How Our Family Went Refined Sugar Free - Part 1: The Beginning

Last week I shared an article from "The Guardian" on my private Facebook page which sums up really well why my family is refined sugar free.  You can read it here.

After sharing the article, I got bombarded with questions from family and friends asking how and why we went refined sugar free.  I also got lots of comments like "I thought fructose was the problem" and "what about bread?"

To help answer the questions I've received, I'm sharing a series of blog posts on our journey to refined sugar free living.

Here's our story:



In January of 2013, I was challenged to seriously consider my eating habits.  My youngest child was already one, and I wasn't shifting any of the extra baby weight.  I knew I had to do something drastic, so for 3 weeks I only ate real food, nothing processed, nothing containing sugar.  This was a huge challenge to me, and at the end of those 3 weeks, I went on a refined sugar binge.  I ate so much sugar I felt sick, but after that, I couldn't seem to return to being refined sugar free.

I thought about sugar.  I dreamed about sugar.  I craved sugar.

Over the next year, I went on and off refined sugar about 50 times.  I could go three or four days without sugar but always gave into my sugar cravings.  Sometimes I could go a week or two, but it seemed like I couldn't help myself.  I always returned to sugar.

I started to notice a connection between sugar and my body.  When I ate sugar I had horrible mood swings and regularly experienced rage mid-afternoon (I now know this was when my body needed a sugar hit the most).  My stomach was constantly upset, to the point where I was sure I would be diagnosed with food intolerances or something major like coeliac disease.

The first 7-10 days without sugar would bring withdrawal symptoms:

Headaches

Tears

Rage

Grumpiness

I rarely made it far enough into a detox to actually experience the benefits of being sugar free, but when I did, I could truly see how much better I felt without it.

I started reading.  I read real food and wholefood blogs.  I read of sugar free blogs.  I did research into different diets (paleo, vegan, wholefoods).  I researched natural sweeteners and man made sweeteners and the effects they have on the body.  I read medical research done by universities and labs on the effects of sugar addiction.

In December of 2013 my husband and I moved across Australia to live near my in-laws.  While I had been struggling with sugar addiction, my SIL had gone refined sugar free herself.  She was a great support to me and I made the commitment in January of 2014 to go entirely refined sugar free.

My SIL had been lactose intolerant her entire life.  Her reasoning to go refined sugar free was weight-loss based, but she discovered a major advantage.  When she was refined sugar free, she could eat lactose (which is natural milk sugar) without any problem. 

We started talking.  A few of our kids all seemed to have chronic upset stomachs.  They'd had intolerances most of their lives, and were on fairly restricted diets, but we couldn't get rid of the upset stomachs.  Research indicates that sugar has a toxic effect on our bodies, and causes all kinds of problems from inflammation to flatulence.  We wondered whether or not refined sugar was the culprit of our children's stomach upset.

In March 2014, we decided to remove refined sugars from our kids' diets for 1 month to see whether or not this made a difference.  After all, if sugar made my SIL lactose intolerant and gave me rage, what was it doing to our kids' bodies?

Our children (my 4 and her 2) have been refined sugar free since.  We saw such drastic changes that we would never return.  My son had severe lactose intolerance and struggled with gas he didn't even know he had.  He was a very smelly boy and I worried about what would happen as he got older.  Kids can be cruel, and with awful gas, he wouldn't be treated with kindness.

He no longer struggles with gas.  There seems to be a connection between the body not being able to process both refined sugar and milk sugar (lactose).

Our children have less upset stomachs in general.  I still see mood swings and grumpiness in my kids, but I think that's just life.  After all, we are just human!

My kids never miss sugar except when they see other kids eat it.  Which is a lot!  But, we discuss regularly that we make choices for our family that other families don't make, and we try to do the best we can.  We have yummy, healthy alternatives that my kids enjoy eating and making and we ensure that they don't miss out on treats simply because we eat differently than most families.

We still fail.  My daughter (who is 4) will regularly come home from school and announce she ate a cupcake.  We'll order babycinos at a restaurant and discover after the kids drank them at they had chocolate syrup in them.   

We still consume some processed products that contain sugar, like tomato sauce (ketchup) and salad dressing, but in small quantities.  Our rule of thumb is that we don't eat anything that has refined sugar listed in the first three ingredients or contains more than 6 grams of sugar per 100 grams (although we do have a few exceptions for special occasions).

We're a work in progress.  We're still on the journey toward better eating, but when I look back and see where we've come from, I realize how far we've travelled. 

In Part Two,  I'll share the research I've done so you can read for yourself the side effects of sugar addiction.