While I do have a lot of dessert recipes, in my personal life I treat dessert as something to be rationed. We drink very little juice or milks and stick to coffee, unsweetened tea, and water. Yes, we have cupcakes and frosting on birthdays. Yes we have pancakes once or twice a month on Sunday, but sugar freaks me out.

Apparently I am not alone in this concern. Here are some links to 60 minutes story of the week which explains better than I would why sugar is so dangerous.

This is the 60 Minutes story.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57407294/is-sugar-toxic/?tag=pop;stories

Here is the older piece from the New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html?pagewanted=all

And here is the original highly addictive 90 minute long lecture by Dr. Robert Lustig, pediatric endocrinologist at UCSF. FYI there is 4.2 grams of sugar per teaspoon. I found this helpful in evaluating foods that used juice or dates (both fructose) as sweeteners.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM