A family of four went on a no-sugar diet for a year and now report health benefits like more energy and fewer sick days.
Eve Schaub, a freelance writer was petrified when she saw Dr. Robert Lustig's video "Sugar: The Bitter Truth." The University of California obesity researchers documented how fructose is a poison. Schaub and her husband were convinced that sugar was the biggest demon of all food.
So the couple and their two children went on a one-year no-sugar diet. The Schaub family cut out 13 added sweeteners from their diet, the Global Post reported.
Documenting The Year Without Sugar
Schaub documented the one year in her book "Year Without Sugar" which was released in the U.S. last week. There, she revealed how it wasn't easy giving up sugar, considering she was an ardent baker.
The family learned how to identify varied added sugar on food labels and found ways to avoid sugar without drastically changing their diet. For example, the family switched from store-bought to homemade food like mayonnaise and bread. In her blog, Schaub shares recipes and tips on how to shop and dine sans sugar.
During that one year, she observed several health benefits like fewer colds and coughs, better gastrointestinal functioning and fewer energy crashes. Schaub also noted in her book that her children's sick leaves dropped from 20 a year to just 5 that year.
"We felt healthier, it seemed like we got sick less, like we got better faster or got milder colds. My kids missed significantly less school," the author told the Huffington Post in an interview.
It's been two years since the experiment. Though the family has started including sugar in their diet, Schaub says she and the rest of the family still have "more sensitive palates and a more subtle appreciation for sweetness" than before. Desserts in the household are small, infrequent and almost always homemade.
The Other Side of The Story - A Colleagues View
While Schaub and her family may have been highly inspired by Dr. Robert Lustig's YouTube video, the researcher's colleague Jeff Novick didn't buy Lustig's theory.
"Dr Lustig means well, but his focus is really off-base and misguided as well as misleading as I will explain," he said in a 2013 post.
Contrary to Lustig's suggestions of a 100 percent sugar-free diet, Novick is of the opinion that sugar should be consumed in moderation, not completely avoided. He also says that before terming sugar as "poison", there are many factors to consider like dose, route, time, duration, rate and frequency of exposure along with the age, gender, environment, and vitality of the host. A 2010 study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association supports Novick's theory stating that 25 percent of daily calorie intake can be in the form of sugars and it brought down bad cholesterol vis a vis consuming just 5 percent sugar which upped the cholesterol
Sugar - The New Tobacco?
Sugary drinks have been a major contributor to the obesity epidemic. In 2011, a study on 12,000 Americans found that people who increased their level of sugar consumption by one 12-ounce serving per day gained about 4 pounds a year. Another study found that people who drink one can of sugary beverage are at a 20 percent higher risk of having a heart attack or dying from a heart attack than those who rarely consumed sugary drinks. Such people also have a 75 percent higher risk of gout.
