I Quit "Processed" Sugar!

In April I decided to quit sugar after reading Sarah Wilson's I Quit Sugar book. I didn't think I ate a lot of sugary foods and I don’t drink soft drink, in fact I have a fairly healthy diet and lifestyle, my reason behind the challenge was part curiosity and part improving my awareness of foods that contain processed sugar. I love baking and chocolate brownies are one of my favourite treats, so by no means am I giving them up, but I’m now experimenting with more raw and natural ingredients.

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding Sarah Wilson lately which you may have read about. A Sydney nutritionist, Cassie Platt, said quitting sugar is dangerous and our bodies need sugar. Which is absolutely true, but not the highly processed white variety, which if you read Sarah’s book you’ll find that’s the only sugar you quit. Of course people can form their own opinions and you can read more about it here, and I can honestly say I have never tried a fad diet before, but this I felt was more a move towards a healthy, well balanced diet rather than restricting what I eat. If you have any doubts about the dangers of processed sugar please watch this ABC Catalyst report.

I'm very happy to say I made it the whole 8 weeks “processed” sugar free and I feel great! My skin, nails and hair have improved and I feel more energetic and rarely get bloated. I still eat lots of fresh fruit, dried fruit, honey and other natural sources of sugar. But I don’t eat the white stuff. I found a lot of recipes have unnecessary sugar added and the sweetness can often be satisfied with some honey or fruit. I make my own muesli because the store bought variety often has added sugar. I also make my own yoghurt, bread and pasta when I have time. I even make my own dip and crackers. Store bought, packaged food is not only high in processed sugar it often contains other processed ingredients which have no nutritional benefit.

One more note on quitting sugar, fat is good, buying products that are low fat are actually high in sugar, which will make you fat. Next time you’re in the supermarket see how many packets of lollies say “fat free”! You can’t trust packaging. So following Sarah Wilson’s lead swapping a chocolate bar for a few grilled slices of haloumi is a better choice. You don’t have to ignore your cravings or skip afternoon tea – just make an informed choice about what you snack on.

I discovered an amazing raw brownie recipe from one of my favourite blogs – My New Roots, I changed it slightly based on the ingredients I had available and also rolled the mixture into little balls to make servings sizes smaller. It’s so rich you don’t need more than one.

Raw Brownie Balls

2 cups almond meal (I make almond milk once a week so always have plenty of almond meal which I just keep in the freezer until I need it)

2 ½ cups Medjool dates, pitted (if these are nice and fresh you can probably squeeze the pits out)

1 cup raw cacao powder

¼ tsp. sea salt

¼ cup fine flaked coconut

1. Place almond meal, cacao and salt in a food processer and whiz until combined.

2. Add the dates one at a time through the feed tube of the food processor while it is running. This will form a thick paste

3. Roll into small balls and roll in flaked coconut. Eat straight away or keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator