what I ate today (sugar-free diet)

A diet completely free of sugar is not an easy one to embark on, but once you've become used to it and you've found replacements to "bad foods" that are both healthy and which taste really good, you will start to feel better than ever. Ever since I've had to do this (and I have to do so regularly) for the first time I've noticed a huge difference:

- Fatigue? Non-existent!
- Mood swings? Nope. No more.
- Bloated? Not at all.
- Hungry? Nuh-uh.
- Over-eaten? Never.

I want to share with you what I've eaten today, not to badger you into going on the same strict diet, but to 1) support those who have to, 2) tackle conventional nutritional rules and 3) give some helpful advice to those who do feel tired, depressed, bloated, hungry and over-eaten.



Breakfast: 1 apple, 1 banana, 3 dried dates, 4 scoops of probiotic yoghurt - usually at breakfast we also have 1 or 2 cups of freshly brewed Japanese green tea and a glass of unsweetened cranberry juice (I look forward to this breakfast every single day!)

Lunch: large bowl of home-made soup (celery root, Roman cauliflower, carrot, onion, with unrefined sea salt) and two slices of whole wheat sourdough bread with butter, two lettuce leaves

Little snacks at work: mandarine orange with a couple of cashew nuts and dried cranberries, a piece of dark chocolate (sweetened with stevia)

Appetizer before supper: 3 corn cakes with mayonnaise and sea salt

Supper: home-made soup (Brussels sprouts, carrot, celery root, onion, sea salt), 4 stems of steamed broccoli, a raw carrot and some lettuce with mayonnaise and a couple of walnuts

+ lots of water


It does not seem a lot, probably, compared to the enormous amounts of food many are used to. General nutritional advice also tries to convince you that you need at least 2000kcal a day to be a healthy woman. In the beginning I was worried too when I read what I could and could not eat, basically the only things that I could eat were fruits and veggies... The 2000kcal is a misconception which I do not even have to back up with scientific evidence. I dare you to try and find it out for yourself which would make you feel more energized: living one whole day on bread, cheese, meat, crackers, etc. (starch and protein) or fruits, vegetables, nuts (natural sugars/carbohydrates and some good fat/protein)? Rest assured, I too have felt desperation after reading that from now on I could only eat stuff from the last group. I thought it was going to be boring and impossible. Six months later and I could not imagine going back to my old eating habits. I have lost some weight, which troubled me at first, but once the scale kept showing me the same weight, I felt relieved. Don't let calories scare you, if you eat enough "living" plant matter, you won't have to bother about counting kcals.

It's not so much that I have to practise what I preach and feel inner frustration about this - been there, but rather a matter of necessity. It may sound unbelievable, but I could and would like to eat like this for the rest of my life. It's very hard to make this clear to others. My brother will for example still ironically refer to my not eating meat any more, assuming that I'm gnawing at the door jamb 24/7 because I can't have a bloody peace of meat!!!, but I must say I have more or less become indifferent to it - there are of course exceptions such as Christmas parties where you almost have to shove the meat back off of your plate if you don't want to have any (grannies just don't get it, vegetarianism).
I cannot begin to describe how good it feels to have all those fresh vegetables on my plate every day. (I will quickly add that I eat eggs too sometimes, and small amounts of cheese occasionally.) In a way it brings you closer to nature again, away from processed factory food.

The menu you've seen above is how I more or less eat daily (with different fruit and vegetables), and the foods are all organic. When sugar is not completely forbidden, I do like my cookies and a piece of chocolate cake from time to time, some crisps here and there and a nice latte when I'm out with friends. It's not my choice to live completely ascetic, but I do stick to the basic principles of healthy eating, just because it makes me feel much better than the regular Western diet does.

A note on mayonnaise, because I know it tends to ring the alarm bell in some people: what could be bad about mayonnaise? The fat? The eggs? Cholesterol, you say? Your liver makes cholesterol daily, the equivalent of 6(!) egg yolks, 'nuff said? People who have been diagnosed with "high levels of cholesterol" are generally people who eat too much starch, protein and sugar, or people with leaky-gut syndrome and the like. Some mayonnaise or fresh butter won't drastically increase the amount of bad cholesterol in a person.

PS: My apologies for being slightly too concise at times, it's hard to cram all side-thoughts and explanations into one easy read. I'm trying to keep it light and interesting.