London - There’s no denying it: I have a sweet tooth. In fact, I have 32 sweet teeth. Like many women, I can’t resist a cupcake and I give in with giddy delight to the temptation of a syrupy toffee nut latte on a cold day.
I pretty much succumb to sugar whenever I’m feeling stressed, hormonal, tired or even just bored. At Christmas I demolished an entire tin of biscuits by Boxing Day evening. As the New Year chimed in, I greeted 2012 looking the spottiest I have been since adolescence and tipping the scales at my heaviest weight ever, 10st 7lb, my size 12 skirts straining at the waistband.
So when I read the news last week that scientists from California University have branded sugar a poison whose sale should be regulated as tightly as cigarettes and alcohol, I was fascinated. They warned that sugary foods and drinks are responsible for illnesses including obesity, heart disease, cancer and liver problems.
‘A little is not a problem, but a lot kills - slowly,’ said the scientists, who pointed out that sugar not only makes people fat, but also changes the body’s metabolism, raises blood pressure, throws hormones off balance and harms the liver.
It is linked with fertility problems in women and illnesses such as polycistic ovary syndrome, insomnia and even raises your risk of dementia and rheumatoid arthritis.
Scary stuff, but instead of comforting myself with a defiant bite from the nearest Mars bar (which contains 60g, or 15 level teaspoons, of sugar), I smugly took a sip of my mug of sugarless coffee. You see, since January 1, I haven’t eaten a chocolate bar, drunk any sugary drinks or snacked on biscuits, cakes or brownies.
I knew I had to do something about my problem the day I calculated I had consumed 59 teaspoons of sugar in cakes, sweet drinks, pastries and chocolate bars in the 16 hours between waking up and going to bed.
But it hasn’t been easy breaking my addiction. Scientists at Princeton University found that the chemicals released by sugar consumption travel the same brain pathways that heroin does, and that when we’re stressed or sad, the foods that can produce this feeling exert a magnetic pull - causing us to eat up to six times more than our normal intake of sugary foods. So we really do eat emotionally - and sugar is addictive.
You may think you don’t need to worry because you don’t eat much of it, but the amount of sugar we consume in Britain has trebled in the past 50 years, despite a decline in sales of sugar, thanks to an increase in the amount added to manufactured products, including most savoury foods from soups and sauces to pizza, crisps, ready meals and bacon.
To find out what I could and couldn’t eat, and to understand more about the effects of the seen and unseen sugar in our food, I asked dietician Dr Fiona Hunter for some advice before I tried to kick my addiction.
‘Sugar is a habit,’ she said. ‘We’re programmed to like sugar from the day we’re born - even the taste of breast milk is sweet - but we can teach ourselves to have less.
‘It’s the unnecessary sugar you must watch out for. It’s dangerous because you don’t realise it’s there, hidden in pasta sauces and savoury foods.
‘If you look at the label and sugar is listed in the top three ingredients, put it back on the shelf.’
Sounds simple - but how would I fare?
WEEK 1
I usually start each day with a chocolate croissant and a sugary coffee (which together amount to five teaspoons of sugar) and continue on a glucose rollercoaster throughout the day, gorging on Danish pastries and chocolate bars, washed down with syrupy Ribena.
Instead, I opt for wholemeal toast instead of white - white bread contains 1-2g of added sugar per slice, while wholemeal doesn’t have any.
More important, because of the way white bread is refined to remove the bran and germ from the flour, it allows the body to absorb sugar much more quickly, causing a spike in the body’s insulin production.
My unsweetened coffee tastes bitter, but I persevere. Fiona Hunter has calculated that the amount of sugar I usually add (two generous teaspoons) multiplied by the number of cups I drink (at least three a day) amounts to a minimum of 840 calories a week.
‘And they are empty calories - that’s the worst thing about sugar, you won’t feel any more full or satisfied for consuming those calories,’ she said.
By day two, I’m headachey and irritable. When Princeton University scientists fed rats sugar as well as their regular food and then stopped, they showed withdrawal signs typical of drug addicts, including teeth chattering, tremors and head shakes. No wonder I’m feeling rough.
Lounging on the sofa after supper is my weak spot, when I normally cave in to a biscuit or five. I try to divert my attention with a savoury snack.
How about Mini Cheddars? But a look at the bag tells me sugar is the third ingredient.
Day three is hell. My head is fuzzy and I can’t think straight. By mid-afternoon I would give anything for a KitKat or a slice of cake - it’s frightening how much I miss the high that comes with a sugar fix.
Later in the week, I feel less jittery, as my blood sugar levels even out. The hormonal response to high blood sugar that crashes is like having a panic attack - you may experience anxiety, confusion and an inability to concentrate, light-headedness and fatigue, headaches and irritability.
If you eat and drink a lot of sugar throughout the day, that’s equivalent to having three or four panic attacks every day. The knock-on effect is raised blood pressure.
