Introduction 

• Ask the average person on the street, and I’m sure the majority would say that sugar is bad, getting that information into the sub-conscious has worked. What hasn’t worked it’s way into the average persons sub-conscious are either of the following: (1) carbohydrates are converted to glucose (sugar) in the body and eating refined carbohydrates (white bread, white rice etc) is basically eating sugar (2) fat is good for you, we need to consume more fat.
• These points have also taken me some additional time to digest, and writing this blog post was the final motivation I needed to kick my sugar and refined carb habit.
• The aim of this piece is three-fold; (1) provide a brief overview of the literature and theory supporting the view that sugar & carbohydrates are the cause of many major health problems in developed countries (2) highlight the foods you need to drop to cut sugar and refined carbohydrates out of your diet (3) highlight the best foods to add in to your diet to replace the sugary and poor quality carbs you need to remove.
• Through researching this piece I have found that other resources are great at explaining the theory and the benefits, but there isn’t enough information on what you actually need to give up and good alternatives, hence this blog.
• Additional resources I suggest checking out:
  • Michael Moss – Salt Sugar Fat
  • Dr Robert Lustig’s lecture, Sugar: the Bitter Truth, on YouTube
  • Dr John Briffa – Escape the Diet Trap
  • Dr Robert Lustig – The toxic truth about sugar’
  • Gary Taubes, – The Diet Delusion

 

The Theory 

• Get ready to throw one of the most ‘obvious’ things in the world out of the window; fat doesn’t cause fat. More specifically, eating high quality unsaturated fats will not cause you to gain weight and become obese. One of the reasons it took me so longer to really alter my diet was that this is so counter-intuitive. However, the science really has spoken, it isn’t consumption of fat that is making us fat, it is our over-indulgence in sugar & refined carbohydrates.
• It isn’t just those looking to improve their physique who need sit up and take note. As Gary Taubes highlights in the Diet Delusion, sugars and refined carbohydrates are also responsible for heart disease, cancer, diabetes and a whole host of other modern problems.
• Therefore, we need to re-think our fundamental message. It isn’t that obesity, diabetes cancer etc. is about how many calories we eat in total but the quality of those calories, and that not all calories are made equal. As a society we’ve got to stop thinking “I can have the ciabatta roll and doughnut because I went to the gym”, and start thinking about the quality of the calories we are taking on and  about removing sugar from our diets.
• If it isn’t fat that’s causing all the problems and calories aren’t made equal, then what is causing the problems?
• Firstly, there is sugar. Sugar is found as Lactose or Fructose. Added sugar drives your insulin levels up, messes with your metabolism, and causes those calories to turn into fat around your belly. There are different types of sugar, the one that probably gets the  most negative press is the processed sugar called HFCS (high fructose corn syrup), it is sweeter than standard table sugar (sucrose), although less sweet than fructose. It is often found in highly processed food. While it rightly has a bad reputation, people often don’t understand that all sugar should have the same negative reputation.
• Secondly, there are refined carbohydrates. Refined carbohydrates fuel the over production of insulin, which in turn promotes fat storage, this is because carbohydrates eventually become sugar in the body, something not enough people understand.
• The NHS recommends that we try to limit ourselves to 10tsp (40g) of added sugars a day, but some, including the World Health Organisation, have suggested this should be 6 tsp for women and 8 tsp for men.
• The final thing I want to debunk in this section on theory is the commonly held belief that increasing your fat intake will increase your cholesterol. What people often fail to get is that healthy unsaturated fats which you get in nuts, vegetables, coconut oil etc provide the polyphenols and omega 3 acids to help to reduce thrombosis and inflammation independent of changes in cholesterol.

 

