Sugar Shock: The Dish on Desserts :

I am a sucker for sweets. Always have been, probably always will be.

I've been known to shoot whipped cream straight into my mouth, and as a child, I was notorious for snacking on sugar packets while waiting for food when my family went out to dinner.

I have a thing for sprinkles (rainbow are best), and if you turn your head for too long, I'll sneakily finish off that brownie sundae we're sharing.

I bake to share, but eat more cookie dough than I'll ever admit, and in my opinion, there's nothing a slice of warm chocolate cake, with chocolate ice cream, chocolate syrup and a cherry can't fix.

Does any of this sound familiar? As much as it feels good to know I'm not the only one with my hand constantly in the proverbial cookie jar, it doesn't make it right .Let's face it: We're a nation of sugar junkies. When we go out to dinner, we order dessert -- whether we have room or not. A Häagen-Dazs pint is part of our nightly TV-watching routine. And when there's a birthday at the office… Wait a minute, did someone say cake?

The average American consumes nearly 20 teaspoons of sugar a day -- twice as much recommended by health experts . In fact, according to U.S. News & World Report, we consumed about 142 pounds of sugar each in 2003. Each! In 1967, that number was only 114 pounds.

Compare that to our measly 8.3 pounds of broccoli and just over 25 pounds of dark lettuce, and it's clear where our priorities lie. Actually, I couldn't even imagine myself eating 142 pounds of anything green.

So let's not waste any more time talking about that boring leafy, healthy stuff . What we really want is dessert. Ooey, gooey, chewy goodness. But before you dive into that pool of chocolate in your lava cake, let's just see how much trouble this little sugar tooth of ours is actually getting us into… And, to be fair, we're also offering up some "healthier" suggestions .

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