Sugar High on Readers List

 Well I have just partook in an interview with the Sydney Herald Sun, to discuss my experience with quitting sugar, thanks to an open invite yesterday by David Gillespie on his facebook page: Sweet Poison. The article is about how there are 12/15 in the current top non-fiction books list that are about healthy eating & diets at the moment - 3/15 about quitting sugar! Now thats worthy news... 

So I've been sugar free for almost a year now & was told about the Sweet Poison phenomenon by a good friend. I borrowed the book, soon got hooked, bought my own copy & subsequent follow-up of his, Quit Plan.  Since then I have bought the eBook: I Quit Sugar by Sarah Wilson, her cookbook & follow both their blogs. I have also read Big Fat Lies & now have Toxic Oil on the go. The latter two I'm struggling with because vegetable oil is intrinsic to so much of our daily staples & convenience foods... await my verdict once I've fully read TO. Though the opening sentence as to how it makes you exceedingly vulnerable to cancer, scares the pants off me enough to want to do it!

So what makes me believe these books?  Initially I would say interest in healthy eating & weight loss, hence picking up the first one. Upon reading I would say the scary reality of what eating fructose & vegetable oil lead to, backed up by the scientific facts, charts & logic that Gillespie applies. Subsequently I would say the practice of quitting sugar & benefits I personally found: weight loss, increased energy, decreased nana naps, better inner health, decreased appetite, loss of sugar cravings,  ability to say no to sweets, plus my childrens acceptance & understanding to healthy food choices.

I do believe in moderation & a little of what you fancy does you good, so the kids are allowed "occasional foods" such as cake for parties & the odd biscuit/chocolate for other social treat times. For myself however sweet alternatives have to be used as the sugar addiction just kicks in & when I quit again (i.e. post Easter & Xmas) that 10 day headache is just not worth it! 

Fingers crossed my interview makes the cut & I can post a link here shortly.

Banana Excess

Finding I had an abundance of bananas lying around that were starting to go spotty I wanted to try a recipe from Sweet Poison for Banana Muffins to use up some. I followed the recipe, but halved the ingredients & added a little Xanthum gum hoping for some sticky magic, given I was using GF SR flour, & decided to reduce the time to 15mins as my oven seems to operate extra hot. The batch made 24 mini muffins. They smell incredible & look the part... taste verdict YUM! Well in my FF GF opinion they do.... I await the tastes experts to awake from their nap & pronounce them deeeeelicious or normal, both would be good ratings, as opposed to "not normal" or yuk.

Sweet Poison - Banana Muffins

The rest of the bananas I've cut up & stored in bags in the freezer so I can whizz them up into ice-cream later. The kids love that as a dessert treat once a week. Its so simple, no other ingredient needed as the frozen bananas provide the sweet flavour & texture of real ice-cream. I do occasionally add some fresh cream, if I have any, or berries, nuts or coconut to change flavour. Cutting the pieces up small before freezing means they are easier to put into hand blender for convenience to whizz as & when, rather than getting out the food processor.

Not so sweet

For anyone wondering how the Anzacs turned out - the texture was awesome & the xanthum gum certainly helped prevent crumbliness of the usual GF disasters I bake. Flavourwise though they definitely did not taste sweet... I did use Glucose Syrup ilo Rice Malt Syrup & maybe that was the issue, but another time I would combine the Sweet Poison & This is Taryn recipes & included Dextrose for a bit of sweetness & traditional oats (given that I'm only Wheat-free).

I picked up David Gillespies Toxic Oil from the library today so am hoping that sheds some light into the nasties of fats & leads me down a path more healthy. Cutting the fructose has definitely enabled me to lose some weight & prevent further weight gain, but I am struggling to lose that little extra to be in a healthier BMI and a lesser dress size. This could be down to portion size or just those weaknesses of mine... chips & crisps, which I seem to have convinced myself are acceptable non-fructose, but know they are not really "healthy" alternatives.

Fructose Free Post Easter

So Easter was managed. I had decided to allow myself a Lindt Bunny, first Chocolate since Xmas. I did succumb to a couple of little eggs from the kids stash too... but nipped it in the bud within a day after Easter break & hopped back on the FF Wagon.

The kids got a bunny each & ate them over 3 days, plus a handful of miniature eggs from a hunt. They were very grateful & understood moderation on a daily basis for the week. Since then they've had none & have accepted that's it until another special occasion. I've muted their birthday could be next occasion for a chocolate treat.... consequently both have already put their orders in for cake designs when the B word was mentioned. Nothing like planning ahead! I need that 5 months to perfect my FF baking, not to mention dust off my creative hat & work out how to do Dora & Diego cakes respectively.

I have tried to cut out fruit for the meantime, following the I Quit Sugar plan loosely to give me a boost. But at the moment I think portion size is still my downfall, though I have noticed a few times I've been unable to finish a meal & happy to accept food left on my plate. The recommendation is to cut-out fruit (on top of added sugar) for a couple of weeks, then reintroduce a piece or two of whole fruit once appetite control is in place. I haven't had any sweet substitutes for a couple of weeks, though might allow myself an Anzac day treat this week following this FF GF Anzac Biscuit recipe I saw recently. I love the experience of making Anzacs, the melting of the butter & the fizzing of the bicarb soda... great one for the kids to get involved with. This recipe calls for Xanthum gum which apparently helps with the binding, so I'm hoping an improvement to my prior GF baking experiences.

Ideas for sugar free Easter gifts for the kids - Bunny hair ties, like these cute ones from Made'Em. Pajamas, I found some adorable ones with bunnies on. How about headbands with chicks or eggs on or a pair of bunny ears. I also have some decorative papier mache egg shells about the size of a medium Easter Egg (or an Emu egg), which I find a small toy to fit in... this year some wind up animals for races against each other. Books are also a winner... this years favourite was the Easter Bunnys Helpers.

Soda so good

Decided to treat ourselves to a Sodastream today... not for the sickly syrupy pops but just for plain old soda water... aka LEMONADE to the kids!  I took to soda water when I first began reading Sweet Poison last July, & since then the whole family loves it & we've been getting through so many bottles at 80c a pop & generating landfill waste it was about time to invest. Gave me a nice warm fuzzy feeling & retro moment when I pressed the button the first time & created my bubbles. Back in the day though it would have been orange, cherry-cola, lemonade & ginger ale. I want to prevent my kids from the tooth decay & weight gain that those give though, so just plain old soda water, with maybe the odd slice of lemon in to jazz it up once in a while.  Maybe I can introduce some fructose free additions to interest them later but all the while they are happy with water & full fat milk as drinks thats fine. No.1 has tasted real lemonade on occasion, & infrequently watered down juice, but No.2 hasn't had soft drinks.
Whilst we were at the checkout No.2 was reaching across the counter to get to the pretty bunny wrappers, No.1 chirps up "No, we can't have that, its sugar, we're allowed to have chocolate next at Easter", she whined a little about wanting a frog... obviously knowing the bunnies innards would taste just like a Freddo but soon distracted & we completed our purchase. They will get some chocolate at Easter, as will I but it will be a token thing & the other Easter gifts will be toys, books or clothing. Last year before I started this crusade they only had one egg each & a couple of mini eggs for the hunt, so its not like they are used to chocolate... though I did toilet train with chocolate buttons... 1 for a wee, 2 for a poo - so that has limited amounts, that said they both started drinking lots of water I'm convinced to get more for their efforts!