Warm chocolate chip cookies…cold refreshing soda…could you give these up? 

Vermont mother, Eve Schaub, took the challenge and recently published a memoir about it titled Year of No Sugar. 

Eve and her family swore off added sugar for a year. “Added sugar” is not just something found in traditional sweets and soft drinks but is hidden in most processed foods including: ketchup, bread, pasta sauces, crackers etc. 

Why would Ms. Schaub do something so extreme? 

She was inspired by the studies of Dr. Robert Lustig who debunked the myth that “a calorie is a calorie.”

He concluded in his study that sugar is more dangerous for health than any other form of calorie because of how the body processes it. He blames sugar consumption for the diabetes and obesity epidemic. 

Sugar is also highly addictive. One study concludes that it is more rewarding than cocaine. This addictive quality leads to an increased likelihood of depression in consumers. 

So what happened when Ms. Schaub and her family swore off this addictive toxin? 

“I was happier, more energetic, and way less prone to sudden, debilitating attacks of I-feel-crappy…We felt healthier, it seemed like we got sick less, like we got better faster or got milder colds. My kids missed significantly less school.”

Now, two years later, Ms. Schaub’s family has maintained a diet free from most added sugar.

If they ever have desserts they are infrequent and homemade. Ms. Schaub attests that her palate has changed and that she has a more subtle appreciation for sweetness. 

Does all this talk of too much sugar leave a bad taste in your mouth?

Could you forgive someone who tried to kill you?

For Brett Hurt, the sixteen-year-old survivor of  a school stabbing attack  on Wednesday, the answer is yes. About his attacker, he tells reporters: 

I just hope that one day I can forgive him, and everyone else who got hurt can forgive him. Most of all, he needs to forgive himself.

Not everyone agrees with this perspective. In response to the Boston bombings, Huffington Post writer Elad Nahorai claimed in his blog post “Stop Forgiving the Boston Bombers,” 

What matters is that we realize that when we excuse the acts of killers, we in effect, justify those killings. Whether we mean to or not.

Internationally, the topic of forgiveness is being discussed in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the horrible 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Survivor Alice lost both her baby and her right hand to a machete-wielding militant, but still declares that 

Forgiveness is possible.

What’s more remarkable? Alice is now friends with her attacker.