Celebrate Sweetness without Sugar on Valentine's Day

The sweetest day of the year is here - Valentine’s Day.  Its all about showering the person you love with love!  Many times we commercialize this to mean gifts, but it doesn’t have to be that way.  This holiday has so much potential so lets dive in and get a little more intimate.

Valentine’s Day has a long history.  Originally, it was a festival to celebrate fertility and honor the origins of Rome (1).  At the height of the festival young women would place their names in an urn and then the young eligible men would pick a name and they would date for the year.  A game of destined lovers, for sure.

Cards and candies and such didn’t come along until the middle of the 18th century.  Today, candy is the number one gift given on Valentine’s Day.  Sugar has become a severely over-rated symbol of sweetness.

Unfortunately, sugar has a lot of unhealthy consequences and is a poor substitute for the sweetness we all really crave.  Sugar creates havoc on the immune system by feeding unhealthy bacterial populations in our gut like candida; it raises insulin levels, which then store sugar as fat in our cells; it causes tooth decay, mood swings, and malnutrition.

If you have made a vow to go sugar free, eat less sugar or just be more healthy, which you probably have if you are on this website.   Then don’t cave in on Valentine’s day even if its from your special someone or your kids.

Here are some suggestions for helping you get all the sweetness you need or need to give on V-Day:

1. Before you reach for a sugary gift I’d like to invite you to stop and feel the sweetness you are reaching for.  Take it in fully.  Imagine what sweetness feels like in your body.  Make it bigger until you can feel it all over.  Then think of how you could express this sweetness to your Valentine - be it yourself, a friend, partner or kids.


2. Remember sugar is a symbol for sweetness so every time you see something sugary think sweetness.  What would actually be a sweet thing to do for your body?  Would it be to eat something sugary - maybe but there are awesome alternatives like self-massage, yoga, a spa day!


3. If you know your kids and/or partner loves sugar, then alternatives like monk fruit is a great way to go.  It is 300 times as sweet as sugar without the negative health concerns.  So get creative and make your own monk fruit sweetened brownies or try our fudge brownie batter bars - yum!


4. Write a personalized love letter to yourself and your loved ones.


5. Explore the deeper meaning of unconditional love, and how you can act on it everyday.  Your life will get a million times sweeter with just this one, I promise. :)