Sugar was making me unwell, so I gave it up overnight

As new advice suggests that we halve our daily sugar intake, what are the benfits of banishing the white stuff for good ?
I haven’t had a cake for seven years, or a pudding, or chocolate. Not even one small square. Sugar has virtually disappeared from my diet. And do I miss it? You’ve got to be joking.
So when the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced last week that we were all in serious need of cutting back on how much sugar we consume – ideally, just five per cent of our daily calorie intake, equivalent to less than one can of Coca-Cola – I was, for once, ahead of the curve. I’ve already done it, and the good news is life without sugar is fine.
It sounds impossible. That’s certainly what I felt when I was told, seven years ago, that for medical reasons I needed to cut sugar from my diet. And not just spoonfuls of the refined variety you add to cups of tea – even the natural sugars found in fruit could do me harm.
As a younger woman, I had always been sporty, going running, dancing and horseriding several times a week, as well as getting an adrenalin fix at aerobics classes. 
But by the age of 42, I found I was so creaky and stiff that it hurt simply to climb the stairs. I went to see my GP. 
She prodded and poked, and asked if I ever suffered from tiredness or insomnia? Did I ever feel faint and irritable? Did I get cramps in my stomach and legs? Did I ever have nasty headaches or migraines? And how was my memory?
“Those aren’t symptoms,” I said, “that’s my personality.” Only, no, they were all symptoms of low blood-sugar levels. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia with hypoglycemia.
A potentially dangerous condition that results from an excess of insulin in the blood, hypoglycemia can cause the heart to race, anxiety attacks and even seizures that, if recurrent, may result in brain damage. 
I was told that to control it, I would I have to keep my blood sugar on a even keel. Essentially, this meant eating more protein and fat – as well as almost no sugar, in any form.
There was a list of banned foods deemed sugary: soft drinks, fruit juice, dried fruit, potatoes (the starch eventually converts into glucose), corn, bananas, rice, pasta, honey, and sweets of any kind.
Cutting sugar from your diet is not something you can ease yourself into, or you’ll simply never do it. 
So I asked a friend to help me clear the cupboards, fridge and freezer of everything on the banned list.
Then we went shopping to stock up on things that I could eat, and I went cold turkey. Overnight, sugar was out of my life.
I remember the first two weeks being a nightmare – I was extremely stroppy at mealtimes. My friends remember the first six months being like that as I struggled to find a new equilibrium.
Like most of us, I’d simply got into bad habits. I was lazy. Mid-afternoon, I would need something to nibble on, and a chocolate bar was as good as anything. If I came home impossibly late from work, I might treat myself to a big bowl of pasta.
Initially, it was hard enough not to put sugar in my tea, eat cake or have something delicious for dessert. 
These were the visible, obvious sugars. What was much, much harder was working out where all the hidden sugars were and avoiding them, too. And sugar, it turns out, is in or is added to so much of our food.
You only learn this through ghastly mishaps. I remember early on not grasping that sugar hides everywhere, like a series of trap doors, so after work I bought a delicious Chinese takeaway. 
The result was dramatic: I was awake all night, absolutely wired with the sugar coursing round my veins. It’s a wretched feeling being desperate to sleep but being unable to because your body is tripping out on sugar. 
It leaves you feeling good for nothing the next day. From then on, takeaways were out, along with all processed food.
I also learnt the hard way that alcohol was no longer my friend. I’d always enjoyed a glass of wine and was particularly fond of a gin and tonic. 
But within the first two weeks of giving up sugar, a night out with a colleague left me lying in the bath groaning. I couldn’t work out why. After all, I’d only had two drinks. But then I realised: the tonic water was packed with sugar.
Everyone swears off alcohol occasionally, but that was a pivotal moment for me. 
Now I can have a very dry glass of white wine, but only one. This can seem antisocial, but at least I can drive everyone else home. There are some upsides to all this abstinence.
It soon became obvious that both natural and processed sugars caused the same symptoms. Dried fruit might have once been a healthy snack for me. 
But if I ate it now, aching limbs and a poor night’s sleep awaited.
Fortunately, it wasn’t all bad news. Soon, good things started to happen that made me stay off sugar. 
Having suffered from insomnia for more than a decade, I started sleeping well and so felt refreshed and clear-headed in the morning. 
And I was in less pain. And weight started to fall off me, and continued to do so until I’d reached the level that I’d always been until my late thirties: just under eight stone. I am still that weight now and wear size-8 clothes.
Feeling and looking better were incentives to keep going. But I also had to change how I thought about food. 
Rather than dwell on what I was missing, I had to say to myself that I didn’t miss being awake and in pain. 
Soon, anything sweet looked like poison to me. I’ve not fed my horse, Duke, a sugar cube since, either.
These days, I shop and cook differently, to ensure I have meals that are reasonably easy to prepare after work, to avoid going into a shaking sugar-low. It’s not too great a hardship.
I eat lots of vegetables, a fair amount of quality meat and cheese, a small amount of complex carbohydrates (so no bowls of pasta), and I spread out my fruit intake over the course of the day: one piece every four hours and no more. 
So yesterday, I had porridge for breakfast, some tasty homemade soup and fruit for lunch, and went out for dinner with a friend, opting for belly pork with greens.
Treats have also had to change. 
Out have gone cakes, biscuits and sweets. In their place are mixed nuts, cheese cubes and strips of dried meat. 
I’d always loved cheese, but now I am a cheese snob. I seek out unusual, local varieties at the farmers’ market and am a fierce critic of restaurant cheeseboards.
Despite this, my food bill has more than halved since I gave up sugar in all its forms. I can no longer be seduced by supermarkets’ three-for-two offers and bottles of sparkling wine at the end of the aisle. 
I’m more likely to buy a brace of pheasants, a decent Camembert and some salad from the farmers’ market.
From giving up sugar, I’m better off, thinner, sleep more easily and am not in so much pain. Perfect. 
Well, not entirely. There are moments when I do really miss the white stuff, and they are invariably social occasions.
Birthdays are grim. I feel awkward not being able to share in the cake, and don’t want to bring the mood of any party down by saying “No, thank you”, but I have to. Christmas is fine: I enjoy the roast and forget about the pudding.
But Shrove Tuesday last week was a disaster. I fell off the wagon in a big way, eating six pancakes. I slept badly and still ache now.
And I really do miss a good gin and tonic. It is possible to make your own with soda water and a pinch of stevia, a natural sweetener that comes from a South American herb – but somehow it’s just not quite the same.
Despite all that, I couldn’t go back to my sugar-eating days. I like sleeping and being a size-8 too much.
Source The Telegrph

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