Fudge. Cookies. Baklava. English toffee. Strudel. Truffles. Peppermint bark. Pumpkin pie.

The holiday season is jam-packed with sweet treats that are hard to resist. Have you ever resolved, with the best of intentions, to avoid the goodie tray or appetizer plate at your holiday party only to feel your willpower slipping and somehow find a cookie in your hand the next minute?

You’re definitely not alone! Humans are hard-wired to love sweet things. Even before refined sugar was invented, humans sought out foods with sweet tastes. Sugar, in its most natural form, is a simple carbohydrate that occurs naturally in foods such as grains, beans, vegetables and fruit. Not so long ago in our evolution, sweet foods were a rarity indeed. The only form of “sugar” that was readily available was the occasional honeycomb, and it was quite a painful chore to get. Today it lurks in almost all commercially processed foods such as breads, meats and even in your favorite condiments like Worcestershire sauce and ketchup. Many view sugar as simply a way to flavor their coffee or as a tasty, satisfying and irresistible treat. Sugar is much more, however. It’s also toxic, addictive and deadly.

If it’s so bad for us, why do we love it so much? It’s simply because our brain tells us we do. When a person consumes sugar, signals are sent to the brain, lighting up reward pathways, causing a surge of feel-good hormones to be released. With the amount of sugar in the American food supply, over-activating this reward system turns a simple chemical into an addictive substance.

Thousands of scientific studies have shown that sugar is not only addictive, but harmful, too. Overconsumption of sugar kick-starts a series of unfortunate events — loss of control, cravings and increased tolerance to sugar — which in turn can cascade into myriad health problems, the most obvious being obesity.

Obesity has become a health epidemic in the U.S., and sugar a key culprit. According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than one-third (36.5 percent) of U.S. adults are obese. Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, inflammatory diseases, learning and attention disorders, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer, some of the leading causes of preventable death.

Today, an average American ingests around 32 teaspoons of sugar per day. The USDA Dietary Guidelines recommend we consume no more than 10 teaspoons per day. A leading researcher on sugar metabolism says our body can safely metabolize only six teaspoons of added sugar daily.

Food manufacturers know how addictive sugar is. They want you to purchase their products, and to ensure that happens, they make them irresistible … addictive, in fact, to entice the consumer to purchase their products again and again.

What’s a person to do when avoiding sugar is not just difficult but at times impossible? The best tool is knowledge. Arming yourself with information allows you to make healthy choices about what foods to purchase and which to avoid. My seminar, Sweet Addiction, will focus on: what sugar really is, why we crave it, the many names it has on a nutrition label, how it affects your body, where it hides in the processed foods we consume and, most importantly, how to gain control without feeling deprived. Join me for Sweet Addiction, a “sweet” workshop about sugar, at 11 a.m. Jan. 7 at the Redmond Area Park and Recreation District Cascade Swim Center. This class is perfect for you and your children (12 and older) to participate in together to begin understanding healthy choices. The cost is $5, and you can register at raprd.org. I hope to see you there!

— Kristal Cozine is a holistic health coach and aquatics wellness instructor at the Redmond Area Park and Recreation District. Contact her at kristal@kristalcozine.com.