I Quit Sugar (and I hated it)

In March 2010, I read David Gillespie’s first book “Sweet Poison”. I’m prone to slight histrionics, so let’s say, at the time, I felt like the book changed my life. See, my father died of pancreatic cancer when I was 19, and David’s book discusses research which suggests that a major cause of pancreatic cancer, is the over supply of sugar in our diet. In fact, the whole premise of ‘Sweet Poison’ is that one of the root causes of all society’s health problems, is the introduction of sugar, specifically, fructose, into our diet, which has increased substantially in the last 200 or so years.

So of course, I decided, then and there (just before my birthday and upcoming Easter holidays) that I was going to quit sugar and that was obviously the answer to all of my fears that I would one day develop pancreatic cancer, and die the way my father did.

Now, for those who know me, I am a dedicated chocolate lover. In particular, Cadbury’s Dairy Milk, and of late, the new Cadbury’s Bubbly Mint flavour. My theory is that eating Mint chocolate is practically like eating a piece of fruit because it is so darn refreshing. Ice cream rates pretty highly up there as well. However, I have never really been a fan of soft drink (makes my teeth feel furry), never drink juice and I never eat muesli bars or “fruity” breakfast cereal. I did make my own granola from scratch, with dried fruit and honey, but never store bought.

But, as David is a lawyer and so am I, naturally I trusted everything that he said. So I cut out sugar. Cold turkey. Probably so cold, that it was frozen. Frozen turkey.

The first day or two was ok, but day three and four were awful. I felt like I could eat for hours and still not be full. I couldn’t think of anything other than eating and no matter how many potato chips or hot chips I ate, I just wasn’t full. David describes this as “withdrawal” and suggests that everyone’s experience is different, suggesting that these symptoms were normal, along with increased thirst or headaches.

About a week after quitting sugar, the withdrawal symptoms seemed to subside. David also opines that the “other half” of table sugar, being glucose, is perfectly safe and doesn’t have the deleterious effects on your health like the “evil half”, being fructose. So once I felt like I was “off” sugar, I went down to my local Woolies and purchased a half kilo bag of “dextrose” which is basically glucose in powdered form, so that I could still bake cupcakes. However, dextrose has a very very odd taste to it. Like a chemical fizzing in your mouth. TASTY.

I quickly became one of ‘those’ types when invited out to dinner or to parties. I was preachy, fussy and so darn annoying. At one barbeque, I asked if the mayonnaise in the coleslaw was “fat free”, when the host said “yes”, I refused to eat it (because fat free usually means high sugar). I was also grumpy all the time because I was denying myself treats. I admit, my appetite was under control, I no longer felt like I was constantly thinking about food and eating dessert wasn’t a habit anymore. I was also adding about three huge, heaped teaspoons of dextrose into my coffee every morning, because you need roughly double the amount of dextrose to achieve the sweetness of sugar. I was also drinking about 3-4 diet Cokes a week for a sweet fix ,when previously, I never drank soft drink.

So, just before Christmas 2010, I decided to fall back off the wagon. Well, I went crazy. Pretty much for 12 months following my decision to eat sugar again, I was on a rampage. It was like every sweet treat that I ate was a way of giving the finger to David Gillespie. It came back 10 times worse than it was before I gave up sugar!

Cutting out sugar wasn’t a good idea for me. I felt that deprivation just led to me going on a crazy sugar rampage. While I accept the science relied upon by David, I don’t believe in never eating dessert again. Some lessons I learned, I stick with. For example, I don’t add sugar to my tea or coffee anymore, and I pretty much never eat breakfast cereal, only weetbix, fruit free muesli or rolled oats. I steer clear of balsamic vinegar too, because that is full of sugar as well! But honestly, I really look back and think that it was like some ridiculous diet or ‘detox’ as the trendy name is now.

David Gillespie is now becoming huge in the mainstream media, thanks to bandwagon jumper, Sarah Wilson, and breakfast TV show, Sunrise, hosting a week long special with David as the guest. So, cutting out sugar is the new diet trend for 2012. Everyone’s on the bandwagon. Well, this is one where I can safely say I was about two years ahead of the curve! I may have been behind the times with skinny jeans, but I was way out in front with this one. Go me!

“Big Fat Lies” is a new book David has just released. I have it out from the library at the moment. According to the blurb, David has now added polyunsaturated fat to his list of evil food, and suggests that eliminating sugar and polyunsaturated fat means that you eliminate virtually all processed food from your diet. Sorry, but I have to question, does David honestly think that people are stupid? Of course EATING LESS PROCESSED FOOD IS THE BEST WAY TO EAT. I mean, that isn’t exactly a great revelation. I haven’t finished the book yet, but I’m sure he is backpeddling from his earlier suggestions that you can eat ‘whatever you want’ as long as it doesn’t contain sugar! Bet potato chips containing vegetable oil (largely polyunsaturated) are now on the ‘banned’ list, when they were previously on the ‘totally acceptable’ list!

So, you could say I’m not longer a fan of David Gillespie and Sarah Wilson. Honestly, I’m over being preached to about how bad sugar is. I know the best foods for me are vegetables, fruit, meat and whole grains, but eating like this 24/7 is boring and unsustainable.

Now, I’m off to go hunt down so Dairy Milk Mint Bubbly! YUM.

Have you tried quitting sugar? Any other extreme diet? How did it go?