Press - Sugar detox for beginners : your guide to starting a 21-day sugar detox

PART ONE

Fundamentals of the Sugar Detox Diet

Introduction

S ugar. It might have come on as sweet and harmless, but, like a bad boyfriend or girlfriend, over time it revealed its true colors. You dont like what you see. Or feel.

If the romance is overif youve had enough of feeling lousy, craving increasing amounts of the sweet stuff, and feeling out of controlyouve come to the right place. This book will give you the tools you need to feel well and in control. When youre ready to detoxify from sugar, youll find recipes, inspiration, and information in these pages.

Youll learn to think about your diet in new ways, and to substitute healthful foods and behaviors for those that werent working for you. This book is designed to offer maximum flexibility and easetwo things you could probably use a lot more of in your life and your diet.

Youll also find information about dealing with special situations or diets that are sugar-free-plus-something-else (kosher, halal, vegetarian). Nothing should stand between you and the life and health you want.

Sugar detoxing should not leave you hungry, fatigued, or moody. Just the opposite: After a few days of careful eating, you should begin to feel revitalized. The longer you refrain from eating sugar, the easier it will likely become. The better youll feel, and even look. (Sugars no good for your skin, either, except topically.) Sweet! Or maybe not.

CHAPTER 1

Addicted to Sugar

Honey. Ah, sugar, sugar. In some ways, not much has changed since the Archies reached the top of the music charts with this sweet, bouncy number circa 1969. Husbands and wives still call each other honey. Kids are sweetie, and Mom, perhaps, still asks her special someone for some sugar. Oh, but those are just expressions, arent they?

Theres no doubt that were hooked on the sweet stuff. Sugarand its close relatives, honey (which, contrary to popular perception, offers little to no nutritional value), corn syrup, molasses, and even fructoseis big business. And, since the 1940s, the sugar industry has been doing all it can to ensure the favorability of its product in the eyes of the public. Lately, people have been wising up. But old habits can be hard to break. Addictions, of course, are even harder.

You may have grown up thinking that sugar was perfectly harmless, or even wholesome. Many Americans and Europeans still begin their days with the sugar-sweetened cereals or chocolate milk they enjoyed in childhood. Perhaps you have graduated to sweetened coffee drinks, muffins or Danishes, orheaven help us!cola. (Oh, and contrary to another popular belief, orange juice, beneficial though it is, contains lots of sugar. Youre better off with a whole orange or grapefruit. Bran muffins, fruit shakes, and instant oatmeal arent nutritional bargains, either.)

As the day progresses, you might reach for the quick energy (actually a myth) of candy bars, the office donut cart, or energy bars (most of which are little better, if at all, than candy). Chances are, dinner ends with a sweet dessertto say nothing of the various snacks you might have consumed throughout the day.

No wonder the World Health Organization calls diabetes an emerging global epidemic. Diabetes and its complications are a major cause of death worldwideand, as you may have heard, the prevalence of type 2 diabetes (the kind that is usually acquired rather than inherited) among children and adults has been growing by leaps and bounds.

Worse, sugar is addictive: The more you consume, the more youll crave. That, of course, will drive you to eat ever-greater quantities of the sweet stuff. And then what? Well, then youre at higher-than-average risk not only for diabetes, but also for many other diseases. Sugar, according to celebrity dermatologist Nicholas Perricone, MD, causes inflammationwhich, in turn, can give rise to many maladies. But thats not all. That same inflammatory property that can make us sick also ages our skin prematurely. Thats right: sugar can actually cause wrinkles!

The flip side? Just as sugar can weaken our bodies and age us, avoiding sugar can help us enjoy better health and greater beauty. Difficult? It can be. But this book helps make sugar detoxing less painful than you might think. Lets start by playing a little game. How much of a problem is sugar for you? To find out, try your hand at the following quiz. Go onits fun!

QUIZ: ARE YOU ADDICTED TO SUGAR?

1. I consume_______soft drinks (cola, soda, pop) during a typical day.

A. No

B. One

C. Two or three

D. Four or more

2. I believe a glass of orange juice is:

A. Essential every morning

B. A bad idea, because OJ, even though it has lots of vitamin C, is loaded with sugar

C. Not as healthful as a whole orange or grapefruit (either whole or juiced)

D. A great afternoon pick-me-up

3. I dont eat as many vegetables as I should because:

A. Theyre too hard to prepare. Donuts, candy, and fast food are ready when I am!

B. I want to enjoy lifeand healthful food isnt as much fun as the other kind!

C. What are you talking about? I eat plenty of vegetables.

D. Im not sure why not. I mean to.

4. I read product labels:

A. Always

B. Sometimes

C. Nah

D. The print is too small. Who do they make these things for?

5. When I do read a product label, I look for:

A. Sugar

B. Cane sugar

C. Barley malt

D. All kinds of sugarcane, brown sugar, honey, molasses, fructose, barley malt, and so on

6. Hidden sugars can be found in:

A. Soups

B. Packaged salad dressings

C. Bread

D. Just about anything

7. When I crave something sweet, I want:

A. Fruit

B. Chocolate

C. Pudding or yogurt

D. Ice cream

8. When I think about detoxing, I feel:

A. Excited

B. A little apprehensive or doubtful

C. Terrified

D. Confident. It may be tough, but I know I can do it!

9. When I feel frustrated, bored, or sad, I find myself turning to sweet treats for comfort:

A. Sometimes

B. Often

C. Pretty much all the time

D. Never. I look for constructive ways to deal with problems or bad feelings.

10. Most of the time, I eat sweet treats when I am:

A. Alone

B. At social functions, including business events

C. At work

D. Traveling

E. At dinner with friends, or on rare special occasions, such as my birthday

Scoring

Best answers: 1. A; 2. B or C; 3. C, although any answer can represent one reason you might be reading this book; 4. A (but the print often is too small to read comfortably!); 5. D; 6. D; 7. and 8. only you can answer these questions, of course. We hope to provide recipes or at least substitution ideas and strategies to help stem those cravings. Fear, apprehension, self-confidence, and excitement are all valid ways to feel about the prospect of minimizing your bodys dependence on sugar; 9. D; 10. E.

But you dont even have to know the score to know whether sugar is a bigger part of your life than it needs to be. Think carefully about your answers to these questions. Are you addicted to sugarand, if so, how badly? The answer should be plain.