I’ve been trying to avoid ready meals and processed foods containing hidden sugars, so I’ve been cooking from scratch a lot more. On day seven I make spaghetti Bolognese and, without thinking about it, I add a squirt of tomato ketchup to the pan when I’m making the sauce. A tablespoon of ketchup contains almost a teaspoon of sugar. Oops. What’s interesting is that I can now taste the sweetness in the sauce, and I’m not sure I like it.
WEEK 2
I’m spurred on by the fact I’ve lost 2lb and feel more alert in the morning. Going to bed after eating something sweet meant I was always waking up on a sugar low, groggy and still tired, and in the mood for something sweet to perk myself up.
My skin is clearing, too, though I wouldn’t say it glows, and I have more willpower to resist the pull of the patisserie. But I’ve found avoiding sugary drinks a real chore - fruit juice (cranberry contains 3½ teaspoons of sugar per 100ml, apple 2½ teaspoons), Ribena (eight teaspoons per 330ml drink), and sugary fizzy cans are laden with it.
I remind myself that while they’re satisfying at the time, sugary drinks can sour your mood - a recent study found that people who drink 2½ cans of sweet fizzy drinks daily are three times more likely to be depressed and anxious than those who avoid them.
On Friday, I make scones - they fulfil that urge for comforting cake and can be made without sugar. Home-made scones with butter are my new treat - admittedly, without jam they aren’t as delicious, but they fill the cake-shaped void in my diet.
At the weekend, I am tripped up by a bacon sandwich. It’s only after I’ve eaten it that I look at the packet and discover four rashers of bacon contain half a teaspoon of sugar, which is added during the curing process.
WEEK 3
I’m 4lb lighter - four! - and the size ten coat that felt a bit snug when I bought it in the sales is fitting noticeably better.
I’ve started reading Jeff O’Connell’s book Sugar Nation. By the time you’ve finished it, you’ll never look at a doughnut in the same way again - one in three Americans is diabetic or pre- diabetic, consuming more than their own body weight in sugar each year. Frighteningly, we are not far behind.
I brave my favourite cafe on Tuesday, but take the book and place it on the table as a reminder not to put a lump of brown sugar or two into my latte.
Later in the week, I meet a friend for a girlie lunch and manage to avoid dessert and the large glass of white wine with its 3½ teaspoons of sugar, swapping it for a virtuous sparkling water.
Even when I’m working in town and am faced with the temptation of sweet lunchtime snacks, I’m opting for sugar-free choices such as sushi, quiche or salads.
And I’m avoiding supposedly healthy snacks such as fruit yoghurt or diet bars, which can be drowning in sugar.
I really taste the sweetness of natural sugars in foods, too, such as tomatoes, apples and even milk.
On Sunday, I ate half a pomegranate and it tasted sweeter and more delicious than any I’ve eaten before.
When I spoke to Dr Fiona Hunter, I asked her if I should also give up fruit as it contains the natural sugar, fructose.
‘Fruit is an essential source of nutrients and a healthy form of sugar, so I wouldn’t recommend cutting it out of your diet,’ she said. ‘Besides, the amount of fructose in fruit isn’t that high.
‘What’s more, fructose is less damaging than regular sugar because it triggers a lower insulin response. That means your blood sugar levels stay more stable and you’re less likely to experience a sugar rush followed by a crash.’
The most dangerous sugars aren’t fructose in fruit or even sucrose (table sugar); they’re the ones in processed foods that we can’t see.
A Which? report found that some savoury foods contain more sugar than ice cream.
Over the past 30 years, food manufacturers have doubled the amount of sugar they add to their products.
And most contain the worst kind of sugar - high-fructose corn syrup (often described as HFCS or glucose-fructose syrup on food packaging), which doesn’t satisfy hunger in the way cane sugar does, so it just makes you want to eat more.
It is very sweet and calorific, and the body metabolises it differently from glucose - it’s not as easily absorbed and goes straight to the liver, where it can create fat, which can lead to gout, liver disease and Type 2 diabetes.
Recent studies have also linked high fructose intake with high blood pressure and an increased risk of heart disease.
WEEK 4
I’ve almost finished a month of being totally sugar free - and I must admit I’m looking forward to eating it again, albeit in far smaller quantities.
The good news is that I haven’t had a single spot all month. I can’t say for sure if this is down to not eating sugar, but as Dr Fiona Hunter said: ‘It’s not necessarily the sugar itself that is bad for your skin, but the fact it is in a lot of junk foods that have no nutritional benefit.
‘Eating too much rubbish will be bad for your skin, especially if you fill up on those empty calories at the expense of fresh fruit and veg and protein.’
I feel more energised throughout the day, probably because I’ve got off that blood sugar high-low rollercoaster, and I’m 9st 13lb - more than half-a-stone lighter - without adjusting the rest of my diet.
The bad news: that Cadbury’s Flake my husband bought me a week ago isn’t sitting in my fridge any more.
You can’t win them all, but I will stick to cutting out the sugar in coffee, and avoiding fizzy drinks and syrupy cordials.
If I can start my day with a sensible low-sugar breakfast, I should be able to set myself up for minimal sweet cravings in the afternoon and evenings.
It’s been a tough month, but it could change the way I eat forever and that’s got to be worth the effort. - Daily Mail