Design your diet
8. Sugar and Spice ...
… and all things nice.
I like sugar, but my teeth don’t.
I have quite a collection of porcelain and even precious metal in my mouth. I’ve had more drilling than the North Sea over the years. I actually did put my money where my mouth is and today, I have dental work that cost more than my car. I was brought up with sugar, which was a bit of a luxury for the older folks after they had to use saccharin that’s hundreds of times sweeter and left a lingering aftertaste. You can taste something like this in No Added Sugar soft drinks. They said later that saccharin might give people cancer, but I don’t know if they still do. There are lots of other ‘sweeteners’ used in all sorts of food and drink these days that are technically not as ‘dangerous’ as sugar. You can learn their names by reading the labels.
Danger?
When ‘experts’ talk about the ‘dangers’ of sugar they are mainly talking about the 'energy' that is in it, rather than damaged teeth. Sugar has been included in all manner of foods; so many in fact, that the list would be too long to write. It isn’t just the loose sugar that you might scatter on your breakfast cereals, or put into your tea. It is the 3 spoons of sugar in a tin of beans, soup, or other foodstuff, that is worrying them. Everybody can understand that jam, biscuits, chocolates and cakes have sugar in them, but it’s the sugar in many processed foods, that is the problem, because it’s not as obvious. If you eat more sugar than you can use, your body will try to store it’s energy (just in case the energy is needed) and that will make you fat.
To try to NOT eat ANY sugar today, is near impossible. If you managed it, you wouldn’t like it. I looked up what the daily-amount limit should be for people to eat, but I’m not telling you what it is, because it is so ridiculously small. Some people might make it – but they would be on a special diet, and we aren’t, unless there is a clinical reason for reducing sugar and I’m not referring to such people. I am talking about ordinary people without serious medical conditions, who are overweight, or as the charts say, obese.
If you are on a special sugar-reduced diet I am not referring to you.
Should you be worried about sugar?
Not worried, because you can control the obvious amount you have; the stuff you scoop up on a teaspoon.
You should be aware about sugar.
You can read all the tins and packets to see what’s in the contents, but most people don’t. They are just trusting that the food makers are trying to reduce the sugar in the cans, because they have been told to do so. They often don’t mention ‘Sugar’ on labels anyway - they usually talk about ‘energy’ instead.
Do you put sugar in hot drinks?
If not – Good – don’t start.
If yes, you could reduce it a bit?
If you take two sugars in tea/coffee, answer the next question:
What is a teaspoonful?
This is where an eating change can start.
Make a Rule for yourself.
Decide that:
The filled teaspoon can only be level with the rim, not above it.
If you use a heaped one, you have to count that as two spoonsful. If you used this limit for a fortnight you would probably be able to make the change to level teaspoons and always be able to do it. This is a sensible control for you to start with.
Answer a couple more questions.
Do you put sugar on breakfast cereal?
If you eat ‘frosted’ flakes, can you change to a similar cereal -
without the frost?
I am now about to make a most unusual suggestion, probably never made in any dieting blog before. I am suggesting you change one kind of 'sugar' for another sort of 'sugar'. I make this suggestion because it would involve change, and change is very important to the whole of this system of self-help. It is about not doing what you would normally do.
To make a real change from using sprinkled sugar, get some Honeynut Cornflakes. Eat up your old flakes and forget them. Don’t pay top price for big brands. The Honeynuts are now your ‘frosted’ flakes - and also, your ‘breakfast sugar’. No more sprinkled sugar. You should ‘trade’ the Honeynuts for some of your usual cereal and sprinkle some of these flakes on top of the remaining cereal - instead of sugar.
You must NOT eat a bowlful of them
That would be worse than what you do now.
Later, you can change again, as we shall see.
Trading.
If you make this change, you will have 'traded' one sweet source for another. You must limit the way that you use your new sweetener and by doing so, you have to think up a limit for the process of sweetening your cereals. This is NEW and so it is NOT yet a HABIT, so you can set a lower limit than you might have used previously. Use enough just to sweeten, but not so small that it makes you unhappy and wishing for the old sprinkled sugar. You are taking a small step to escape what your body is expecting, by getting away from the routine.
Think about Trading
What limits would you fix for yourself when ‘trading’?
Suggest (but it is up to you):
Take out one Weetabix for one heaped desert spoon’s-worth of Honeynuts sprinkled?
There must be no sugar.
If you could make a trade like this you might be down to 4 Weetabix with no sprinkled sugar. That's two birds with one stone. The milk will wash the sweetness off the Honeynuts onto the rest of the cereal. It's not as sweet as sprinkled sugar, but acceptable and within your control. To make such a change to your usual breakfast cereal, would qualify as a mighty step and you should hardly notice it after a few days.
Changing is good and if you can sustain it, you will be able to lose weight by making other gradual changes. After a week you have an additional aim to slowly reduce the Honeynuts if you can, to level-desert spoon, within another fortnight.
These are small changes that will not kill you. If you control the process, you should be able to not-notice any great change after a month. At this time further changes can be made, as an ongoing process that will lead your body to begin to accept and adjust to other changes being made. It will gradually get easier to change.
You now have time to experiment with what I have suggested.
Walking. You should be walking.
Change your route slightly each day.
I notice that squirrels run up the backs of the tree when they see you coming.
Then they disappear, even if you walk round the tree.
They know where you are.
There are primroses coming up on my walks.
To Read On another section
'Ingredients' has been added to
'Introduction' & 'Eat Less'
at the top of the page