I Quit Sugar for Life (2 page)

I EAT FRUIT
. Yep, one to two pieces of
whole
fruit a day, mostly low-fructose berries and kiwifruit. I encourage
cutting fruit out on the 8-week programme – it contains 1–4 teaspoons of sugar apiece – so that your body can recalibrate. I then encourage reintroducing whole fruit and seeing
how you react. To be honest, low-fructose fruit like kiwifruit, berries or grapefruit is the best option.

FRUIT IS GREAT AS A TREAT. AND ONLY EVER WHOLE (NOT DRIED OR JUICED).

Bear in mind: fruit contains more fructose than it did a few generations back (it’s being bred to be sweeter), and the idea of eating 4 pieces of fruit a day is a new
notion. My grandmother ate fruit as a sweet treat. I do too now, opting to get my fibre and vitamins from vegetables.

I EAT SUGAR DAILY. WAIT? What?
Yep, I eat fruit, and I’ll have a few squares of 70% cocoa
chocolate from time to time, even some honey. I guess it comes to about 5–8 teaspoons a day, sometimes more. I don’t tally, but let my natural appetite tell me how much feels right. And
this is the point: I’m conscious of what I’m eating and maintain a balance.

I CHOOSE HOW I TAKE MY SUGAR; I’M NOT FORCE-FED IT.

I know when it’s too much. And I back off before the addiction kicks in. I’m armed with the info now . . . ‘and you can’t unlearn this stuff’.
You just keep on using it to steer your choices.

I DON’T SHOP AT THE SUPERMARKET.
Well, only about once a fortnight for loo paper and a few tins of tuna. I just
don’t eat stuff from packets or boxes. You don’t when you quit sugar.

I EAT EXACTLY WHAT I WANT.
No deprivation, ever. I eat abundantly and freeeeeely!

I EAT THREE MEALS A DAY.
Very little snacking. More on this to come . . .

I’M NO LONGER SICK.
As I’ve shared a few times, my Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (an auto-immune disease
affecting the thyroid gland) is what saw me quit sugar in the first place. It pretty much crippled me a few years ago, some side effects of which included: whacked-out blood sugar, screwed-up
hormones, a predisposition to diabetes and high cholesterol, mood fluctuations, weakness to the point of not being able to work or walk for nine months, weight gain and much more. All of the above
are now stable or overcome. I will have to manage my disease for the rest of my life. But I can do this now and live a long, well life, something others with my disease, including my uncle and
grandmother, were not able to do. I’ve wiped out my antibody markers, something my doctors find astounding. Quitting sugar did this. It also instilled me with a calm, stable head and
happiness.

I DOUBT MYSELF OFTEN.
Which is a good thing; it keeps me experimenting and learning and alive to the issue.

When I first quit sugar, I worked to four mantras that kept me focused on why I was doing this crazy thing:

I RECENTLY TRAVELLED TO TWO OF THE WORLD’S FIVE BLUE ZONES (REGIONS WHERE PEOPLE LIVE THE LONGEST) – IKARIA IN GREECE AND SARDINIA IN
ITALY
. I joined a National Geographic team in Ikaria to look at what foods might be responsible for their robust, healthy and very long lives. What did we find? The locals eat an abundance
of whole fats, proteins and seasonal vegetables. Oh, and they eat very little sugar.

According to the latest science, sugar reacts with proteins in our bodies, changing their structure to form toxic advanced glycation end-products (AGEs), which accelerate the ageing process.
Sugar makes collagen and elastin less supple, radiant, elastic and resilient, and more susceptible to sun damage – just to complete the saggy picture.
Me, my skin changed
dramatically when I quit, within weeks.
I have fewer wrinkles now than I did five years ago. Many other quitters report the same.

A sense of belonging and keeping good company are also Blue Zone longevity factors.

These Sardinian old timers show how it’s done in a town in Nuoro where there are more centenarians than anywhere else on the planet.

This Ikarian farmer is in his 90s, drinks ½ litre of wine at lunch and has a handshake of a sumo wrestler!

According to Dan Buettner, author of
The Blue Zones
, there’s one distinguishing food all the Zones have in common – PORK. In Sardinia they slow roast it.
In Ikaria they drink pork broth for vitality. Okinawans – lauded as the longest lived of all – are the only Japanese people to eat pork regularly. One Japanese scientist speculates
it’s because pigs are genetically similar to humans and that something in pork protein helps repair arterial damage.