12 steps enough to address sugar problems?

THE WAY I SEE IT (COLUMN) — Daniela Ginta writes in The Armchair Mayor News on Fridays.

By DANIELA GINTA

It was one of those titles that makes you read it again, just in case you hurried the first time. It read “Twelve steps to help you deal with less added sugar.” Odd? It looked like that to me.

The similarity with the 12-step long process that helps alcoholics beat their addiction cannot be missed. As a joke it doesn’t stand; as an actual piece of advice, it makes you shake your head. Not because sugar addiction is not real, but because it is.

Not that the World Health Organization did not recently recommend that people reduce their sugar consumption by half, because it did. And yes, not that the obesity rates in children and adults have not tripled over the last two decades. Because they did.

Because of all of that and more, we need to address our societal sugar consumption. And reduce it drastically. But what about the 12 steps?

Yet the problem is more complex than convincing children and their parents to eat broccoli when they feel like chocolate cake and pop. Or put entire nations through cleanses that will get their pancreas all brand-new and capable.

Twelve steps or 1,200 will not be enough when the other side remains unaddressed: the industry offerings, their size, and the melt-your-will marketing that goes with many processed foods.

Sugary treats, whether solid, liquid or creamy, are available for every event in schools, offices, community get-togethers. Stores abound with treats for every possible occasion during the year.

No need to leave your taste buds hanging because the treat train comes our way more often than it used to. There’s Christmas, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Canada Day, Halloween and they all come with loads of sugar.

Then there’s everyday foods, from cereal to snacks to soups and sauces, and most of them have sugar added, or some form of sugar. Desert is no longer the sugary course of a meal, but one of them.

And if you are not careful, you might just go grocery shopping and try to buy salt, just good old salt, and you’ll end up with a package that says salt but has sugar as number three out of its four ingredients. That’s right, sugar.

It is no wonder that the sugar addiction is real. Or that many people feel they do not have it under control. Because in many ways they do not.

We can design steps and strategies to help people deal with their sugar addiction but the products will keep on growing and diversifying, made ever more attractive by the marketing wizards. And just like that, someone’s earnings will keep going up on one side while on the other, waistlines, as well as chronic health problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer, will keep expanding and engulfing many a healthy body.

Everyone knows the good feeling associated with sugary treats. They give you a high, there is no doubt. A pick-me-up of some sort, especially when you’re stressed. Or tired. Or just because, why not? Because life is short and we should make it sweet. Indulge is the word of the day.

Overweight is called voluptuous and though medical establishments are now saying that being overweight and/or obese carry severe long-term health risks, the line in the sand that decides what’s acceptable weight-wise, body image-wise and health-wise is still a blurry one.

Children get started early on it. They go from the expected baby fat rolls to being overweight at ages that back in the day used to see children lean and running around all day long. Today they sit and eat.

It may not be treats exclusively but all the processed foods made that have sugar or sugar-related compounds high on the ingredients list (ingredients are listed in the order based on the amount present in a certain product.)

Twelve steps may be needed after all. Not to help us deal with less added sugar but to reconnect us to what real food is like. It would be refreshing to have stores abounding in produce and fruit, nuts and seeds and everything one needs to create simple meals that will remind us of just that: food. Desert included. The only one that should have sugar in it.

Daniela Ginta is a mother, scientist, writer and blogger. She can be reached at daniela.ginta@gmail.com, or through her blog at www.thinkofclouds.com.