MORE THAN JUST A HIT FOR THE ARCHIES

I’m not generally in the habit of changing word meanings, but “sweet” just stopped working for me. At least the meaning that I perceived as the only true definition. You see, for as far back as I can remember, which is far enough these days to hope for a rest stop or two along the way, I have adored the taste of sugar. Sugar on my breakfast cereal…..sugar in my coffee…the sweeter the better. Of course when I was young I didn’t drink coffee, but the sugariest chocolate or strawberry mix could make the lactation of another species much more acceptable to my discerning 5 year old palate. Then again, that stuff was all sugar and could make puddle water taste good.

Chocolate is a gift from the gods - Greek gods, specifically. The word chocolate comes from an ancient Greek word that means - “Damn that tastes good!”

There is no better candy bar than a “Three Musketeers.” That’s my final decision after testing all of the others at some point.

As for soda…..can you even imaging anything that quenches your thirst better than an ice cold Coca Cola? I think not. Well, maybe an ice cold Dr. Browns Cream soda. I think I just felt my eye twitch.

OK, let me stop before I go into a sugar coma from just writing this stuff. The love affair between my teeth, lips and tongue and the cane industry came to a crashing halt around the turn of the century….this one….when I was diagnosed with diabetes.

It scared me enough to get proact…..wait, let me amend that……my wife scared enough me by telling me that if I didn’t join her in getting proactive, she was gonna kill me.

We started learning about which foods would process in such a way as to be beneficial rather than harmful. We learned that it wasn’t just sugar that was poison, but foods that you would never suspect that turn to sugar and become toxic. All the “white” stuff is useless. Potatoes (a nod to Dan Quail), pasta, bread, rice, sugar and flour. All “simple” carbs that rush through your body at too fast a clip so they can’t be processed properly and turn to sugar. We also found that we didn’t have to do without. Brown rice, sweet potatoes, brown sugar, whole grain flours, breads and pastas are all “complex” carbs that break down differently and more slowly, so the body can process them properly.

I haven’t had a sip of soda in at least a decade. The last time I tried one, I had to drink some water to get rid of the taste that I now deem as “nasty.” I prefer sugar from natural sources. The last time my blood sugar read low, rather than a “Snickers,” I had an orange. It tasted and worked better.

So you see…..I have had to change the meaning of the word. I no longer have dreams of “sugarplums” and “banana splits. Now, all I have to do is look in the eyes of any of my kids and, especially, my grandkids and know I’ll be around and in good health for quite some time to enjoy them………“SWEET!”