The biggest impact on me from the moratorium on refined sugar is the speed and convenience at which I can stuff junk food into my gob. I can no longer go to the Dunkin’ Donuts drive thru window and eat anything I want off the menu (yes, I know that the idea that I could ever do that is flawed logic, but we are not talking about my “issues,” m’kay?). Now I have to stop and think about what I am eating.

I’m a pretty mindless eater. The truth is that I was raised on processed food, there wasn’t much to think about. I didn’t have much choice about it and I didn’t have many options. I was a latch-key kid and I had to be able to either “nuke” a meal or fit it between two slices of bread. Sometimes we ate ketchup or mustard sandwiches because there wasn’t anything to put between the slices of bread. Sometimes I ate peanut butter and jelly on saltines because there was no bread.

Processed food was a staple. We ate a lot of Chef Boyardee, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, Spam, and deviled ham. “Potted Meat Product.” When it can’t even name the meat on the label, you know it’s got to be iffy. It was, however, within the means of an 8 year old child to cook and self-serve, plus it was relatively cheap. Fast food and take-aways were often a special treat or dinner in a pinch, such as a last minute pizza pie. Chinese food was often reserved for special occasions.

On top of this, my father was also a huge consumer of sugar. He might buy an economy-sized, large box of corn flakes for breakfast, but he taught us to liberally sprinkle the top of our cereal with sugar to get that “frosted” taste. Sugar was added to coffee, tea, hot chocolate. Cookies, donuts, and candy were commonly stocked and we consumed large quantities of cola.

On the flip side, I have also always had a nervous stomach. When I was 7, my father had to pick me up from school due to “chest pains” that turned out to be caused by acid reflux. I was banned from eating some of my favorite foods due to the acid content—Chinese food, pizza, orange juice, and carbonated beverages were at the very top of the list. It made my diet kind of restricted, especially since I did not develop a taste for eating meat until I was pregnant with my first child at age 25. I frustrated my parents and often resorted to eating foods high in carbohydrates—more sugar!

My parent’s frustration continued into my high school years when I asked to go completely vegetarian. My parents resisted, and my father would go so far as to even sabotage my meals, by adding meat to pasta sauce and telling me “Can’t you just eat around it?” or “It’s just a little bit, it doesn’t really count.” Struggles over food became internalized, and I began having problems with my weight. I had control issues at home and was often depressed or moody, anxious, and angry. I lost weight only to gain it back with 10 more lbs. I became sick on several occasions and eventually was shipped to family in New Hampshire to recuperate with strict orders to eat and sleep.

As an adult, my struggles over food have only continued. Junk food and fast food are abundant and available now that I am old enough to afford it on my own. I work full-time and am a part-time student; my husband does not know how to cook. We find that convenience has won out all too often over our better, more organic, intentions.

This past year, it became clear that I have to take better care of myself. I have been sick too often to count this past year, and had to endure a battery of humiliating tests to try and find the source (to no avail). I had gestational diabetes (twice!) and am at high risk for type 2 diabetes. I look at my children and I wince as I see another McDonald’s Happy Meal making it’s way into their digestive tract. I knew this year I had to make a change. It’s the reason why I gave up refined sugar for Lent this year. My family is supportive, so they gave it up too. As for what I have actually done…

In terms of substitutions:

We already had been purchasing no sugar added applesauces in various varieties. Mott’s makes strawberry, country berry, peach, etc. all in no sugar added. We got a big jar of plain, and some of the individual packaged flavored varieties for school lunches.

We switched out yogurt and added plain cottage cheese. The kids can add some fruit preserve or fresh fruit to it if they want, but they eat it plain. I eat it on my salad in lieu of creamy salad dressing. I know some people can get plain yogurt and add fruit, but to me and my family, plain yogurt is bitter and no amount of fruit disguises it.

Annie’s makes a lot of food with no sugar or natural sweeteners. I bought: Wheat Bunnies and Cheddar Bunnies, no sugar in either; Cinnabunnies cereal, which uses organic evaporated cane juice and pear juice; Organic Balsamic Vinaigrette sweetened with honey.

Vermont Bread Company makes organic bread with honey.

Matthew’s All Natural Bakery makes whole wheat English muffins with barley malt. Both companies list the sweetener pretty low in the ingredients list. Alas, I could find no flat bread sans sugar.

We switched from flour tortillas to corn. no sugar, no sweetener.

I bought Polaner All Fruit all natural fruit spread, sweetened only with fruit juice.

I bought MaraNatha Organic spreadable creamy peanut butter with organic unrefined cane sugar (completely all natural, unsweetened peanut butter is not edible as far as anyone in my family is concerned).

I bought Kashi Go Lean Crunch (evaporated cane juice and brown rice syrup); cereal bars (for lunasdad, by his request; these are the worst as they contain sweeteners in the filling and the cereal part, including fruit juice, molasses, evaporated cane juice, and honey!), and fire roasted vegetable crackers (ECJ way down on the ingredient list).

I bought local pure maple syrup for sweetening plain oatmeal.

I bought organic honey for eating with cream cheese sandwiches (peanut free classroom) and for scratchy throats (lots of coughing here this winter, unfortunately).

We have also switched to brown rice and organic, no refined sugar soups (Muir Glen). I am trying to switch lunasdad to sweet potatoes but he is resisting (because he doesn’t really like them, fair enough).

So far, we have given up processed bread and things like donuts and cakes, etc. Mostly, this means we have given up heavily processed convenience foods and drive thrus. It is teaching lunasdad in particular to be patient and also to plan and schedule. Don’t give the baby just whatever because he’s grumpy, let him wait a few moments for us to prepare something appropriate for the diet we’ve chosen. Next time, plan to feed him sooner. Often he’s not even hungry! We have also almost completely stopped getting take away food.

The worst part about this so far is that the first time in the grocery store, it takes forever to read labels and find the hidden sugar. It is scary how many foods list sugar or maltodextrin or some other chemical compound as the FIRST ingredient. Like taco seasoning! (Note: I wanted to include a link, but to what? The company doesn’t list it’s nutritional info. It also advertises “Made with an authentic blend of spices…Just like Mama used! ” My mom never used “maltodextrin!” We never said “mmm, maltodextrin.” I never asked for “more maltodextrin please!” I think companies who don’t list nutritional info know their products are iffy, so if you’re looking for it and don’t find it, you might want to move on.) Because of this, we’re doing more whole foods and doing more food from scratch.

We also generally cut back, in the last year, on our consumption of meat. We eat mostly turkey and chicken and certainly not at every meal.

So far, it has been 100% doable and while it’s been challenging, I am not in deprivation despair, which was really my main concern. It has actually been quite easy to make the change, and lunasdad has already assumed this change to be permanent (no reason for it not to be). Also, it hasn’t been noticeably more expensive except for replacing some items we hadn’t used up. The worst part for lunasdad has been giving up soda and ketchup, for which there just aren’t good substitutes.

For all you folks out there who think I am crazy for doing this, it’s easier than it look and you could definitely do this too! You will probably feel better if you do, jury’s still out on it and I am early in my own experiment. Find out for yourself!

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