Tag Archives: no sugar diet

A Year of No Sugar: Post 10

A Year of No Sugar, , , , , ,

“People will eat what’s cheapest and most available, and what’s cheapest and most available right now is food that makes people fat and unhealthy.”

-Dr. Andrew Weil

(from interview in The Sun issue 421)

After topping off at the gas station the other day the digital screen graciously effused: “Thanks for using.”

“Oh yeah,” I thought, “Like I have a choice.” And I was struck by the thought that sugar in our culture works very much the same way. Like it or not; we’re all “using” as they say.

To live in our culture, shop in our supermarkets, and eat in our restaurants is to buy into our national, yet utterly silent addiction to sugar. Exhibit A: the Health Food store/aisle (dum dum dum DUMMMMM!)

Look closely folks, is this really an alternative? Well, yes, in some ways it certainly is. Want organic, non-genetically modified marinara sauce or wild-caught, dolphin-free canned tuna (to the tune of $7 a tin)? Want breakfast cereal that educates your kids about the rainforest or biodegradable toilet paper? Free-range chicken and growth-hormone-free milk? Even if these products aren’t local, their commitment to a world that is more responsible in terms of our environment, animal welfare and our bodies is laudible.

But don’t assume that this is a free ride, no matter how much that can of tuna costs you. Better isn’t perfect, I’m afraid, and in more cases that you can possible imagine we’ve apparently traded sugar and high-fructose corn syrup for things which just sound a lot nicer: unsulphured molasses. Dehydrated cane juice. Apple-juice concentrate. Brown rice syrup. Even in “hard core” brands that health food aisle veterans know and trust like Mothers and Barbara’s… seek and ye shall find, I’m afraid. I spent freaking forever in the health food cereal aisle yesterday and out of several dozen boxes came up with two- TWO- that had no sugar of any kind in them. Undaunted, (okay, maybe a little daunted) I pressed on to the regular cereal aisle, composed of perhaps a hundred different choices and found one more (hooray for good ol’ shredded wheat!)

I know that as we go on in our project it will get easier- I’ll know the items to go directly to, and my shopping will occur with laser-like precision and speed. In the meantime, though, going to the grocery store takes fifty percent longer, is twelve times more frustrating, and leaves me sorely needing a nap.

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Information About The No Sugar Project

 

A Year of No Sugar: Post 9

A Year of No Sugar, , , ,
Steve and Eve's Super Banana Sunday

You know, if I hadn’t been there myself, I would’ve said it wasn’t possible. But I am astounded to report that our now-six-year-old Ilsa had a lovely family birthday party Tuesday night, complete with presents, candles, her requested birthday meal, and a special dessert… which we really did do (drumroll please…) without sugar. YES!

Even better is the fact that she had no idea anything was afoot in the dessert department- which makes me SO glad. The last thing I want is to have my kids growing up feeling warped and deprived because of their crazy-ass mother’s hair-brained projects. Sure a “Year Without Sugar” means one thing to you and me- but to a six-year old? It might as well be forever.

On the other hand, it might as well be three seconds too. That’s the plus side- 99 percent of the time Ilsa forgets about the project entirely: she still asks for dessert regularly and tells me about eating cupcakes at school with an innocence that I find utterly charming. This morning we had oatmeal for breakfast, which I jazzed up by adding some lovely cut strawberries and blueberries. I was pretty impressed with myself, but she was not. After a few bites she said to me, “I wish we could have some maple syrup or something on this…” she thought for a moment, “But… we can’t? Because of the sugar…?” “Yes,” I said gently.

“But it’s not forever,” I added hopefully.

Now, promptly after this conversation I ‘m am fairly confident she went off to school and had her usual second breakfast of Frosted Flakes, (more about that in an upcoming post) so don’t fret too overly much on her behalf.

Meanwhile Greta, our ten year old, has a much more fully-developed consciousness about what it is we’re trying to do here and how she feels about all of it. Trouble is, that opinion varies from moment to moment. One minute she’s shocked, simply shocked that I am serving a frozen pizza to our family that has (gasp!) evaporated cane juice listed as the ninety-seventh ingredient… the next she’s eating Skittles at All School Meeting, or sneaking peppermints from the jar near a store cash register.

