Sugar-Free Week – Sort of

You may recall that Lanny and I spent a Saturday morning at the library for a workshop on nutrition presented by Dr. Scott.  He spent much of the workshop explaining why he believes we consume far too much sugar. His challenge was simple: “Stop eating sugar and things that turn into sugar.”

Lanny and I decided we’d give it a try for one week.  How hard could that be?  Much harder than we thought.

First, we had to figure out when we were eating sugar.  I assumed that meant no dessert, which is my favorite part of the meal.  That one was easy to recognize. But once we started considering everything on our plate, we knew we had bitten off a bigger commitment than we casually thought it would be.  A whole week without dessert, no problem.  A week without all the sugar hiding in our everyday food was a different situation.  The elimination of sugar and foods that turned into sugar required recalibration, so we had to adjust our commitment. 

Remove bread and desserts – check, except for a few slices of sandwich bread.

Remove sugar laden condiments and salad dressings – check.  Thankfully I had purchased the Heinz Ketchup made with Stevia considering everything is better with a little ketchup.

Remove processed foods that are made with sugar – almost a check.  This one required more effort and a lot of label reading. I thought I was pretty good at spying out the sugars in these foods but was surprised to see how much sugar I overlooked. Honestly, I couldn’t eliminate all of them. For example, I had no idea that one of my favorite marinara sauces had added sugar.  I won’t throw it out.  This stuff isn’t cheap, but I won’t buy that brand again.  And now I know that I need to check EVERYTHING.  Not just the obvious foods. 

Then we got to the fruit and foods like potatoes. That’s where our experiment became less rigid.  We had fresh peaches a friend had given us, and I wasn’t about to declare a beautiful summer peach the enemy. We ate them. We also continued eating some potatoes, although we reduced the portions.

At that point, our “no sugar” week had officially become our “a lot less sugar” week.

And honestly, I’m okay with that.

After only a week, we both think we feel better. My energy seems more stable, and we’ve both noticed less joint discomfort. Whether that’s from reducing sugar, eating fewer processed foods, changing the overall composition of our meals or some combination of everything, I certainly can’t know after one week. Lanny is down four pounds. I’m down about one, which naturally annoys me. 😂 But weight wasn’t really the point of this experiment.

I don’t know if we’ll ever become a completely sugar-free household. Frankly, I don’t think that’s our goal. But after one week, I found out something I didn’t know before. I know there’s more added sugar hiding in our everyday food than I realized. And now that I’ve seen it, it’s difficult to unsee it.  But, oh, what I would give right now for a chocolate covered Bavarian cream filled doughnut!

Maybe that’s the most useful part of this little experiment. We don’t have to empty the pantry, swear off every peach or promise we’ll never eat another doughnut.

We can simply start paying attention. Read a few labels. Notice where the added sugar is coming from. Decide whether it’s worth it. And then make the next grocery trip a little different from the last one.

That’s what we’re doing. We’ll see where it takes us.

— Jamie Harrington
Curious explorer of living well in the second half of life

Freedom to Thrive Sugar Challenge

For one week, I challenge you not to change anything at first. Just notice.

Look at the labels on:

• sauces
• salad dressing
• bread
• packaged foods
• drinks

Find the added sugar.

Then choose one thing you regularly buy and see whether there’s an alternative with less added sugar that you’d enjoy.