0 Sugar

Disclaimer: The things I mention below are completely my personal experience and ideas, based on the research I have done, and this article does not have any intention to encourage you to do same thing, but make your own research before you try something similar. With the same reason, I have tried to avoid giving any links to any books or using their names here.

I want to share the things I have started experiencing after I have changed my diet. Basically, I have kicked the sugar out of my life completely since some time in February 2016, and also reduced (well almost zeroed actually) the amount of carbs, especially the refined ones. It all started after reading some articles here on Medium and steemit, about food industry and how establishment (food producers — “lose weight in XX day” people — medicine industry — mainstream media), and hearing from people(mostly elderly) around me about the similar things. Then I went on buying books, watching videos on YouTube, speeches by nutritionists and doctors regarding the same topics. Most of these are quite controversial for layman, and I was really skeptical, but at the same time really surprised as well, to hear/read the same stuff which I heard hearing from my grandparents about the foods and nutrition in general.

I have lost around 8 kilos(from 99kgs to 91kgs, and mostly from the belly and butts ) in 45 days, without extra exercising (except some neck/shoulder movements time to time, as a software guy, I need to relive those muscles), without keeping myself hungry and without feeling exhausted. The actual benefit is not the weight loss. My height is around 193 cms, so being 99kgs was not very scary. Besides the weight loss, since I have changed my diet, I do not feel tired quickly and I do not feel hungry as much as I did before. My joints feels much less stiffness, my body is more flexible, and maybe the best part, I have become much sharper mentally. Emotionally, I am not getting raged as quickly as before (well, time to time I am still getting raged, you know… people around us…), not feeling depressed on some events which would made me quite sad before.

There has been some challenges though, especially at the beginning. I have been a coffee addict since I was a kid, and time to time I have tried to stop it (before I have decided to accept and let my addiction live with me), and I had severe withdrawals each time I did. And guess what? Cutting sugar did kind of similar things: bad mood, cravings, headaches, urge to eat sth although I was not hungry. That was one of the things which made me keep going, as this was matching with the facts that I saw in books and speeches that sugar was addictive. Second challenge was reading the labels on the foods while doing shopping. Sadly, almost everything has some form of sugar and shopping started taking longer than before, because of filtering out the sugary products. Third, socialising… Whenever you go somewhere with friends or colleagues to have dinner or lunch, the table is usually full of refined carbs: white rice (not much of bread, as rice is the main side dish in Asia), pasta, noodles or sauces. I have started asking the waitresses/waiters not to put any sauce if I know it has sugar or any other refined/processed stuff in it. And I avoid juices too. It sounds kinda weird as we all think they are healthy, but after digging the issue more, you will also find interesting facts about those.

So what has replaced the sugars and carbs in my diet? Fats. I have stopped having cereal in morning for breakfast, and prepare omelettes with two eggs with a lot of butter (some times adding fatty, unprocessed cheese as well). For snacking, I eat nuts (mostly walnut and hazelnuts). I prepare my own yoghurt at home to avoid sugar-filled ones in markets. Whatever I prepare for eating, it is either plainly boiled or cooked with virgin olive oil (I actually drink the olive oil directly in the morning with empty stomach, but I dont think everyone may tolerate that, depending on the eating habits). And lastly, amount of the meat I eat (including seafood) has increased. I stopped eating any processed meat (salami, sausages etc) and processed fats (margarines).

As I said at the beginning, I am not giving any links or books or names here, because the key point is, each person has different body, hence different hormones and habits. Besides, you may have different religion which may not allow you to eat certain type of meats or you may be living somewhere where olive oil is not sth easy to find. Hence, do your own research if you would like to change your diet as well. You may have some medical checks if you have ongoing diseases or you wanna be sure about your current state of health. One thing I recommend is, while starting your research, try to find some local scientists/nutritionists/doctors in your own country who talk controversially about foods. You do not necessarily accept or do whatever they say, but to broaden your perspective, those will be useful, to get links and connections to the international ones. I have tried to find and listen/read people who do not demand money (like “buy this book” or “join blabla club”. And even people who demand money for talking on TVs — there are a lot of doctors/nutritionists/activists who do not demand money to share knowledge to public, even some sharing their own books in pdfs for free), because of my own personal belief about demanding money vs helping/caring about others. And if you can, try to find old but healthy and sharp elders and talk to them about nutrition…

You do not have to do anything written here, as I just wanted to share my own experience.