As I watched my nieces fly around the Easter table fueled by a potent concoction of chocolate bunnies and jellybeans I once again considered the power of sugar. Like caffeine and alcohol, sugar has the ability to quickly alter the body's functioning giving a six-year-old girl the ability to run figure eights around the living room for an hour straight - before crashing into a napping puddle on the couch.

Too much sugar can lead to obesity - and the conditions that accompany it: heart disease, type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol - and it can also push out the nutrients that the body truly needs. "When sugar replaces nutritionally valuable foods," explained Jana Klauer, M.D., in the current issue of Body and Soul magazine, "it deprives our bodies of many important nutrients, including calcium and magnesium."

Sugar can also exert a powerful influence on our mood. Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D., author of Potatoes Not Prozac, has convinced many parents that reducing their children's sugar intake directly affects anxiety, depression, and inattention. "Sugar triggers beta-endorphin, a chemical that makes you feel great-for a while," she said.

Body and Soul offers an excellent three-week sugar reduction plan - kind of like chocolate rehab - where you can raise your sugar consciousness (remember, sugar is not only found in sweets, it's also in most processed foods and in refined corn, grains, and rice), prepare for a sugar cleanse, and go sugar-free for seven days.

Today's a great day to think about the role that sugar plays in your life (for example, why do I need a cookie a day?). Some facts to consider:

• About 46 percent of Americans' added-sugar intake comes from beverages.
• Consumption of high-fructose corn syrup rose 1,000 percent from 1970 to 1990. Americans consume an average of 12.5 teaspoons daily (see Kat's post,High Fructose Corn Syrup: Scapegoat, or Crack-Sugar?)
• To burn off the average number of sugar-related calories consumed in a month, you'd have to walk 52 miles.
• A can of cola contains about 10 teaspoons of sugar. A bottle of sweetened iced tea may have up to 8 teaspoons.
• According to the USDA, we should consume no more than 10 teaspoons of added sugar daily. The average American consumes 20 teaspoons daily.

[via Body and Soul]

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