News
Email
Print
Sweet Rewards: Family successful in reducing sugar in diet, but not cutting it out completely
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: July 1, 2009
Ireceived a lot of feedback on my June 10 column, about my family's experiment in cutting out sugar.
The three-week experiment has ended, but we are eating much less sugar.
The kids still ask for sweets, but not constantly. And we are limiting treats to the weekends or special occasions.
The kids' breakfasts are improved. They now eat healthy proteins, usually with whole fruit, instead of refined-flour carbs and sugar.
I ‘m using about a third as much sugar in my coffee, and I'm eating about half as much ice cream as before.
The biggest change has been in my wife. She ended one experiment only to try another, more challenging one. She is now on what is called an anti-inflammation diet. It is designed to determine if someone is sensitive to certain foods. The basic method is to cut out sugar, wheat, peanuts, alcohol and most red meat for three weeks, then gradually reintroduce these foods one by one to see how the body reacts.
This diet has revolutionized her food intake. Making it even more difficult is the prescribed proportions of food, which call for a high ratio of vegetables and fruit to proteins and grains. I may have more on this later, but I'm glad I'm not trying to eat like this.
To return to the feedback about sugar, lots of folks have made long-term progress in reducing sugar from their diets.
Interestingly, only a few have cut it out completely. Some, such as Jennifer Miloy, have had success by putting strict limits on how much they eat. She limits herself to 20 grams (about 5 teaspoons) a day.
Many continue to struggle with it. "Occasionally (when under stress especially), I will go wild and eat a lot of candy out of the office candy dish," said Catherine Dancy, who began her battle with sugar 30 years ago.
Several people now rely on sugar substitutes. C.J. "Ray" McCrary Jr. said he lost a taste for sugar when it was rationed during World War II, when he was growing up. "The only sugar-sweetened thing that I will abide is "real Southern iced tea," he wrote.
His mother started him on saccharin, and he still uses that, as well as Splenda.
Wendy Evensen prefers the newest sugar substitute, a natural sweetener derived from the stevia plant. "I've been preaching sugar and salt abstinence for over 15 years. We don't have a salt shaker in the house, and we seldom use sugar," she wrote.
Evensen also sent me a copy of the 146 things wrong with sugar, a list by Nancy Appleton, the author of Lick the Sugar Habit and other books (www.nancyappleton.com).
Lucille Fine was also one of several people, mostly teachers, who commented on sugar and children. "Ask any elementary-school teacher how hard it is to control the class after they come back from a sugar-laden lunch," she wrote.
Fine started cutting out sugar 54 years ago when she was pregnant. Now she is "over 80" with no systemic medical problems, such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes or arthritis. "My weight hasn't varied more than five pounds since I was in my 20s," she said.
I got quite a few other insightful letters. One that particularly struck me was from a young woman, a rising junior at Davidson College, who cut out junk food several years ago
Actually, it was her mother who wrote to me first. Virginia Perry, a counselor at Forsyth Country Day School, was taken aback when her daughter, Clare, announced that she planned to give up junk food for Lent. Perry advised her daughter against it. She thought that it was too ambitious. "Well, she ignored my advice and gave it all up … and has never gone back. It has been over six years now," Perry wrote.
Later that day, Clare wrote to me. After the 40 days of Lent -- which included a cake-less birthday -- Clare indulged in some Easter chocolate, then went right back to her diet. "I realized in the next weeks that any craving I once had for a sweet treat or for ‘good American comfort food' was completely gone," she wrote.
Clare seemed more interested in reducing fat than sugar. She admits to an occasional piece of chocolate or pie, and some pastries on a recent trip to France.
She said that people have trouble understanding why she eats the way she does -- which just makes me think that nutrition education is sorely lacking.
Her mother told me discouraging stories about the peer pressure that Clare had to endure during high school. When Perry talked about Clare's teammates telling her to "just try it" during a postgame pit stop at Wendy's, it reminded me of some public-service TV ad warning kids against drugs.
For Clare, the reasons for her diet are simple. "I have more energy. I have excelled more in my athletics (field hockey at Davidson), and I have learned to love healthy foods," she said.
■ Michael Hastings, the Journal's Food editor, can be contacted by phone at 727-7394, e-mail at mhastings@wsjournal.com, or mail at c/o Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27102. His most recent columns can be read on our Web site at www.journalnow.com.
Email
Print
