How To Quit Sugar

For a self-proclaimed sweets junkie, would our contributing editor’s moratorium on sugar spark a new, healthier way of living – or send her running back to the refinery faster than you can say “glucose-fructose”?

- Rachel Debling

“You know there’s sugar in alcohol.” My boyfriend’s non-question, delivered without prompt over an early-afternoon diner “breakfast,” dripped with irony as thick as the Nutella pouring over the edges of our massive shared pancake.

In his attempt to lighten the mood leading up to my self-sanctioned sugar fast, he had inadvertently shed light on the hypocrisy of this endeavor. From the outside, I come across as a fairly healthy person – I write for fitness and health publications and teach exercise classes at my local gym, for instance. But those who know me best also know the only thing I love more than wine is candy (unless wine happens to be closer to my reach). Having recently adopted a comfortable “que sera sera” attitude toward my body and how I treat it – a great place to be, mentally – I had to admit it had been years since I last tried to curtail the amount of sugar in my life. Since then, I had filled my days with pliable gummies, generous glasses of Merlot and coffees as sweet (and sometimes as expensive) as dessert.

I knew an excess of sugar in the diet can lead to weight gain, high blood sugar and even heart disease. I knew that it is estimated the average American eats over 150 pounds of sugar each year, with around 60 of those pounds coming from added sugars. I was even aware of the short-term effects of too much sugar, namely stomach aches and regret, because I felt them almost every day. And the by-products of such excess are not just internal: Some dermatologists warn too much dietary sugar can speed up the aging of your skin, and research has shown that foods high on the glycemic index, like refined sugar, can spur acne in some sufferers — two things my late-thirties skin did not need but experienced nonetheless.