Sugar-free update
It’s been just over two weeks since Rebecca and I decided to take a break from drinking any alcohol, or eating any processed sugar. While visiting last night, a friend of ours confided that she was truly interested in what we have been eating and drinking since the beginning of the month, and how the whole thing has been going. To tell the truth, it really hasn’t been that big of a deal for us, and we’ve had to make very few changes to our diet and our lifestyle. In case others are equally interested, here is what we have been doing:
1. While giving up alcohol has not been overly difficult, I am not going to say that I don’t miss having a drink now and then. Having a cold beer after sailing, hashing, or a tough repair job is something that I enjoy. I also sometimes like to have a glass of wine or two in the evening. What have we been drinking instead? Water, and lots of it. We have always drank our coffee black so we haven’t had to change our morning routine. When it comes to sundowner time, we will often mix ourselves a “mocktail” of club soda with a splash of fruit juice, or a lime wedge. Note that this is the same thing we would normally drink except with vodka added. We’ve found that the sunsets are just as pretty without the alcohol in the drink.
Last night. We’ve been enjoying the sunsets from Prickly Bay.
2. As Rebecca pretty much never added sugar to recipes to begin with, she’s had to make very few changes with respect to cooking, with the following exception: condiments and sauces. Once you begin reading the labels, you’d be amazed at the number of things that do have sugar added to them. The following is a list of things that we’ve opted to omit from our diet this month:
- Bacon and ham
- Clamato juice
- Worcestershire sauce
- Sriracha sauce
- Wraps
- Almond milk
- Chocolate
- Maple syrup
- Honey
- Pickled ginger
I had read that many people go through serious withdrawal when giving up sugar cold turkey. We must not have been eating much in the first place because we have experienced none of that.
3. As we have been taking this pretty seriously, we have avoided eating out due to the lack of control over what restaurants add to their meals. This has been great on our pocketbook!
Rebecca has found another use for our stern arch.
Why give up on honey ?? It’s not processed sugar and very good for you !
Well, while all-natural honey may not be processed, I’d argue against your point that it’s very good for you. How do you figure that it’s good for you?
Source of antioxidants The presence of free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS) is culpable in the pro- cesses of cellular dysfunction, pathogenesis of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) as well as aging. The consumption of foods and substances rich in antioxidant can protect against these pathological changes and con- sequently prevent the pathogenesis of these and other chronic ailments. Researches indicate that NH contains several important compounds, and these include antioxi- dants [26,27]. The qualitative and quantitative compos- ition of honey (including the antioxidants constituent and the other phytochemical substances) is a reflection of the floral source as well as the variety of the particular honey.
Honey is magic !! You can find many more benefits – just google. Do not cut it out of your diet just because it is sweet -;)
Some or all of that may be true, I’m not interested in investing the time to research it, but honey is also a super calorie dense substance. In the categories of sweeteners it may be at the top of the list but I still wouldn’t go looking to add it to my recipes unless they need to be made sweeter.