It seems my last Dear Healthy Foodie drew a bit of fire from people who thought that I was too hard on poor Bruce. Apparently I gave some readers the impression that I'm some sort of sugar Nazi, insisting all sweetness be removed from people's lives. Here's one of the responses.

Dear Doug,

Your response to Bruce was, in my view, a bit too harsh and focused solely on the negative aspects of sugar. Why not suggest some naturally sweet and nutritious foods for Bruce to eat, such as sweet fruits and vegetables? Your approach was to eliminate all sugar at all costs.

While I do appreciate your very knowledgeable insights, perhaps all Bruce has to do is change his diet slightly by introducing a different method of tasting natural sweetness.

M

OK, it seems maybe I read Bruce's letter a bit differently than others did. I saw the word "addiction" and assumed that Bruce was talking about hardcore sugar cravings, whereas others seemed to think he was using it more colloquially. Many people have written to me saying that a tablespoon of maple syrup or honey is not bad and that I'm overreacting suggesting that he may need to see a specialist.

I agree. A tablespoon of natural sweetener per day probably isn't going to kill anyone. In the post in question, I even provided a link to a previous post I did suggesting alternatives to sugar, and both maple syrup and raw honey were on that list. But from how I interpreted the letter, I assumed that Bruce was eating a lot more than his one tablespoon per day.

If a person is compulsively driven to consume sugar and has great difficulty trying to kick the habit, in my opinion, they need to take steps to correct whatever imbalance exists that is driving this compulsion. These imbalances can include a candida albicans overgrowth in the digestive tract, burned out or over-burdened adrenal glands, blood glucose regulation problems, food allergies or others. This is why I suggested Bruce see a practitioner to get to the bottom of his cravings.

Natural sweeteners and sweet fruits and vegetables are great alternatives to sugar, but if someone is really compulsive about getting a sugar fix, there is something wrong. When the body is out of balance, cravings for sugar aren't the same as desires for sweetness. The body is looking for quick blood glucose spikes at that point, and sweet fruits and veg probably aren't going to take the place of sugar for them. It's not sweet flavour they're craving, it's sugar.

Getting to the bottom of your cravings and interpreting where they're coming from can be a difficult process, but one that is well worth the effort. Distinguishing between a gentle nudge from the body in need of a particular nutrient and a compulsive need to feed an addiction is important. As I mentioned in a previous post on the subject, "Ideally one should be healthy enough not to experience cravings at all and will be able to interpret food desires for what they are - a communication from your body telling you what it needs".

Like I said, I'm not against natural sweeteners. The need to add sweet to the diet is appropriate and shouldn't be abandoned completely. However, I interpreted Bruce's letter to be asking about compulsive sugar consumption, which is a different situation than just wanting sweet. And Bruce, if you're out there reading this and I interpreted your letter wrongly, I apologize - I certainly didn't mean to imply that a taste of honey or maple syrup was going to send you over the edge. Enjoy natural sweeteners like maple syrup, raw honey, stevia, blackstrap molasses and others responsibly, not to feed cravings, and you should be just fine.


The Healthy Foodie is Doug DiPasquale, Holistic Nutritionist and trained chef, living in Toronto. You can email him with questions at dugdeep@gmail.com.