Sugar Season!

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Here we go again, folks.  Sunsets are getting earlier and temps are getting cooler, which can only mean one thing: sugar.  

It’s well known that the holiday season is when we tend put on extra pounds,  even though, as fitness guru Vinnie Tortorich says, “It’s not what you do between Christmas and New Year’s that matters, it’s what you do between New Year’s and Christmas.”

Part of this may be the much-maligned Christmas Creep.  It’s not enough that we have a couple of cookies and milk on Christmas Eve, we tuck into the candy canes and egg nog for a full month ahead of time.



But if you think about it, is it more than just Christmas that's to blame?  If we open up the definition of “holiday season” a bit, a picture starts to form.   Here’s a quick rundown of some fall and winter holidays (both religious and secular, real and made-up).  What traditional foods come to mind?

September - Pumpkin Spice Everything Season begins.
October - Oktoberfest (along with lots of other “-fest” events centered around food, wine, etc)
Oct. 31 - Halloween
Most of November - Leftover Halloween Candy Season
End of November - Thanksgiving 
December - Christmas Season
January - Football Playoffs, Super Bowl Sunday
February - Valentine’s Day
March - St. Patrick’s Day
April - Easter
May - Cinco de Mayo

The stretch between the Fall and Spring equinox is tough for a low-carb dieter.  If you think about it, we mark every special occasion by eating sugary and high-carb foods.  I wonder, is it any coincidence that these foods, which are shown to release the feel-good chemical dopamine in the brain, are associated with the cold, dark days of winter, when we most often feel like we need a pick-me-up?  We fight our way through from one holiday to the next, going from one fix to the next of our favorite drug.

Not to be a grinch, folks, but keep an eye out for the Creep this year. He'll getcha.  And before you know it, you'll be headed into 2019 as chunky and cherubic as Baby New Year.


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