A Year with No Sugar??

I found this article on "100 Days of Real Food" website and was very intrigued by it!!

http://www.everydayhealth.com/columns/my-health-story/year-of-no-sugar-one-family-grand-adventure/

As many of you know, I got diagnosed  back in April/ May of having leaky gut and one of my main triggers was yeast.  My doctor then proceeded to tell me that sugar is what feeds yeast and therefore, I needed to cut sugar out of my diet! It wasn't only sugar though, it was all forms of sugar, vinegar, citric acid, etc.  I also had to lower the amounts of starches I was eating. 

I went home and told myself that I was going to do my best! My head was spinning for a couple of weeks as I figured out how to make this no sugar diet work.  I had already been on a certain diet for a couple of years and now I had to completely switch! But the bad thing is that sugar (or some form of it) is in everything!

I also told myself that if I am going off of sugar, then my kids are too and I greatly decreased their amount of sugar intake. Yes, they still get ketchup, mustard, birthday cake, etc. but I really wanted a sugar product to be a "treat," not an every day occurrence.  I also started to rotate everything we ate every four days.

Little did I know the effects I would see about a week after coming off of sugar!  I love the article cited above because I can relate!  I didn't even know I had a problem before getting tested, but I can totally tell a difference!

Here are a few of our good side effects:

1.  I stopped craving salty foods. Your body craves salty foods when it's sugar intake is too high, it is a way of keeping your body balanced. I was always thirsty and craving salty foods. For awhile, I thought I was maybe diabetic, but nope, my sugar intake was just too high!

2.  I stopped wanting to eat or drink ALL THE TIME! (due to the salty cravings) Now, I can go 4-5 hours without eating and I really only need to eat when I am hungry. 

3.  My 10 year old daughter calmed down a LOT! Being home and working with her all day during school, we would sometimes get attitude trouble and somebody would have to be sent her room.  She often would be stubborn and not want to listen. Guess what? We don't have any trouble with attitude anymore!! She is not as stubborn and she is willing to listen better to what I am telling her! I saw this clearly as we were finishing up our school lessons last year. I know she has a hard time with phonics and using the dictionary, but she was doing it and not giving me any trouble (unlike the year before!)

4.  My almost 8 year old has lost her sugar cravings.  This is a child who was constantly asking me for candy, ice cream, pop, fruit snacks, popsicles, etc.  Now, I don't even get asked. It is AMAZING! (and yes, having these here and there are fine, but not every day)  I have not had any popsicles of any kind in the freezer all summer and nobody has even asked for one! I have a bucket of ice cream in there right now and I don't even recall the last time we had ice cream here at home. Nobody asks anymore!

5.  I have noticed that when I took the cereal away for breakfast and replaced it with protein filled food, my children can make it all the way to noon without asking for a snack!  Before this, it would hit 10 am and my children were acting like they couldn't survive without a snack. It would totally interrupt school and just didn't go over well. I am glad they can make it to noon now, it helps with our school day!!

6.  We are less sick.  Christian only got bronchitis 1-2 times this winter instead of 10+ times like last year! None of us had the flu or even a cold.  Once we started to get sick, our bodies would fight it right away and it wasn't so bad. 

7.  I have noticed that when my kids have too much sugar, they will start to not feel well. Megan got sick at a birthday party about a month ago and Courtney got sick at the county fair last weekend. I believe that both time they overdid it and their bodies are just not used to it anymore!

I believe that by pulling sugar out of our diets, our whole palettes have changed.  Do we still eat fruit? Absolutely! Do we eat more vegetables than we used to? Yes! Do we try to eat more protein and good fats during the day? YES! Do we try to lower our grains, especially wheat? Yes! Like my doctor says, you should flip the food pyramid upside down and plan your meals according to the "new" pyramid.

I plan on sticking with this "decreased sugar" diet for awhile. I know some people don't agree with what I am doing, but I have seen too many positive effects for me and my family to quit now and go back to our old ways!!  Why can't we strive to be as healthy as we can be? Are there other things I could do to be healthy? Probably! Maybe someday I will get to those too, but as for now, we are doing what works!