It was a familiar scene: me, in my car, alone, under a freeway overpass. Mainlining sugar.
Maybe I was coming off a cleanse. Maybe I was following the diet du jour. Maybe I was just trying to be “good.” It always ended in the same way, though: me, in my car, alone, under a freeway overpass. It sure sounds like an addiction. And at the time, it sure felt like one. I’d go weeks without putting maple syrup in my coffee or taking a cookie from the pile at work or even having a piece of fruit, and then suddenly, I’d fall off the wagon. I’d end up in the dirt, wondering why I couldn’t control myself, loathing my habit.
Eventually, I started to wonder why sugar was such a problem for me. Why I couldn’t have breakfast cereal or granola bars or ice cream in the house without inhaling the contents in one sitting. Why I had begun to think of myself as an outright addict, someone who can’t have just one potato chip without ending up facedown and drooling in the bottom of the bag.
The culture of the time certainly supported my experience. From all sides I heard that sugar was “toxic,” that carbs were functionally unnecessary in the human body. Nearly everyone I knew eschewed sugar as an inherently addictive, destructive, fattening substance. We were all on and off the hamster wheel of “cleanses,” the modern-day version of the crash diet, trying to rid our bodies of sugar and train our minds to never ever want it again. The language we used with one another was the language of addiction. Sugar, it seemed clear, was the real culprit in modern disease, and we congratulated each other for knowing the truth.
And then one day, three days into another ultra-strict paleo “cleanse,” I just ... stopped. I took a hard look at my current position in the binge/restrict cycle and decided to do the more difficult thing: I accepted that instead of an addiction I had a disordered approach to food -- one that pushed me from veganism to paleo, from demonizing animal protein to avoiding carbohydrates, from restriction to bingeing, always looking for the next “toxic” thing I could remove from my diet -- and began the work of recovering. A born extremist, I nevertheless trained myself to be moderate.
Sugar addiction is a very controversial topic. The science is inconclusive, though if you wanted to find research to support your particular bias, there’s no shortage of it. To be healthy -- not only physically but psychologically -- I had to stop trolling PubMed for reasons to fear common foods and instead, trust that I’d reclaim the basic equilibrium of my body if I stopped imposing outside limitations. And eventually, after a lot of hard work, I did. I feel free now in a way I could not when I considered myself a slave and a victim of sugar and big food companies. I’m in control now. I decide. I haven’t found myself under a freeway overpass, hating myself and hurting myself, for 18 months.
Apple Tart in an Oat and Walnut Crust
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 cup walnuts
- 2 tablespoons jaggery
- ¼ teaspoon finely ground real salt
- 6 tablespoons butter melted
Topping
- 4 apples cored and sliced
- ⅓ cup grade B maple syrup
- ½ teaspoon ground ceylon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
- 3 tablespoons butter diced small
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Grind the oats in a food processor or blender until a fine flour forms. Pour the oat flour into a bowl and add the walnuts to the processor. Process until finely ground (stop before it becomes walnut butter!). Add the walnut flour to the bowl. Stir in the brown sugar and salt, then add the melted butter. Mix until the butter is fully incorporated, then gather the crust into a ball. Using wet hands, press the crust into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch regular pie pan or tart pan. Bake for 10 minutes.
- Arrange the apples in concentric circles on the bottom of the baked crust. In a small bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, cinnamon, and nutmeg, then drizzle the spiced syrup all over the apples. Dot the top of the apples evenly with the butter.
- Bake the tart for 20 minutes. Test an apple for tenderness; if it isn’t easily pierced by a sharp knife, continue baking for another 5-10 minutes, until the apples are tender (but not falling apart). If the crust begins to burn, cover the edges with foil. Let stand for 10 minutes before slicing and serving. Top with a little freshly-whipped cream (or coconut whip) and enjoy!
