How Decreasing Refined Sugar in My Diet Made Me Healthier

I admit it. I was a sugar junkie. I would start my day with a caffeinated soda, dumping almost ten teaspoons of sugar into my system by drinking one can. I loved the taste of doughnuts, pastries, and chocolates. Born with some biological quirk, I could eat as much sugar as I wanted without gaining too much weight.

That was then. Something happened after I had a child, and my body seemed to turn against me. When I ate sugar, I had strange and troubling symptoms. My heart would race, weight started accumulating in areas I really didn't want it to, and my cholesterol rose. Faced with the idea of an increasing waist size and cholesterol inhibiting drugs, I decided to quit my sugar habit cold turkey.

(If you are considering any kind of diet change, please check with your doctor first. As my own doctor did, they can give you valuable insight to your specific medical needs.)

Knowing my eating habits, I decided to exclude caffeine in my diet, also. I knew that if I changed my diet slowly, my personality would end up cheating. A lot. Admittedly, the first few weeks were... difficult. Very difficult. I had extreme mood swings, wild sugar cravings, and wanted to fall asleep at my desk constantly. While grocery shopping, I hurried past the pastry display case, hearing the call of a Boston Cream doughnut calling my name.

Always a label-reader of food packages, I was shocked at how many foods had sugar added to their product. Sugar, high fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin, sucrose, and dextrose all became the enemy. I almost cried when I found out that one of my favorite snacks, Doritos, had corn syrup solids in their ingredient list.

I had also made the decision to stay away from artificial sweeteners, like Aspartame. After reading a number of reports that the sweetener may be unsafe, I put the sweeteners on my diet no-go list.

It took about a month for the sugar cravings to go away. By that time, I had lost an amazing fifteen pounds. My cholesterol had dropped about forty points. I also lost the up-and-down mood swings I had created while ingesting sugar and caffeine.

I found that I was replacing whole, natural foods for the refined ones I had eaten before. Instead of eating a piece of chocolate, I would eat a banana or an orange. I increased the amount of greens in my diet, including more salads and fresh vegetables. For the first in my life, I didn't have intense cravings for sugary foods.

More than seven years later, I still avoid refined sugars. I have kept the weight off, and my cholesterol has remained level.

I have included some "natural" sugars in my diet, such as honey and molasses. (Found in moderate amounts in some "natural" foods such as yogurt, cereal, and sparking beverages.) I help myself to a few bites of birthday cake at a party or special occasion. I don't miss my high sugar diet at all.

I don't consider removing refined sugar from my diet as a restriction, however. It has given me better health and more energy. I have learned to appreciate the natural flavor of whole foods, and have cut down on the cost of convenience items (filled with sugar) at the grocery store. I've found that removing sugar from my diet has been an investment in my health.