Sugar-free, Fat-free Doesn't Help!

Of all of the wacky things I have done in the past to lose weight, gorging myself on  fat-free products and convincing myself that  quantity had nothing to do with my increased waistline, was truly not one of my more brilliant moments in life.  When my diabetes monitor reached astronomical numbers, and the scales kept going up, it finally dawned on me, fat-free was not the cure-all after all. 

Until recently, I indulged in many sugar-free products. Ten years of coping with diabetes has made me cognizant of the effect of processed sugar on my system.  Although the diabetes is now controlled by diet and exercise, I do not go overboard eating high, (more than 5mg of sugar a serving,) sugar snacks.  When I restricted my food intake, I thought sugar-free was going to be my nirvana. It didn’t take long before I realized, sugar-free was like fat-free; it’s all a hoax!  A few months ago, I discovered sugar-free malted milk balls in the bulk section of the grocery store.

I was convinced I had struck gold.  Never mind the stomach aches, and the excess gas I began experiencing, it was sugar-free, so start eating.  The stomach aches increased, and my concession to help keep eating them, was to give up all sugar-free products and just concentrate on the malt balls. Nothing helped, and nausea began accompanying me on my walks. Still, I would not part with what I knew was causing the discomfort I was experiencing. My new rule was to never bring a supply home.  Surely that would help my stomach settle down.  I had 45 minutes of blissful peace after swallowing those delicacies, and then the aches, diarrhea, and nausea began all over again. 

Last week while marking the price on the bag I would consume in the store, I casually mentioned to an employee, that they really need the nutritional information available to the consumer.  She graciously looked them up in a book for me, and as I was standing there popping them in my mouth like popcorn, she said, “There are 170 calories in 7of them!”  I felt sorry for her that she could not look up the correct information! I politely told her she was reading the wrong item, so she got someone else to check the book.  When the second clerk told me, “170 calories in 7 of them,” I stopped popping them in my mouth; I looked at them both in shock and said, “You mean I just ate my walk?”   I looked at what was now, my empty bag, and thought of what a fool I was.  The stomach aches, the trips to the bathroom, even the nausea never deterred me, but when you tell me 7 of them have 170 calories in them, and I am eating them like popcorn, this is serious; I stopped! 

Why do we want to believe that things that are going to be a cure-all instantly and help us?  This is why so many “diets” fail.  Our head perks up as visions of pizzas and lasagna dance in our heads with the commercials we watch on television. Common sense should tell us that if we consumed only the portion they were showing, none of us would have weight problems. I am convinced I lack common sense when it comes to food choices.

It is a different trip to the store now, compared to the beeline I used to make to the malted milk balls aisle.  I do my shopping, and then I swing by the sugar-free section, and say hello to all my old treats. I look fondly at the jars, but the number, “170” guides me out of there. I am working on not even walking in that aisle, but like many in my shoes, I am still hoping for the cure-all in those jars.