Last night I set myself the challenge of going for 24 hours without sugar: 6pm yesterday to 6pm today.
Recently, I’ve been reading a lot on health and diet. The idea arose from that. I was also curious, as someone wanting to be a more conscious consumer, to see how easy it would or wouldn’t be.
The actual eating (or not eating?) wasn’t too much of a hardship – one day isn’t really a very long time. Main meals weren’t much of an issue: I normally have scrambled eggs for breakfast and savoury foods for lunch and dinner. I allowed myself to eat fruit (including dried fruit).
Where it became hard was with my snacking habits: I habitually reach for biscuits and the like to satisfy those between-meals food urges. I hadn’t realised how strong this habit was until this afternoon (I managed the morning on fruit and rice crackers). What do you eat when you don’t want to risk eating too much fruit and your fridge is running out of veges?!
I didn’t notice any particular physical effects. I suspect the time period was too short for that. I did find myself getting very hungry this afternoon and there was some desperate cupboard-rummaging. With hindsight, I’m not sure whether that was real hunger or carb/sugar cravings.
Since 6pm, I have let myself go back to more normal habits (i.e. biscuits for supper) and I now have a touch of heartburn (which I don’t normally get). Hmmm…
Conclusions:
- I think I could live without eating much sugar, as long as I can eat honey and fruit (I’m not sure I could give it up entirely – cake!!)
- If I do cut back hard on my sugar intake, or go for a longer fast, I need to stock up on fresh veges and other healthy nibbles.
- Sugar turns up in some surprising places – even in chippies!?! It’s probably best to avoid factory-processed foods as much as possible.
Which I guess all comes back to Michael Pollan’s advice:
