This year marks the second annual 30 Sugar Free Days Program and your chance to make January a MONTH WITHOUT SUGAR.
Season of Sugar
It is that time of year again: The Season of Sugar.
As the weather turns colder, and the sun dips lower in the sky (except for you south of the equator), the days get darker, and we all get incredible sugar cravings. Our collective lust for sugar is only fueled by the multiple invitations to gather with friends and family and the tendency of office workers around the world to bring plates of tasty treats to share with everyone.
Too many holiday parties, too many advertisers highlighting tasty foods, too little time outside, too many temptations; it is no wonder we all wake these days feeling like we have a hangover and notice that our clothes don’t fit as well as they did the day before.
New Years
New Years is coming quicker than you might think and it is a good time to start thinking about New Year’s Resolution. The best resolution you can choose is a resolution of health and the best thing you can do for your health is to kick sugar and foods that act like sugar out of your life.
Why don’t you join us this January for 30 Sugar Free Days 2010 and give sugar the kick it deserves?
Sugar Harm
The question I always get is: Why kick sugar out of your diet?
The reason is actually pretty simple: Concentrated, pure, processed sugar is not a natural thing to put in your body. Our bodies are simply not meant to handle such a pure and addicting substance.
Take a look at what eating sugar does to you and your health:
- Sugar adds Weight: Added sugar means added weight. This happens because your body has to do something with the extra sugar that enters your blood stream. Maybe you know this, but your body is great at storing sugar as fat. This ability to store fat is unique to sugar and doesn’t happen with non-purified foods. Added weight means you are more likely to live a shorter life, get diabetes, heart disease, stroke and have certain cancers.
- Diabetes: Despite what most medical associations and your doctor might say, there is a connection between sugar and diabetes. Consistently high blood sugar develops into insulin insensitivity and eventually diabetes.
- Toxic: Sugar is toxic to blood vessels in a similar way that cigarette smoke is toxic to lungs. Sugar destroys blood vessels. The results of sugar damage are easy to see in diabetics (who have very high blood sugar) that have a much higher risk for heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, eye disease and other conditions.
Take the 30 Day Challenge
Kicking sugar means that you will not only lose weight (if you want to), but that you are taking the first big step toward living a longer and healthier life. When you kick sugar out of your life, you decrease the chance of getting diabetes, heart disease and even cancer.
Breaking the sugar habit is not easy; at every step you are going to run into your addiction. The effort to stop sugar, however, is well worth the results: you will live a longer, healthier life with sugar out of your diet.
Joining us for the 30 Sugar Free Days Challenge, 2010 is a great step towards your better health. The program is free and provides you with the support you need to succeed. So many weight loss programs are designed to help you shed pounds, but often do nothing to address your health.
Why not have both good health and weight loss? Join us for the adventure!
Hello Dr. Scott,
I just happened to notice on your previous response to one of my questions that you recommended burritos for breakfast. Now the only burritos I’ve eaten are wrapped in a flour tortilla; are tortillas okay to eat? I’m confused by this.
Also, I was told that olive oil is best used in it’s natural state and that when you use it to cook with you change its constition so much that it is not longer good. What do you think about this?
Thanks for all your responses. Doing well on the diet; even lost some weight. However, I do allow myself one cheat day per week.
Jessica, sorry for the confusion. I was trying to suggest that beans make a good breakfast and just mentioned burritos as an example. When you are done with the 30 Days, a burrito is fine (the small amount of sugars contained in the tortilla are balanced by the protein and fiber in the beans), but during the 30 Days it is best to keep away from all foods that act like sugar.
Cooking destroys and harms all the foods we eat and olive oil is no exception. Olive oil, however, does seem to handle heating better than other oils (it has a moderately high smoke point, another oil with a high smoke point is grape seed oil). The most stable oil under heating are actually the saturated fats (the best of which is coconut oil). I generally suggest that you limit fats as much as possible, so use all oils in moderation.
Sounds like you are doing great, keep up the good work!
Scott
Dr. Scott,
Thanks for your response; that clears up my confusion on milk. I am wondering however if whey protien powder is suitable. I have used whey powder in the past to make smoothies but again I’m not sure if it is condusive to this sugar-free diet (I am in line with the diet that eliminates added sugar as well as foods that act like sugar in the body). Also, could you be more specific about the beans for breakfast; this is very different for me.
One more, I am a mother with children and since I started eating this way I feel guilty feeding my children all those starchy carbs and sugary additives that I realize now to be unhealthy. I want the best for my kids and I also don’t want them to feel like they’re missing out (eg. pizza, cake etc.) Currently, I make two meals; one for them and one for myself. Any suggestions on how to balance this?
Whey is an okay protein as far as keeping your blood sugar low, but I think milk proteins do a lot of harm to your body (they are associated with a lot of diseases such as cancer).
As far as beans go, anything you want is okay. I think that it takes a while to break the habit of needing something sweet for breakfast, but burritos, chili, or simply a bowl of beans are all okay. Beans contain fiber that not only fills you up but also helps to balance your blood sugar throughout the day.
Children are hard, especially when they are out of your home. Take whatever steps you can to include more fruits and vegetables into their lives. I have three children who are separated by many years; they are 6, 10 and 17. While the six year old doesn’t eat all the well (actually she probably eats better than 90 percent of the kids in America, just not well enough for me), the ten and the seventeen year old eat much better. The ten year old is a vegetarian and the seventeen year old counts the days that he doesn’t eat junk.
I constantly talk to my kids about how what they are eating makes them feel; I ask them to pay attention to their bodies. This, I think, works much better than simply removing all temptations from their lives (my kids run into junky food at school, at friends houses, and at birthday parties). Having them pay attention to how they feel makes them responsible for their own health and not make them feel guilty about what they are eating (and that is the best skill I think I can pass on).
Dr. Scott, I’m so happy that your mentioned fruit smoothies. I LOVE smoothies and have always made them with yogurt. Please share your smoothie recipe without dairy. I checked my smoothie cookbook and am not seeing many that don’t have some sort or dairy or sweetener. I can’t wait to see the recipes in your new book.
I make smoothies with a rice-based protein powder or I use a product from Garden of Life called: Super Seed.
I use a milk substitute made from coconut milk that you can find in most health food stores. To that, you can any fruits you like. I prefer frozen berries (blackberries, raspberries…).
Hope that helps!
Hello Dr. Scott,
I just started the 30 day sugar-free challange, although I’m doing it for lent and it will be more like 40 days. I noticed that you recommend whole milk oppossed to 1% or 2%; when I went shopping and looked at the nutritional info it had just as much sugar as the others. Why then is whole milk preferred?
Also, I’ve been trying to figure out what to have for breakfast that’s quick and easy. Do you have any personal favorites? I’d appreciate any food ideas.
Thank you so much,
Jessica
Jessica,
Yes, the sugar is the same in both skim and whole milk, they do, however, act differently in the body. The less fat in the milk, the easier the sugar is absorbed (and the higher your blood sugar goes). I would actually recommend that you don’t eat much or any dairy foods if you are really looking to lose weight and be healthier.
For breakfast, I usually have a piece of fruit, a fruit smoothie or I eat beans (like a chili) with greens. While it takes a while to get used to not eating something sweet for breakfast, eating beans is the healthiest breakfast I can think of.
I’m in the middle of writing a book specifically on weight loss that will focus more on these issues and have recipes and menu suggestions.
Good luck on your 40 day adventure.
Scott
Dr. Scott, I need something to sweeten my daily cup of hot tea. The post seems to suggest that tea with any kind of sweetener during the 30-day sugar free fast is a no-no? Is that the case? What is your opinion of stevia? I hear it’s a natural sweetener. Maybe I’m just not getting it; no sweet stuff at all, right?
Hi Deborah,
Take a look at the FAQ page: http://olsonnd.com/30-sugar-free-days/30-sugar-free-days-faq/
Or take a look at this post on Stevia: What about Stevia?
Dr. Scott,
Is sugar-free or sugar substitutes allowed during the 30-day sugar fast?
I’m not a big fan of artificial sweeteners, take a look at this post: Complete Guide to Artificial Sweeteners
Dr. Scott,
You mentioned that cold potatoes are low on the glycemic index while hot ones are high. does this mean that hot mashed potatoes are not allowed and cold potato salad is?
I pointed that out to show how crazy the glycemic index can be and that we still don’t entirely understand all the mechanics of what foods do to our blood sugar. Cold potato salad is probably lower on the glycemic index.
I signed up for 30 sugar free days in July last year, went through it without having eating a single high-glycemic-index piece of food for the whole period. After a couple of weeks, I felt tremendously good – was feeling much more energetic; my skin and hair began looking better; I also lost a couple of pounds. It was pretty hard at the beginning but week or two passed and I got used to it, and being motivated for the health benefits I was experiencing I decided not to touch those foods ever again. So I haven’t eaten any banana, or chocolate, or honey, or bread (not even whole wheat), etc. for around 7 months. Moreover, I wasn’t even having any cravings, I guess my body just adopted to not having those types of foods.
