Philip J. Goscienski, M.D.
December 2006
Why is it so hard to resists sweets? Do those of us who succumb to the sight of an open box of candy or the colorful display of donuts at Krispy Kreme have a character defect?
Sugar as we know it did not exist back in the Stone Age. Sugar beets and sugar cane certainly did grow in several areas of the then-populated world but hunters and gatherers had no equipment to extract the substance that we recognize as sucrose, or table sugar. Wild fruits and berries are semi-sweet; they are not as sugar-laden as the big, juicy specimens that modern growers have developed. (Have you ever tasted a wild strawberry or blueberry?)
Honey was seasonally available to those who lived during the Stone Age. We know from cave drawings of some 10,000 years ago that they made the effort to raid bees' nests. That might seem like a painful way to get a treat but modern hunter-gatherers manage to plunder a hive without getting stung. Our ancestors probably did, too.
In contrast to early humans' experience, sugar plays a very large role in our dietary lives. At the turn of the 21st century Americans took in nearly one-third of a pound of sugar every day. Food producers have learned that this cheap substance yields high profits because of our natural desire for it. They put it into everything from sausages to spaghetti sauce and our intake continues to soar.
High fructose corn syrup has replaced sucrose in many foods, especially in soft drinks. It's sweeter and cheaper than sucrose — a manufacturer's dream. Health authorities worry that it contributes to the recent dramatic increase in type 2 diabetes in children, and more ominously, to the early development of that disease's life-shortening complications.
A preference for sweet-tasting food begins early. Infants only a few weeks old learn to recognize and prefer it. This could be an instinctive mechanism. Such concentrated calories, what nutritionists refer to as calorie-dense foods, lead to the accumulation of fat. That's of great benefit to survival when food supplies are unreliable, as was the case until only a few generations ago. When modern society eliminated food scarcity and developed cheap, calorie-dense foodstuffs the stage was set for what we see all around us, the twin epidemics of obesity and diabetes.
We can control this instinctive desire for sweets by temporarily eliminating them and by increasing our intake of calorie-sparse foods such as vegetables, fruits and whole-grain baked goods. Within a few weeks the desire for sweets diminishes dramatically and high-sugar treats will seem sickeningly sweet. The challenge, obviously, is that total elimination is extremely difficult when candy and pastries surround us at work, school and supermarkets, especially in this holiday season. A practical approach is to set short term goals that are easier to accomplish. Eliminate sweets for three days, then aim for a week, then a month. For most people it takes only about two months to suppress the desire for sugar.
Philip J. Goscienski, M.D. is the author of Health Secrets of the Stone Age, Better Life Publishers 2005. Contact him at drphil@stoneagedoc.com.