Going Sugar Free — Without Giving Up the Good Stuff

# Going Sugar Free — Without Giving Up the Good Stuff

I've been thinking a lot about sugar recently.

Not *I'm never eating anything sweet again*. More from the point of view of asking a simple question:

**Why are we putting so much sugar in everything?**

Once you start looking, it's actually quite incredible.

It's not just cakes, biscuits and sweets. Sugar finds its way into sauces, bread, drinks, breakfast foods and plenty of things we don't even think of as particularly sweet.

And the strange thing is, once you start eating less of it, your taste begins to change.

Fruit becomes really sweet.

Dates become almost ridiculously sweet.

A ripe Zanzibar mango tastes like a dessert all by itself.

And that got me thinking.

## Does cake actually need sugar?

One thing I've become increasingly interested in is whether eating better really has to mean sitting there miserably chewing a lettuce leaf while everyone else has dessert.

I like food too much for that.

There are actually plenty of ways to make cakes and desserts **without adding refined sugar**.

A lime cashew cheesecake can be made dairy free, gluten free and without refined sugar, using a cashew and date base with a creamy lime and cashew topping.

Ginger cake can use dates for sweetness, with a ginger and date caramel.

Then there's a healthy "Snickers" style slice.

Peanuts. Dates. Cacao. A little honey.

You still get that chocolate-peanut hit without needing to throw a load of processed sugar into it.

A double chocolate slice can be made with cacao, peanuts, dates and cocoa butter.

And probably the simplest dessert of all is banana nice-cream, made from frozen banana and milk.

That's it.

And that's really the point.

## Sugar free doesn't have to mean sweetener

Personally, I'm not particularly interested in replacing sugar with a laboratory full of artificial sweeteners.

I'd rather go backwards.

Fruit.

Dates.

Bananas.

Mango.

Coconut.

Cacao.

Nuts.

Honey where it makes sense.

Real ingredients that humans have been eating for a very long time.

And you start discovering that there are lots of ways of making food taste good without simply pouring sugar into it.

## Try seven days

If you're curious about going sugar free, I wouldn't make some enormous lifelong promise.

**Try it for seven days.**

For one week, cut out foods with added refined sugar.

Eat proper meals.

Have eggs and avocado for breakfast. Try a plantain waffle. Have fresh fish, vegetables, rice, beans, fruit, coconut and good fats.

If you want something sweet, have fruit or something naturally sweetened with dates or banana.

And yes — have a piece of cake.

Just have a cake that doesn't contain refined sugar.

The first couple of days might feel strange if you're used to eating a lot of sweet food. But give your taste buds a chance to wake up.

Then after seven days, eat something you used to think was normal.

You might be surprised by just how sweet it tastes.

## Going back to real food

For me, going sugar free isn't really about dieting.

It's about asking what happens when we take some of the unnecessary rubbish out of food and go back to making things ourselves.

Make your own sauces. Make your own bread when you can. Use fresh coconut milk. Eat more whole foods and fewer things that come with an ingredients list you can barely understand.

Not because everyone needs to live by some impossible set of rules.

Simply because **good food doesn't need all that stuff.**

And perhaps that's the easiest way to start going sugar free.

Don't concentrate on what you're giving up.

Start discovering how good real food can taste instead.

You may discover you don't miss the sugar nearly as much as you thought you would.