7 months later, around 3 weeks ago, I began to crave for sugar. In the most irresistible way. I was trying to replace my cravings eating more (but healthy) but it wasn’t helping. It seemed like there was no food that could satisfy me, I was craving for sugar in a crazy way. So after 2 weeks I gave in and bunged on tons of chocolate, same story happened to me a couple of days later, when I bunged on huge pieces of bread with honey (and that was right after having a healthy meal of fish, broccoli and green peas followed by a cup of green tea).
Could there be any explanation why it’s happening – why, after 7 months of no cravings and healthy eating, my body all of a sudden started craving for sugar? What kind of damage did my body get by me having eaten those high-glycemic-index foods, since it’s not used to foods like these any more? And could there be any solution to get rid of these cravings I’ve been experiencing?
I would appreciate your advice very much. Thank you in advance.
Daina,
All I can tell you is that once addicted, always addicted. Many other people who experience addictions (smoking, drugs, alcohol) report the same thing. They do well for a period of time, but as soon as they go back for just a “taste” their addiction is back in full force. The good news is that your body is probably much more healthy from having stayed away from all those sugary foods so it is better able to handle the rush of sugar.
How do you get back on track? Do what you were doing before. You might want to look into a book called Breaking the Food Seduction: that talks about many foods that we are addicted to and that one may feed another (for example, caffeine addiction may increase sugar addiction).
You are actually doing great, and you should expect that it will be easy at times in your life and hard at others, just keep up the good fight!
I have lived without sugar for almost four years. Last January I participated in your first annual 30 days without sugar. At that time I stopped using any chemical sugar substitutes including Splenda. During that month I also cut out all foods that “act like sugar in your body”. I am not overweight but I did drop a few pounds that month. I was very pleased with the increase in energy. However as the year progressed I started adding some of those foods back into my diet and I did gain a few pounds as a result. I am very excited to be participating again this year.
My question is this. In addition to participating in this event, my church is starting the Daniel Fast. It is mostly fruits, vegetables and water – no meat, no dairy, however a lot of the suggested recipes for the Daniel fast include potatoes, corn, and other “foods that act like sugar”. Do you have any menu planning or recipe suggests that would allow for incorporating both these eating plan goals?
My other concern is that I run, strength train with kettlebells, and do other exercise at least 60 minutes per day. That means I NEED my protein.
Your advice would be greatly appreciated.
Lauree, there may not be a way to reconcile the two diets, but I can give you a few suggestions. The first is that, interestingly, potatoes that are hot are high on the glycemic index and cold potatoes are lower. While cold potatoes are not the most appetizing food, it is one way you can eat them. If you eat whole corn (instead of corn meal or corn flour) that would also be a lower glycemic food.
But here is other thought: I generally suggest that you eat up to 80 to 90 percent of your meals as vegetables and fruits, adding in some foods that act like sugar shouldn’t be all that bad (if you are eating mostly vegetables).
You mentioned the need for protein, and I agree, but most people are surprised to learn that green foods (such as broccoli, salad greens, green beans and others) have more protein PER CALORIE than even meat. There is another great book out there called Eat to Live, by Joel Fuhrman that talks a great deal about this, check it out.
What about the sugar in healthy foods like yogurt? I each yogurt not only for the calcium but for the active cultures that help stave off yeast infections etc
I don’t think that dairy foods are that healthy (read
Eat to Live
orThe China Study
As far as your blood sugar goes, though, the protein in fat in the yogurt will help to keep your blood sugar lower than eating sugar without the dairy.
I have a question,
I went to an Naturopath with my children and for myself. He gave us Xylitol and told us that it is not a sugar and save to use. some of my children and I cannot tolerate sugar at all. It makes us dizzy and moody and we gain a lot of weight almost instantly. My body also retains water if I use sugar or eat any type of candy.
So my question is now, is Xylitol really save to use and does it act like a ugar in my body or not?
Another question I have is, can I eat drink kefir? What do you think about kefir? I give it to my children or breakfast. I raise my own kefir grains and make my own kefir.
Please let me know.
I am very excited to do the 30 day sugar free. I have read yor book and I have gotten many of the books you had as references and I think I am ready to let go of this terrible adiction. I just need some help.
Thank you and have a blessed happy new year.
Cornelia
It appears that xylitol is okay, see this post: What about Stevia. . As far as keifer goes, I’m not that supportive of eating dairy products. (See the other comment on this page about dairy).
This sounds very interesting. If I take sugar out of my diet for the whole month of January, and I weigh about 220, how many pounds am I looking at losing? Of course with steady exercise, will the lack of sugar give me no energy?
The amount of weight loss depends on so many factors. If you eat a diet that is around 80 percent vegetables and stay away from grains/sugars and you exercise then you might lose as much as 20 pounds throughout the month.
I’ve signed up! Great Idea. Ill be passing it along to some of my friends who need it.
Thanks!