Passover is coming up in a few weeks, a time where Jewish households everywhere will scour their pantries, refrigerators and even freezers to root out all the chametz (usually defined as anything containing grain or leavening agents of any type, with the notable exception of matzah). It’s sort of a short, religiously-based Atkins diet.

Whatever chametz is not eaten by the time Passover starts will be donated to the poor, stored in separate part of the house, or ‘sold’ to non-Jewish friends, who typically ‘sell’ it back at the end of the holiday. So it’s usual that around this time of year, I begin to inventory what’s in the pantry so that we can eat as much pasta, bread, frozen bagels and pizza before the holiday as possible to get it out of the house. It’s sort of the opposite of the Atkins diet and as I write this I’m beginning to understand why I always feel swollen and chubby by the first night of Passover.

Since I’m already starting to avoid wheat and doing the sugar detox at the same time, I thought I’d take a couple of minutes this morning and pull some of the items from the pantry that have added sugar, just to see. There’s no direct relationship between chametz and added sugar, but I was just curious how many things I won’t be able to eat during the detox, and where that leaves us in terms of stocking up and paring down in preparation for Passover (and the overall movement toward healthful eating).

As I read the labels, I started pulling out things that surprised me with their sugar content. I pretty much skipped over anything in the pantry that would obviously have sugar in it. Maple & Brown Sugar oatmeal, yogurt-covered raisins,  etc. Those things are sweet, so of course they have some sugar in them. I would know without looking that I need to avoid them during the detox.  I did include the “healthy” Blueberry Morning cereal and the Clif Peanut Butter granola bar, not because they had any sugar, but because of how much (it was the third ingredient on the cereal and second on the granola bar). But, but… I bought that granola bar at Whole Foods!

And that’s one of the things I noticed as I looked at the pile. (There was more in the pantry but I stopped in exasperation). I realized how many of these items I’d bought as healthy substitutes for other foods. Turkey Jerky (the plain kind, no flavor) was supposed to be a high-protein, low-fat snack. Fat free balsamic dressing. The Veggie sticks my kids have practically lived on since they started solid foods. The hummus chips and Terra veggie chips that I think of as healthy alternatives to potato chips or wheat crackers. The cans of beans I planned to use to make chili this week. Chicken broth. When I pull many of these foods from the pantry on a normal basis, I consider their salt content, but I don’t usually think of sugar. Okay, I wasn’t surprised by the sugar in the canned pasta and sauce (the corn syrup in the fat free ravioli did peeve me a bit), but the plain old beans and lentil soup really threw me off.

It seems that when we take the fat out of something, it’s often replaced by more sugar (or artificial sweeteners) to make up for missing taste. But maybe sometimes it’s better just to have a little fat (especially good fats like the olive oil in balsamic dressing) and feel satisfied. If you look at each food individually, the amount of sugar may seem negligible, or at least better than… say, a fresh-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookie. A cookie sounds amazing right now, by the way. I could do terrible, terrible things to that sleeve of Girl Scout Cookies I know is in the garage freezer. Damn those cute little girls and their delicious friggin’ cookies.

Okay. Wait. Where was I?  Oh yeah. If you view sugar, not just as a harmless packet of calories, but as an addictive substance; and you consider that each little amount of it leaves you craving more… well, no wonder I so often finish a meal only to begin fantasizing about dessert. Or the next meal. Or a meal made with dessert. Maybe some sugar is okay, in moderation, but when it’s in everything, how do you know when you’re being moderate? How many of my cravings for sweets are not random cravings, but actually withdrawals from sugar I didn’t realize I ate?

Ugh. Anyway. To end on a victorious note, I’m happy to say that I sat for nearly four hours at writing group last night with a plate of homemade chocolate oatmeal cookies sitting right under my nose and didn’t even touch them. Not a single, delicious crumb. That’s saying a lot, because I think this detox has heightened my sense of smell, almost like pregnancy would. By the end of the night I felt like I could basically deconstruct the recipe for the cookies by smell alone. To my writing group friends: if you caught me sitting too close, or sniffing your jacket or sweater inappropriately last night, it wasn’t you. It was totally the cookies.

[Read the next installment of the Sugar Detox Saga here.]

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I’m M.J. (Manda) Pullen, an author, mom and hard core sugar addict in the Atlanta, Georgia area. I blog about writing, publishing, parenthood, life and the many lessons I’ve learned the hard way. And I am absolutely not going down to the garage freezer for Girl Scout Cookies.

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My current roster of books includes The Marriage Pact series, a trilogy of Contemporary Romance/Women’s Fiction novels. You can find them for all eBook formats and in paperback here.

MJ Pullen

M.J. Pullen is a distracted writer and the mom of two boys in Roswell, Georgia, where she is absolutely late for something important right now. Her books include quirky romantic comedies and playful women's fiction. She blogs erratically with writing advice, random observations, and reflections on raising very loud kids and dogs. Join her Distracted Readers newsletter list for updates, free content, giveaways and more.