Avoiding Sugar In Food: Just How Hard Does It Have To Be?

So,  I have just passed the 5 week mark of avoiding sugar in food. And yep,  if you've read any of my previous posts, I am happy to say that most of the changes and benefits previously described are still evident: improved skin,  brighter eyes, feeling less tired, a clearer mind. In fact, I could probably say that feeling consistently great has become my new 'normal'.  Yay me.

But I am starting to realise these benefits come at a price: I'm either going to have to find a lot more time to prepare food each day which I then have to transport to work, or I'll have to resign myself to eating a very limited diet during the week. Truth be told, there may be a good reason why the No Added Sugar way of eating is mainly promoted by celebrities.

Let me explain.  I started this blog when I was a couple of weeks into a self-devised No Added Sugar regime, brimming with energy and keen to share information about this and other diet related issues that have become part of our family's daily life. At the time I was having a short break between jobs, so had lots of time to read up on sugar and to experiment with recipes and ways of preparing meals without sugar. Cooking being the operative word - lots of egg based breakfasts and lunches - everything delicious.

Two weeks ago I started my new job. It is in London, which is a few hours' commute away. It's a great job but I now have an early start 3 days a week. I will sometimes have to work late and am not now at home for as many meals as before. Monday to Friday I now have breakfast and lunch away from home most days, sometimes also my evening meal. And I have discovered that it is hard to eat a variety of low sugar food when you're out and about.

Breakfast - I mainly have to take this myself so I can eat it on the train. There is absolutely no point in trying to pick something up at the station. The baguettes are made with refined flour, as are the pastries which contain added sugar as well. Chances are that the yoghurt-based breakfast contained sweetened yoghurt and/or granola, as does the porridge. This is true, even in 'healthy eating chains' such as Pret a Manager and Eat. So breakfast these days is either a no sugar peanut butter sandwich on Vogel's bread or a homemade yoghurt, frozen berry and chia seed mix left in the fridge overnight. The latter is tasty, but becomes plastic container #1 in my work bag.

Lunch - easier, because of the popularity of salads in sandwich shops. But I am amazed by how high in sugar some of these are. I thought at first that I was just not spotting the right things so spent some of my commuting time looking at the Eat and Pret websites. I discovered almost no veggie soups with less than 8g of sugar in a small serving. The same goes for salads, although M&S salads seem a bit better. Quite often, the lowest sugar option for a takeaway lunch will be a wrap.

So why is 8g of sugar my benchmark? Yet again I am limited by a lack of authoritative scientific advice on how much of which sugars we should be aiming for. But, if 4g = 1 teaspoon of sugar, and if we are meant to be consuming no more than 25g or 6 teaspoons a day - see this BBC news article -  then I don't really want 2 teaspoons to be used up on one part of lunch. Because, let's be honest, a small soup or salad is not really going to keep me happy by itself for that long...

Increasingly, therefore, I am taking a homemade salad or sandwich for my lunch. Plastic container #2. Oh, and a bottle of water for the train/tube. Plastic container #3. And a couple of pieces of fruit in a small bag. Plastic container #4. I honestly think I carried fewer plastic containers of food around with me when I had a couple of toddlers in tow. But this isn't the only drawback. I love food. I want to be able to eat a variety of things. There is real possibility that my weekday diet will become boring and limited, simply because I don't have the time and space in my commuting bag to mix things up more and because the supermarkets and sandwich chains are way behind the curve on the issue of sugar in food.

Most of us mere mortals don't have the time or resources of Davina McCall or Gwyneth Paltrow. Working parents have to work, give time to our kids, shop, cook and do chores without the assistance of a PA, au pair or nanny. Do we really have to factor in preparing all our own food from scratch in order to avoid poisoning ourselves with sugar? The supermarkets and and sandwich chains are really missing a trick here.

30 Minute Wholemeal Pizza and Spelt Pizza

This make from scratch pizza recipe can be ready to eat in as little as 30 minutes, depending on how you

Wholemeal Pizza

like your crusts. The dough doesn't have to rest for more than 5/10 minutes, unless you want to produce something more akin to a deep crust.