Hey- I’m no ogre. When Greta got that handful of Skittles, she reluctantly came over and asked me if she could eat them. She had been having an exceptionally hard day at school and a well-meaning soul had offered them in an attempt to cheer her up. I told her truthfully that I was going to leave it up to her- at which point she departed with lightning speed, presumably in case I decided to change my mind on that pronouncement.

I don’t think I’m going to though. We’re doing this project as a family, and for the most part the food of the family comes through one conduit: me. I do the vast majority of the menu planning, shopping and cooking in our house, not to mention lunch packing, so consequently the vast majority of what the kids eat is being affected by this experiment. In other words, while I am strict and very serious about sugar and it’s myriad faces, and following our rules to the fullest extent possible- am I going to be the Sugar Nazi? No. After all, this experiment is in part about teaching our children to make good, informed, conscious choices about what they put into their bodies. We have set up the guidelines, and already we’ve all learned a lot we didn’t know before about our food; but only they can figure out what this project specifically means for them.

Which for some reason makes a small victory like the other night’s birthday dessert all the more significant to me. After our traditional birthday meal of english muffin pizzas (after finding alternative, no-sugar brands of English Muffins and marinara sauce, or course) paired with some spinach, we stuck a candle in what I fervently hoped would be a delicious grand-finale… banana splits: bananas halved, banana ice cream (Steve’s famous single-ingredient recipe: frozen bananas he runs through the Champion juicer), topped with strawberries marinated in balsamic vinegar (but omitting the called-for sugar), whipped cream (ditto) and a fresh cherry on top. PS- no added sugar.

It looked pretty decadent, but I was petrified. What if it was awful? What if it tasted like cardboard? I took a bite. Hey- wow! Happily, the girls were exclaiming as they ate- the banana ice cream was the key- perfect and sweet all on it’s own, creamy like the best gelato… and the cream and strawberries made it just the right amount more colorful and complex. I sighed a HUGE sigh of relief… and I began to think we might just make it through this project after all.

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Information About The No Sugar Project

 

A Year of No Sugar: Post 8

A Year of No Sugar,

As expected: there are some bumps in the road on the way to no-sugar nirvana. Last night after reading my post my husband Steve took issue with the “fruit juice rationale” that I had so carefully worked out, and I got a little emotional. Maybe more than a little. (“You just don’t care about this project do you? Sniff!”) I was tired, cranky, sweet-deprived, and worst of all he had a good point. I couldn’t even have a piece of chocolate to console myself about how hard this all is. It doesn’t help when I remind myself that this is only day ten, with 355 more to go.

Have I mentioned this is hard? Like, “sugar-is-out-to-get-me-and-lurks-around-every-corner-waiting-to-pounce” hard? True confessions time: in addition to still trying to throw-out/give away/finish eating the sugar-ingredient-ed items in our pantry- Pepperidge Farm goldfish, Late July crackers, the now-infamous organic chicken broth, and so on- Steve and I have each faltered and had a bite (okay three) of desserts put in front of us at various events (Steve’s downfall: bread pudding, mine: homemade chocolate birthday-party cake). Okay, okay, I know it’s only been a week, but this “working out the parameters” period is killing me!

Nevertheless, so far we have managed to establish the following guidelines:

  1. No sugar. Which means no:white sugarbrown sugar

    cane sugar

    molasses

    maple syrup

    honey

    evaporated cane syrup

    agave

    brown rice syrup

    dextrose (check your french fries!)

    artificial sweeteners of all stripes

    and yes… fruit juice

     

  2. The exception: as a family we’ll pick one dessert to have every month which can contain sugar. If it is your birthday that month, you get to pick the dessert.
  3. Eve’s “fruit juice rationale” –ie: the idea that fruit juice is okay if there is actual fruit present- is to be used only in the event of a food-emergency. As in: “we need to eat dinner tonight and it’s either this or toast.” (see also: Murphy’s Law of Hats and Sausages.) Translation: no more Polaner All-Fruit jam, no more fruit gummis. Darn.

Next hurdle: our youngest daughter’s sixth birthday is this week, but her party is this weekend. It’s already been decided that we’ll have cupcakes at the kid party (she wants chocolate with strawberry icing)- but then, how do we have a family birthday party- for a six-year-old- without a dessert? That’s the $64,000 question.

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Information About The No Sugar Project