Video - Sugar: Beyond Obesity and Tooth Decay

Tempted by Easter Candy

We went to the supermarket. They had a seasonal aisle filled with Easter stuff. Gwenn looked for Cadbury chocolate eggs, which she likes. I watched. Then I saw the Reeses peanut butter eggs.

I love eating Reeses peanut butter eggs. Well, I really like the taste of them. Or, I liked to eat the first three. After that the fun fades and they start to taste like chemicals and food product. I know this from consuming bags of ‘em. You might know what I’m talking about.

I think it was last year that I purchased a package of six peanut butter candy eggs in the spring and kept them in the kitchen until my annual four days of sweetness. They were edible but not very tasty by the time I went for them. (Try keeping some bananas in your cabinet for nine months!)

While looking at the packages of sugary treats in the store, I was reminded of my mother. Every year she’d buy me Reeses peanut butter eggs. She’s kind like that. She even got them for me for a while after I stopped being sweet. It was a little hard to receive a gift like that. After several failed attempts, she has stopped giving me sugar.

I’ve been tempted by Easter candy before. This time I had a little internal dialogue while standing in the store…

“I could eat these. I’ll have just one for the holiday.”

Then I saw the bags.

“I could get just one bag full and that would be enough.”

Then I thought about how one little chocolate turned into a mess in France, how I’d have to admit on this blog that I caved and ate Reeses, and how I’d feel worse after eating them than before. So I walked away. That’s the best thing to do in that situation.

Just. Walk. Away.

The temptation never ends. After all of my years without sugar it was difficult to see those chocolate eggs on the shelf in the bright colored, fun section of the store. And again when I saw them on the endcap display by the frozen foods. And again by the checkout register. They really know how to hock their wares, don’t they?

24 Hour No Sugar Challenge!

This week’s focus is on one day of no sugar solidarity.

On Thursday, March 8, 2012, we will join together and spend the entire day sugar free.

This is an experiment. Can you last one day without eating sweets? You won’t be alone.

From midnight ‘til midnight, avoid all added sugars.

Have a question about what food is “acceptable” or not? If you’re unsure whether or not you should eat it, avoid it. It’s only one day.

Use the comments in this post to share your thoughts. Good luck!

The Results of Our Juice Fast

Dinner and dessert!

Last week, Gwenn and I attempted a juice fast because we watched the film Sick, Fat, and Nearly Dead after hearing about it from my friend Jason, and then again from Nicole at My Years Without Sugar. The film documents how two men regain their health by fasting and drinking nothing but fresh made fruit and vegetable juice.

The idea behind juicing is (loosely) that you use a juicer to remove the micronutrients in liquid form from fruits and vegetables. Because you couldn’t easily eat the amount of fiber it takes to produce a single glass of juice, the machine separates the juice from the fiber leaving you with a cup full of nutrient-rich juice and a container of pulp.

Inspired, we researched juicers on Amazon.com and found they ran from $99 to $999. Which one to get? In the end, we purchased the popular Breville BJE200XL model from Best Buy for $99 and we’re quite happy with it since we don’t plan on making a career of juicing.

So, last week we attempted a juice fast expecting to go for 10 days starting on Sunday. However, that quickly changed. Each of us went in our own direction. Gwenn stuck to mostly fruit and vegetables and has been drinking and making more juice than I. 

By avoiding food, I noticed how much I eat just out of habit and not out of hunger. Strangely, I wasn’t that hungry and when I was, the littlest bit of food satisfied my cravings. Why then have I been stuffing myself full of food my whole life? Oh yeah, to extract nutrients from the layers of chemicals and chocolates I was consuming! Seriously though, if it took several carrots, an apple, and some strawberries to make the orange colored juice in the photo above, then how many Snickers, Reeses, and Milky Ways would a person have to juice in order to get a decent amount of liquid nutrients? Lots.

We don’t see juice fasting becoming part of our monthly routine, but we certainly will enjoy regular fresh juice with our meals from now on. In fact, we’re really just getting into it. We downloaded some juice recipes and are experimenting with flavors and ingredients. It’s all part of living a healthier, sugar-free life. If I attempt a true fast, I’m going to start with just 3 days. Maybe I’ll do that next weekend…

The Cause of Obesity: Eat Less, Exercise More?

Dr. Robert Lustig, the doctor responsible for raising awareness about the dangers of sugar, talks about how the “eat less, exercise more” argument for fighting obesity is not working and why.

Related posts featuring Dr. Robert Lustig

• Toxic Truth About Sugar Video with Robert Lustig, MD

• Robert “Sugar: Bitter Truth” Lustig on ABC News

• Sugar: The Bitter Truth Video with Dr. Robert Lustig

• Sugar: The Bitter Truth Video

• New York Times Article Adds to Dr. Lustig Video Popularity