to many real foods, meeting them as close as possible to their natural form. Allow yourself to eat and enjoy everything as you find it, because no added sugar, flavorings, or enhancers are necessary. Discover food and life; relish in their rich panoply of colors, flavors, and textures. Instead of monotone sweetness, listen to a large orchestra of tastes.
I try hard to eat and live inside the natural world’s complexity. Many of my meals consist of whatever vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds happen to be lying around. If I’m in the mood, I’ll chop it all up, and generously anoint the salad with olive oil, lemon juice, and salt. By eating many diverse foods – as they come, with no added sweetness – I’ve found much added balance, harmony, and stability in all areas of my life.
If you’re not sure where to set out on the journey to life beyond sugar, breakfast is a great place to begin. Instead of sugary cereal with sugary coffee, try oatmeal, burghul (cracked wheat), or buckwheat. (Yup, without honey!) Another option is unsweetened puffed rice or granola in milk. Drink coffee without sugar, and find out what coffee tastes like. Maybe chop up some vegetables, or just eat them whole. Try a fruit or two, whatever happens to be in season.
Sounds horrific? Tell yourself that it’s just food, so it can’t be too bad. Stick to it for a week or month, and you might not want to go back to dulling, deafening, and dimming your breakfasts with outlandish sweetness.
Don’t just stop eating sugar. Start tasting food, and life. And, once in a while, a glazed donut too.
One Suggestion: Eat and explore a variety of foods, just as they are. No need for added sweetness.
Thank you for reading Healthy Jew.
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I look forward to hearing from you!
Be well,
Rabbi Shmuel Chaim Naiman
Please note: All content published on Healthy Jew is for informational and educational purposes only. Talk to a qualified professional before taking any action or substance that you read about here.
I just quit sugar last month in an effort to help with my infertility, and it’s been quite the adventure adjusting my palate and finding natural replacements. I couldn’t survive without medjool dates!
Thanks for stopping by! Indeed, everything in our material world comes with a spiritual message. Genesis wrote that the entire human being - body and spirit - was created "in the image of God," because He doesn't speak to us in abstract concepts alone, but in how those ideas are expressed together in our bodies and spirits, as one. Our disposition for excessive sweetness is a particularly telling example of this.