You are absolutely right, cutting down on refined white/brown sugar is very healthy. But, if you go a day without any pop, sugary juice, candy etc and just have the dessert, thats moderation and also cutting down on the refined sugar.
Its just that when you combine a sugary cereal, sugary juice, pop, candy bar pickme up, etc with the dessert it all adds up to way too much sugar for the day. So, they say to make up a list of all the things that you eat during the course of a normal day that have sugar in them. Then eliminate whatever you can live without, reduce the amount of the rest that you consume, and pick your bigs ones as 'rewards' that are saved for special occasions or at least limited in consumption.
IMHO, its these little changes that will have far more impact on healthy and happier living than the sudden and drastic chances we often attempt. I cant speak for others, but all the big changes I tried before failed, I just couldnt stick with em or adjust to it. But in the last three years I have been making many little changes and see great results. My cholesterol has dropped from 80 over to 47 over, I have dropped 35 pounds, and my blood sugar is now better controlled even with the loss of Avandia to help.
My wifes stepfather is Egyptian, and for him it is actually much more common to have just fruit as a dessert with a sugar dessert being the more rarity. We combined that with a reduction in daily sugar intake to find our balance. We also water down the juice we buy in concentrate form. If it calls for 3 cups water we add 4 or 5 cups. Tastes kinda watery to me but we got used to it and the kids dont even notice it at all, and again it reduced the amount of sugar per serving in the juice.
Sorry for the long replies, I am sure by now the dead horse I was beating is glue, LOL. My wife does say I have a tendancy to go on and on sometimes, but I am working on it!