Although most recipes suggest using a strong flour of the bread making type, I have discovered that you can use any flour within reason. As an experiment yesterday I made one batch with strong brown flour and another with spelt flour as I wanted to see how easy it would be to make a low FODMAPs pizza (although Robbie, luckily, is OK with wheat these days). As can be seen from the pictures, both crusts looked the same and tasted pretty similar. The spelt crust was slightly drier and more dense in texture. However, it was absolutely delicious with a topping of tomato sauce, sliced mushroom, tuna and cheese.

Little known fact: teenage boys really like kneading dough. I say kneading - there is quite a lot of punching involved.

Family verdict:

Everyone: A universal hit. The spelt dough was different but no less popular. 'Slightly drier, still great dipped

Spelt Pizza

in mayonnaise'. Overall - 'Really, really good.'

Makes: 2 x 12 inch pizzas. (I made 2 quantities - one with each type of flour - therefore 4 x 12 inch pizzas).

Time needed: 7 minutes measuring and kneading; 5-10 minutes+ to rest; 10-15 minutes cooking.

INGREDIENTS:

300g flour (wholemeal/spelt/strong white or strong brown)

1 tsp fast acting dried yeast

1 tsp sea salt

1 tbs oiive oil + more for drizzling

200 ml warm tap water.

200g passata

1 tbs FODMAPs friendly pesto

Toppings of choice (those pictured are sweetcorn and Quorn bacon)

                                                              Grated cheese to top

METHOD

1. Heat the oven to 200 C/gas mark 6. Oil 2 x 12 inch pizza trays or baking trays.
2. Put the flour, yeast, salt and olive oil in a bowl.
3. Add the water and stir with a wooden spoon until combined. The mixture should form a sticky dough.
4. Put the dough onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes, The dough will gradually become smooth, silky and stretchy. Add more flour to the surface if the dough starts to stick.
5. Put the dough into a clean bowl. Cover with a tea towel or clingfilm and leave to rest in a warm place for 5-10 minutes. 
6. (If you would like a deeper crust, leave the dough to rise for longer. You can then give it a light knock, roll it out and then, if you like the crust very thick, leave it to rise slightly for a second time on the tray).
7. After the dough has rested/risen, divide it in two. Roll one half out to your required thickness/shape, according to whichever baking tray you are using. Repeat with the second half of the dough.
8. Mix the pesto into the passata and spread it onto the pizza bases using the back of a metal spoon.
9. Add the toppings of your choice. Season and then top each pizza with cheese.
10. Bake for 10-15 minutes, fairly high in the oven. I usually switch the pizzas over halfway through so that both pizzas have some of the time.
11. Remove from the oven. Drizzle with olive oil (basil infused olive oil is fantastic for this). 
12. Serve with a fresh mixed salad and whatever you like to dip your crusts into.

4 Weeks of No Added Sugar: So What's Different?

There have been quite a few changes in our family over the past month. They range from the significant - Meg has now officially left school, only returning for her last few A'level exams; Nora has been taking her GCSEs; Drew and I have both changed jobs  - to the relatively minor - Nora has started running in the mornings; Harry and Robbie are hanging out together a lot more, etc.

In the grand scheme of things, at a time when so many people in our local and global communities are facing so many challenges, a personal decision to stop consuming unnecessary sugar in food should come way down on the 'things of minor importance' scale. But...indulge me. Because the impact of such a small decision has been really surprising.