Foods to cut 

• Now you’ve got a good grip of the science I want to focus on the what foods you should be looking to cut to put that science into practice.
• First off there are some very obvious candidates that need to be thrown out: doughnuts, sweets, milk chocolate, cookies etc these are the obvious things which are extremely high In sugar content and that people have known for a long term are bad for them.
• Now the obvious stuff is covered, it’s time to get down to business. If you really want to remove sugar from your life and your diet you basically have to give up everything you buy that comes in a box, bag, or can as they are likely to either have added sugars and/or be made of refined carbohydrates.
• This list includes almost all cereals because they are made of processed grain with add sugar; Cheerios, Fruit and Fibre, Frosted Flakes, Frosted Mini Wheats, Special K etc. Also on the ‘to be kicked out’ list is other normal breakfast choices including,  flavoured yogurts & jam and also every Tomato Sauce you’ve ever put your hands on.
• Next to be axed are your refined carbohydrates, biggest of which are: white rice, chips, crisps, pizza, cereals, white flour and anything made with white flour such as bread, muffins, bagels, cakes, pasta, biscuits, etc.
• Also be aware of fruit, while the sugars in fruit are much healthier than those found in processed food they are still not great for your body. Try removing bananas, grapes and melon as a starting point. Some fruits have much lower sugar values and these are detailed in the next section.
• Finally, and perhaps the most contradictory of all, is stay as far away as possible from anything which describes itself as ‘low fat’, it’s fundamentally a code for ‘high sugar’ and ‘make you obese’. ‘Low fat’ options were created in the 1970s & 1980s by large processed food companies as a away to combat the flawed science that we need to reduce our fat intake. These companies stripped out the fat from products and replaced with sugars and poor quality carbohydrates, making them far less healthy than before.

 

Foods to eat 

• Finally the food groups which are unrefined carbohydrates. As highlighted already, to minimise your sugar intake you should minimise your carbohydrate intake, however if you are going to eat carbs make sure your body is working as hard as possible for the glucose. Only eat unrefined carbs and keep them to a minimal, specifically: brown pasta, granary/multi-grain bread, brown rice, lentils, sweet potato, quinoa and buckwheat.
• Fourthly, fruit and vegetables. As highlighted in the section above we need to be aware of overly sugary fruits,  but low sugar fruits including cranberries, raspberries, apples, kiwi fruits, avocado, olives & rhubarb are all good to eat. Almost all vegetables are excellent, the more you get the better, think kale, spinach, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, courgette, but remember that raw vegetables are the best of all, think peppers and sugar snaps, which also make perfect snacks.
• Thirdly, nuts & seeds.  Regulars in my cupboard are almonds, coconut flakes,  chia seeds, flaxseed & hazelnuts. These are excellent not just for snacks but for sprucing up main meals, why not add chia seeds to a homemade salad dressing to change things up?
• Secondly, embrace high quality protein. Beef, chicken, pork and lamb are all excellent and healthy sources, but also eggs, sustainably sourced fish, full fat Greek yoghurt and cheese are great staples that remain when you kick sugar out of your diet.
• Firstly, embrace the power of the bean. People are often scared when told they need to cut out bread, white pasta, rice etc and have no idea what to replace it with, enter the bean. Chickpeas, kidney beans, lentils and black-eyed peas are all excellent low carb alternatives.
• Hopefully reading the list of foods you should cut out has not left you feeling too disheartened, there are a large number of very tasty foods which are high in protein and unsaturated fat.
• Now I’ve covered a solid basis of foods you should be consuming if looking to minimise your sugar intake, I’m going to offer some more hints and tips to help you along the way:
  • Use coconut oil when frying good, it’s made of 90% saturated fat and easier turned to ketones in the liver
  • To satisfy chocolate cravings try switching to dark chocolate
  • Alcoholic beverages are shockingly high in sugar, so try switching to red wine (a glass only contains half a teaspoon of sugar)
  • In baking switch out your sugar to stevia (sugar substitute extracted from plant leaves)
  • Use vanilla beans/extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and citrus zests to add sweetness to foods without adding sugar
• If you are looking for ideas to replace your sugar and carb heavy breakfast then read my post on converting to a ketogenic breakfast here: http://jablifestyle.net/2016/05/22/converting-to-a-ketogenic-breakfast/
• Whilst removing sugar from your diet isn’t easy, it doesn’t mean you only get to eat rabbit food. Foods which are banned by many conventional diets are still perfectly acceptable when you’re just looking to remove sugar, for example bacon or cheese!

 

Conclusion 

• Within this piece I hope to have highlighted in a concise manner why we should all be looking to sugar and carbohydrates rather than fat as the central force driving the health problems within developed economies.
• We all need to do something about this issue, and you should start today. Personally I haven’t completely removed all carbohydrates from my diet, but I have cut all refined carbohydrates, reduced my unrefined carbohydrates intake and cut out all sugar.
• This isn’t an easy thing to do, and takes a considerable amount of getting used to. One thing I do think that helps is FoodSwitch – A free app which scans labels and shows you the total fat, saturated fat, sugars and salt contained within as well as identifying healthier alternatives.
• Cutting out sugar and carbohydrates and replacing them with more protein and more fat feels counter-intuitive but the science fully backs it up, so jump in and get started.

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