SUGAR - why we can't resist it
(The title of the Aug 2013 cover article for the National Geographic magazine)
The title was a catchy one, and so I reached for the magazine in an effort to better understand why I sometimes crave a lil' taste of 1000 Grand, Almond Joy, Skor, Rolo, Reeses, Twix, Snickers, Payday (I could use one now - literally and figuratively), you get the point so let's move on.
As I began reading the article it was interesting to me how they not only provide background information on sugar but also provided a daily sugar intake limit - 6 teaspoons/100 calories for women and 9 teaspoons/150 calories for men. As I continued to read I could not help but think of the similarities that sugar and sin have: great presentation, taste great going down, easy to access, bad for you, catches up to you later, addicting, documented history and effects, etc...
Many of us know the facts about both sin and sugar so why do we continue to behave in the same destructive way? Is it because we do not like ourselves - maybe, is it we simply do not want to change, is it we do not realize we are addicted?
What ever the reason, both have and continue to contribute to our demise. If it were that simple the majority of us would be in large part DRAMA FREE. Maybe one way to begin to cut back on these culprits is to actively seek to change our behavior one action at a time. When we win these individual actions, we should celebrate those successes and continue to build on that.
The author of the article makes this statement,
“It seems like every time I study an illness and trace a path to the first cause, I find my way back to sugar"
The article goes on to quote Richard Johnson, a nephrologist at the University of Colorado Denver, who sums up the conventional wisdom this way: Americans are fat because they eat too much and exercise too little. But they eat too much and exercise too little because they’re addicted to sugar, which not only makes them fatter but, after the initial sugar rush, also saps their energy, beaching them on the couch. “The reason you’re watching TV is not because TV is so good,” he said, “but because you have no energy to exercise, because you’re eating too much sugar.” The solution? Stop eating so much sugar.
As for Sin,
Romans 6 does a fantastic job in dealing with the struggle we have with sin. Verses 12-14 state -
12 "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace."
Chapter 6 concludes (verse 23) the following way - "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord"
While sugar affects the quality of our lives and aides in quickening the physical death, sin brings us a spiritual death that we have no way of escaping. Oh, but the blood of Christ is the answer to sin and to begin you simply need to accept the gift of grace and know He loves you. After that hold on to His unchanging hand knowing that life will throw you all manner of curve balls!
For both sin and sugar we have to pick up our crosses, die daily and be purposeful in our choices - WE CAN DO IT! Do you believe it?
