The sugar-free me

Laura Moser details her attempt to go sugar-free, despite her sweet tooth. Excerpt:

Over the course of that month, a pattern emerged. After about six days on the wagon, I would leap out of bed gripped by a raging obsession with some very specific proscribed food: pad thai, say, or a plain white bagel or a Mrs. Fields' semisweet chocolate-chip without nuts. I would then hit the streets—often still in my pajamas—in pursuit of that food. Once that food was in my possession, I would consume it on the spot, with or without chewing.

Then, just as inevitably, would come the crash. Proof of sugar's power—the flooding of my system with insulin and the subsequent drop in my blood-sugar level—would knock me off-balance and send me crawling back to bed. After extended periods of living off complex, slow-release carbohydrates, I was clearly no longer inured to these rollercoaster blood-sugar fluctuations.

All this sounds very familiar. I once lost about 30 pounds on a low-carb, low-sugar diet. Never felt better in my life. It took about 10 hard days of detoxing, but after I broke through, it was easy to do without refined carbs and sugar. (Then again, I don't have much of a sweet tooth, and I don't like chocolate.) It was astonishing to me how much energy I had, and how much my skin glowed. On the occasion that I would eat something sugary or starchy -- a piece of cake, a bowl of rice -- it was like taking a pill. I felt logy and heavy. Hated it.

I ate that way for about a year, year and a half. It's easy to gradually slip back into carb-eating, though, which is what happened to me. (Fortunately, only about half the weight came back, and that took several years). Discovering through experience the druggy effects of sugars and starches made me reflect on how I used to spend my afternoons at the office (in various offices I've worked over the years): crashing hard between three and four, and having to go to the snack machine to get a sugar fix. No wonder I got fat.

I'd love to go low-carb again, but it's difficult to get through the detox period. What helped me a lot during the big weight-loss period was having a monotonous food routine: steel-cut oatmeal with protein powder for breakfast (I still eat that; love it), and having lunch every day at The Pump, a small health-food restaurant down the street from National Review's offices. It caters to body builders and exercise fiends. Unfortunately, the menu's down at the website, but this is such a fantastic place, it's a wonder there's not one in every city. The food is really good, non-greasy, whole-grain, the whole megillah. They make it exceptionally easy to eat healthy without compromising taste.

Anyway, cut way back on refined sugar and processed flour, and you'll be amazed by how good you feel.