1. I feel very different. It is very hard to quantify or describe changes of this nature. Clearly it is a subjective change that sceptics would argue is the result of something akin to a placebo effect. But I feel much...better. Brighter. I have masses more energy. It's weird. My new job involves early starts, hours of commuting and a steep learning curve. But I feel great. Even though I felt tired when I woke up on Thursday and Friday, I have had no brain fog at all and absolutely no slumps in energy during the day. I am thinking clearly. My moods have been stable and I feel calmer. All true. The only other experience I can compare this change to is when I gave up smoking, many years ago - but this is much better. Try it. 
2. I look different. As previously mentioned, the tone of my skin has improved. It is warmer and brighter. I have, dare I say it, a glow. I haven't had time to use body lotion in the mornings but the skin on my body is soft, not dry. My eyes are brighter and my teeth/gums feel really...healthy. Overall, as Drew has mentioned, I look really well.
3. My palate has changed. The few sweet things I have tasted - a sip of a relatively low sugar drink for example - taste shockingly sweet. It is not a pleasant sensation at all. And I have absolutely no interest in confectionery - my eye now just skims over chocolate bars, cakes etc. in shops while I look for something I actually want to eat. I noticed last might that the automatic message from my brain at the end of meals ("Something sweet now please") has just...stopped. I don't feel deprived. I'm just not interested. I am eating a couple of portions of fruit a day which taste delicious but is mainly because fruit fits nicely into a packed lunch for the office. Unlike some of the celebrity advocates of no added sugar diets, I am not resorting to tactics such as brushing teeth early in the evening in order to avoid wanting to eat later. I don't need to.
4. My body shape is changing. Just to be clear, I haven't lost significant weight. (I have my personal theories as to why, to be the subject of another post). But my waist is leaner and my stomach remains resolutely without bloating throughout the day. I think (but have no way of knowing in the absence of weight loss) that I may be losing abdominal fat: there is certainly a reduction in 'muffin tops' with certain pairs of jeans. I feel trimmer. 
5. The kids have become much more sugar aware. I felt a little guilty about this at first - teenagers, (especially girls) and body image - but I am over that now. Nora (16) and Harry (nearly 13) were the sweetest toothed family members and they have both started to think and ask me about the sugar content of various processed foods. They are both still eating regular meals and snacks in between but they are making different, healthier food choices. For Harry in particular this is somewhat miraculous. He has started to replace snack foods with healthier options - nuts instead of crisps, for example. The message I am trying to give the kids is not avoid sugar in all forms but to try to make their consumption of it a choice. So choose to have a sweet pudding after dinner if that it what they like. But don't also choose to have sweet snacks and sugary drinks all day. I am also hoping that their overall sugar consumption will be down because of changes to the family shopping. Tesco, again, seems to be coming out on top when it comes to bread that has been made without sugar, no added sugar peanut butter and low sugar choices.

Drew and I have just had a chat about this post. He has just come back from a high energy bike ride and said, in effect, he is glad that No Added Sugar is working so well for me but that "he doesn't need to do it". Drew is indeed super slim and fit at present, with a big bike ride planned for next weekend. But, as I have suggested to him, he may be missing the point. Reducing sugar intake isn't just about weight control. The changes I have noticed are, for me personally, powerful support for the hypothesis that the sugar I was previously consuming may have been a toxin, now removed from my system.

Honey Baked Flapjacks

This fruit, nut, coconut and honey combination works well and is a good alternative if you want to bake without using refined sugars.The results aren't as greasy as traditional flapjacks can be and they certainly

disappear from the kitchen as quickly as usual! This mixture doesn't seem to compress down as much when I put it in the pan.

Family verdict:
Harry & Robbie: 'Very good. Thicker than usual. A bit crumbly.'

Time needed: 10 minutes preparation + 20 minutes baking.

Makes: 16 small or 8 large flapjacks

INGREDIENTS

400g porridge oats
200g butter
250g runny honey
150g dried fruit
70g walnut pieces
30g coconut flakes, chopped, or unsweetened, dried coconut.

METHOD

1. Heat the oven to 170 C/gas mark 4. Grease a 20cm square or similar sized baking tin thoroughly.
2. Put the butter and honey into a small saucepan and melt it over a low heat. Stir until both are well combined.
3. Break the walnut pieces into smallish pieces.( I usually put the nuts in a plastic bag and bash then a few times with the end of a small rolling pin).
4. Combine the oats, dried fruit, coconut and walnuts into a large bowl. Add the butter and honey mixture and stir until well combined.
5. Put the flapjack mixture into the baking tine and smooth it out, pressing it down with the back of a metal spoon.
6. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, depending upon the oven you are using. The top of the flapjacks should brown but not burn.
7. Remove from the oven and, using a sharp knife, score the cooked mixture into the desired number of flapjacks. Leave in the tine to cool completely.
8. When the flapjacks are cold, cut along the scored lines again and remove the flapjacks from the tin. They will keep for several days in an airtight tine, assuming they last that long!