In This ArticleView AllIn This ArticleWhy I Did a No-Sugar ChallengeThe Biggest SuccessesThe Biggest ChallengesLifelong Takeaways from My 30 Days Without Sugar
In This ArticleView All
View All
In This Article
Why I Did a No-Sugar Challenge
The Biggest Successes
The Biggest Challenges
Lifelong Takeaways from My 30 Days Without Sugar
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Birthdays aren’t celebrated around broccoli casserole. Christmas carrots are for the reindeer. The main event at a wedding isn’t cutting the roast beef.
Some of the happiest and grandest events in our lives are celebrated with sugar—the tongue-tingling ingredient that’s also in everything from bread and yogurt to ketchup and cereal.
Sugar isn’t just a threat to dental health, though dentists everywhere would remind you it’s a leading culprit in cavities.Eating too much sugarmay also contribute to heart disease, obesity, high cholesterol and high blood pressure—all conditions that can lead to chronic health problems and even premature death.
Learning to live without sugar—or at least learning to live with less of it—is an admirable goal for anyone, regardless of their health history. If you are considering a no-sugar period or just want to cut back dramatically on how much of the sweet stuff you’re eating—natural or artificial—I offer some guidance for getting through the rough days and learning to love living without so much sugar.
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The rules for this challenge were simple: absolutely no added sugars. Natural sugars, like those found in dairy and fruit, were OK. Artificial sweeteners were also off-limits.
Sugar is not a necessary nutrient, and we’re all eating entirely too much of it. In fact, theAmerican Heart Associationrecommends men eat no more than 9 teaspoons or 150 calories a day of added sugar; women should eat less—no more than 6 teaspoons or 100 calories per day. However, most Americans eat two to three times that amount—19.5 teaspoons or 312 calories per day, perUCSF.
If nothing else, a30-day sugar-free challengeis a wonderful opportunity to realize just how much sugar you’re eating, even if you’re not really one to, say, down a handful of Reese’s pieces after lunch because you “need a little something sweet.” (Guilty.)
Weight Maintenance
Let me start with the biggest question you likely have: Did I lose weight? No, but that was not my intention. I likely did not eat fewer carbs, despite cutting sugar, because I loaded up on bananas and pineapple for snacks. (Remember, natural sugar was OK; artificial sugar was out.)
However, I didn’tgainweight either, and that was a goal. I knew that the excess calories I was taking in from sugar were adding up a bit on the scale. Not gaining weight was a victory.
Steady Energy
Once I was through the initial adjustment phase, I found that I did not experience the typicalblood sugar ebbs and flows. More specifically, I didn’t find myself needing the midafternoon pick-me-up. Perhaps that’s because I couldn’t have what I wanted—the soda—or maybe it was the result of forcing my body to learn to cope without the quick sugary hits that previously provided so much energy.
Better Relationship with Sugar Consumption
When I couldn’t have the spoonful of ice cream after dinner or the cookie “because it’s Tuesday,” I quickly realized that I was haphazardly consuming sugar. I could manage to make these splurges fit within my calorie goal, but that meant I was giving up better sources of calories, like calcium-rich dairy or fiber-rich whole grains.
I also wasn’t recognizing the hidden sources of sugar that were sneaking into my diet and adding unnecessary calories either. A lot of soups, salad dressings and prepared meals list sugar, in some form or another, on the ingredient list.
I realized early on that you could easily say, “But I don’t eat a lot of sugar” and be entirely oblivious to how much you eat every day.
Sugar Shock
A glass of red wine on Day 25 tasted closer to cotton candy than pinot noir. My first real sweet after the challenge ended, a chocolate chip cookie, was cloying. I split it in half and shared it with a friend. I couldn’t finish my half.
It’s surprising how quickly your palate adjusts to eating less sugar—and then how quickly it adjusts again to eating sugar. The reset is short-lived, but it really opened my eyes to how numb I had become to sugar’s effects on my tongue.
Breaking the Sugar Cycle
My challenge started on a Friday. By Wednesday, I was hitting proverbial brick walls left and right, with so little energy and no resources to give myself a quick “jolt” to get through the afternoon since my caffeine source of choice is diet soda, butartificial sweetenerswere out. I was also irritable, which made work difficult and daunting. Naps were my friend during this period. They provided energy, and they let me escape a bit of the sugar-free meltdown.
That period lasted about 24 hours—I liken it to the keto flu during the first few days of the keto diet—and then it was over. After that, it was smooth sailing, as long as I avoided the sugar pitfalls of office birthday parties and free cookies at the farmers market.
But that’s just the challenge—sugar is everywhere. (Have I said that yet?) Avoiding it is a bit like avoiding sunlight. No matter what you do, it will get in, so you have to be smarter than the sugar.
Super-Long Ingredient Lists
You’re going to spend a lot of time with ingredient lists if you’re looking to eliminate sugar. Sugar often hides way down the list, and under unassuming names like brown rice syrup and evaporated cane juice. Marinara sauce, bread, canned soups and condiments are some of the sneakiest offenders.
Before you begin, familiarize yourself withother names for sugarso you can more quickly spot the sugar on the lists.
Caution When Dining Out
Restaurant menus don’t come with ingredient lists, so you have to be discerning and ask lots of questions. Salads are your best bet because you can very easily control the ingredients and ask for an oil-and-vinegar dressing. Sandwiches are likely out because bread almost always has sugar.
Depending on how much effort you want to give it, you can work with your server to find something that’s entirely sugar-free as is on the menu, or you can customize a dish with only the ingredients you know you’re cleared to have.
Social Situations with Sugar
I found the best method to manage this was the truth: Tell your friends you’re doing a no-sugar challenge. That way, you don’t hurt feelings at birthday parties when you have to refuse the cakes, and they don’t ask questions when you’re drinking wine instead of your regular vodka-cranberry.
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