It all began innocently enough. Just a boy in love with his bowl of ice cream. Oh, how I looked forward to that first bowl of chocolate chip ice cream! I would fill up the bowl with three huge scoops of the stuff, enough for a grown man, but never enough for me. I would sit in front of the T.V. and stir the ice cream until it melted just a bit so I could separate out the chips from the cream and eat the chocolate first. Then I would slurp up the white, sugary goodness. Enjoying every vanilla second! I was nine years old, and my love affair with sugar had just begun. Too bad it would eventually try to kill me.

Who knew that I would be diagnosed as diabetic 30 years later? Not me, but perhaps the fact that my grandma had the disease could have been a red flag. Or later when my mother was also diagnosed with Type II diabetes when I was in my 20’s could have given me a hint to reevaluate my diet. But no, I simply continued eating tons of sugar in various forms, but most often in the form of ice cream (chocolate chip, please).

As I grew older, my sugar addiction became more nuanced, but oh, so easy to fulfill. Unlike an addict who craves some illicit drug which might take a bit of effort and money to procure, my drug was available to me at any time of day and in a variety of delivery methods, no age restriction, and was pretty darn cheap.

And I am not alone. As a Gen Xer born in the 1970’s, I grew up at the height of the sugar industries power. The low fat craze was just kicking in, and the high carb insanity was taking over. Over the next 30 years the USA and many other countries fell victim to the greatest drug push in history: the invasion of sugar.

Is sugar a drug? Well, not being a doctor, I can only say that it certainly acts that way for me. I cannot tell you the absolute physical joy I get from drinking a fully loaded, high fructose corn syrup enriched, can of carbonated battery acid. Otherwise known as soda. While ice cream is my dessert of choice, I literally went years without drinking any substantial amounts of water, and consumed only soda. I didn’t drink it like it was water, I drank it like it was an elixir from God! And when I finally had the sense to stop drinking the sugar capsules, it was the hardest thing I have ever done.

No, sugar is a drug, there is no doubt, and according to a research study in France , sugar “can induce reward and craving that are comparable in magnitude to those induced by addictive drugs.” We are dealing with entire generations that have been hooked on this drug, and we wonder why type 2 diabetes is a national plague.

More to come on this subject. Watch this space…