Sweet Pure Cane Sugar

Sugar....oh just the sound of it makes my mouth water.

This food additive was once so insignificant in my life. It was comfort to me in chocolate and fun at birthday parties. I didn't think twice when I ate pumpkin pie with whipped cream at Thanksgiving feasts or sweet soft fudge at Christmas dinners. I had no idea my view of it would change from finding it delightful to a pleasure that masks it's poison. Don't get me wrong, I still love to indulge in it. But there is always a price to pay.

My journey with table sugar changed when I had my first child. When Karmin was about 2 1/2 she began to have severe outbreaks of eczema on the back of her legs that caused her to itch. Itching led to bleeding, which led to sleep deprived nights for all of us. I have struggled with eczema on my hands since my early 20's. (sounds like I'm really old...but I can say that since I'm turning 32 this year! : ) I had no idea what caused our skin to break out.

We tried the normal dermatologists. Of course they do their best to alleviate the discomfort by prescribing creams, but this only treats the symptoms. It doesn't find the root problem. We were referred by a friend to a Naturepath.
At first Mark and I were a bit skeptical. We'd never tried alternative medicine before.
What we found out was more complicated than I expected.

Hopefully, I can keep from making this painfully long... :) Candida Yeast was what we were told was causing the eczema. When Karmin was born she and I had fevers that the hospital was concerned about so they put us on IV antibiotics for 2 days. This stripped our intestines of the natural bacteria that needs to thrive to keep a person healthy. When that happens the candida yeast (already present in every body's gut) overtakes. Candida yeast is fed by the sugar in our foods. Even pasta's and breads turn into a form of sugar in the human body. Once, this invasion began, it caused Karmin's body to struggle with yeast infections, which lowers the body's immune system. And some how or another caused her to be sensitive to foods she ate all of the time.

The prescription? Avoid all dairy, yeast breads, apples, bananas and peanut butter for 5 months(specific to only her) and give her probiotics like acidophilus and bifodus in the pearl form. (this was a difficult time, I won't even try to make it seem like it was easy, because it wasn't).

The result? Her legs healed and she has perfect skin.

However, because candida yeast feeds on sugar, we will always have to be careful on the amount of sugar we consume. And I'm not just talking about table sugar. Although that stuff should be avoided nearly completely. High sugared fruit can cause reactions in our bodies, like grapes and bananas. Honey has to be used in moderation. A complete life change happened.

I now have gained so much knowledge about sugar, and how harmful it can be to a person's body. How amazing that it tastes so wonderful.

So what now? Do I restrict my children for everything? How is it at birthday parties and Sunday school class when they pass out candy. It seems that every where you look you find candy is so accessible to children. It wasn't that way 50 years ago.

I do restrict my kids a lot. But mainly it's because they suffer, and when they get older and can take care of the consequences of eating sugar themselves, it can be their responsibility. For now, I suffer when they suffer.

We've found alternatives. My kids love carob chips (I can't stand them). They also like Nancy's yogurt sweetened with stevia. We use stevia and honey for all of our needs to sweeten food. I have found that baking with honey doesn't have the same extreme reactions in their bodies as sugar does. So that allows us to make muffins, and cakes.

Last summer we went to the Jefferson parade for the Mint Festival. I had forgotten that they toss candy out to the spectators. What did we do? The girls scooped up the candy, and they gave it away to the people sitting next to us.

Church and VBS, are easy now that everyone knows in our church our unique situation and are very helpful at finding alternatives.
Birthdays...that's a hard one. When Karmin was really sensitive I had to make sure I sent a sugar free cookie or two with her, so she didn't feel left out. Now that she's older and the issue is under control, she's allowed to share in the cake and ice cream.

Halloween came. They got candy at the carnival they went to. Rose was sniffing her chocolate goodies the whole way home. They were allowed to chose 1 piece of candy to eat. Then we asked them who they would like to give their candy to. (Giving the candy to someone seems to make giving it up much easier. They find delight in choosing a person to give it to. And because it is so precious to them, they get excited that the other person will feel the same way they do.)

Yes...sugar has changed a lot in my life. It still haunts me, especially at church functions when it's everywhere. And I indulge myself a bit. But all in all, I think it's a good thing to get past the deprived feeling and feel empowered to walk in self control.

We live in a society that is driven by entitlement. The phrases we hear a lot are, "you deserve this", "indulge yourself", "you can never be young again", "just do it". Other things include the subtle words that tell us to not worry about the consequences of our actions. The end justifies the means.

This has provided many teaching moments with my children in giving to others and learning self control. It's a tough road to have to travel, but we all have something in our lives that requires us to be conscious of and exercise restraint.