Sunday 8 February 2015

Goodbye to my old friend sugar!

The results of a  recent cholesterol level test showed that mine is much too high and the doctor started talking about medication to bring it down. I am not a fan of taking medication unless it is absolutely necessary but I am also not that keen on having a stroke so I told the doctor I would try and bring it down in the next six months and then, if it was still high, would look into other options. I mentioned this to an online friend who mentioned that she had brought her cholesterol level down dramatically by quitting sugar.


To be honest, I had never heard of sugar causing high cholesterol and was quite surprised. I asked for more details about her story......

She had been a vegetarian for two years having no meat, cheese, butter etc. but when she had her cholesterol level checked found that eating this way had not lowered it at all and the doctor thought that perhaps the high level was due to a hereditary issue. She wondered what she could do to bring it down seeing as she was not having dairy food, eggs avocado or anything else that she thought could contribute to the problem and was also taking 10 fish oil capsules daily. Then the doctor mentioned that several of her patients had been successful with lowering their cholesterol after quitting sugar and to read 'Sweet Poison' by David Gillespie for an explanation of why this happens. Her level at this stage was 7.2...the same as mine at the moment.

So she read the book and followed the 'Quit Plan' for 8 weeks meanwhile reintroducing meat, eggs, full fat dairy, butter etc. but no sugar AT ALL! After this time and according to the instructions in the book she added one piece of fruit daily and continued with this way of eating for six months before going back to the doctor for another cholesterol test and amazingly her level had gone down to 3.8.  Then she discovered Sarah Wilson's book 'I Quit Sugar' and found more great sugar free recipes there as well and has continued with this way of eating.


So....I have cut out having sugar in my coffee each day and am now checking out the labels on anything I buy from the supermarket. Already I have discovered that the tomato sauce we use is 25% sugar so that won't be bought again and I have made my own sauce which is quite tasty if I do say so myself.
 


I looks like I will have having more of this...



...and less of this. Unfortunately a friend gave us a bag of lychees today so I won't be eating any. If you haven't seen lychees before...



...they look like this on the inside and they are quite delicious. 




Changing habits isn't easy but it will be worth it in the end if I can reduce my cholesterol level without resorting to medication. If I get a craving for sugar I take a walk outside and see what is growing in the garden at the moment and that always distracts me.

So it's goodbye to my old friend sugar who hasn't been a good influence on me at all :-) It is time to part company!!!



20 comments:

  1. Chel a couple of years back my GP wanted me to go on blood pressure medication. I asked him for a month's grace to see if I could bring my BP down with lifestyle changes. He said that's reasonable but don't be disappointed when at the end of the month it is still high, because most people who try fail to bring it down. We have our own BP monitor and I recorded my blood pressure for the month. I cut out salt, reduced my coffee intake, increased my potassium intake and started walking daily. At the end of the month I was consistently showing measurements back in the healthy range. So it can be done. Good luck.

    I had a co-worker who read the book sweet poison whilst in hospital. She went on the diet for a while. She did not use any shop bought sauces or tinned tomatoes whilst she was on the diet, as they contained sugar. I wonder if Stevia is allowed on a sugar free diet?

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    1. Sherri, Sarah Wilson uses Stevia in her book but David Gillespie is unsure about the long term effects. He uses Dextrose as a sweetener.

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  2. Ouch! No doubt many of us would benefit from cutting sugar from our daily diet, but I just can't seem to stick with it. You'll have to let us know how you are going and what tips you might have for the less disciplined like me!

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    1. Barb, it's the sugar in sauces, etc and the low fat food which we don't realise is there. At least I didn't. Apparently 5 - 9 teaspoons of sugar is the recommended intake. In the US the average daily intake is 30 teaspoons with Australia's average a little less at the moment.

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  3. Good luck Nanna Chel! I have started to reduce my sugar intake over a period of time to be able to loose some more weight. It was difficult at first but it's doable and after a while you neither crave nor like sugar anymore. Good on you for trying to get healthy by changing habits rather than taking the medication.

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    1. Frances, I have given up sugar in my coffee but it tastes so bitter it is hardly worth drinking. Perhaps I should give that up as well :-)

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  4. While not completely cutting out sugar I only put it on porridge ... seldom eat biscuits etc, and sauce is not a staple on our table either. Have never had cholesterol problems, but one doesn't know if that is due to genes or diet.
    Look forward to seeing how cutting out sugar helps.

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    1. Shirley, I don't know if my high level is hereditary or not as I don't think strokes are common in my family. Glad your levels are fine.

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  5. Hi Chel, Glad to hear you are quiting sugar, the way to lovely sugar free coffee is to drink the real stuff, it is best freshly ground as you use it, but ground coffee from a packet will do, just use a plunger if you don't have a stove top coffee pot or a coffee machine, if you find it bitter at first, add a tiny pinch of salt, it works wonders.
    The oil in the beans start to deteriorate as soon as it is roasted, so I buy my beans from the Angel Cafe in South st..... as they roast fresh nearly every morning, I get a week or 2 supply at a time and hand grind the beans for that day's coffee, I only have 1 cup a day , but it has to be GOOD.

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  6. Hand grinding! That sounds like hard work, Margaret. It might be easier just to give up coffee :-) I need to develop a taste for green tea I think.

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  7. you know all this fuss about cholesterol & low fat diets are all fads, all of them, they don't separate the good cholesterol from the bad when they give you your results either. stay away from cholesterol medication it is life threatening! seen a few people go down hard from it & nearly died.
    i gave up sugar about a year ago, i use honey instead, i eat tonnes of butter as well, i don't bother worrying about my cholesterol, we are meant to have it the good with the bad. a few years ago i saw a 'you are what you eat' program & they were doing a segment on eggs, they interviewed a natural body builder who was having 18 eggs a day! now most would think he's cholesterol would be through the roof, yeh? he's was zero, yep, nil cholesterol. so the interviewer went & saw his GP & asked him to check his cholesterol, it was ok not great but nothing to worry about, he started eating eggs more, about 6 a day i think he went up to, guess what? his cholesterol went down. i eat eggs most days when i have them, unless you're allergic to them why not give them a go as well? of cos we can all drop a little sugar out of our diets too as it is poison, esp the way it is processed these days.
    so, try eggs, they are natures little wonder pill.
    good luck chel & don't go on the medication
    http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/07/20/the-truth-about-statin-drugs-revealed.aspx

    sorry for the long rant ...

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    1. Thanks for the link, Selina. I will check it out. I have no intention of going on the statins as I have hear so many bad reports about them. I do eat eggs but not every day.

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  8. Good luck on eliminating sugar, it is difficult and yet it can be done. I am one of those who are blessed with low cholesterol (4.1), and yet I had the heart attack. My auntie had a cholesterol level over 7.7 most of her life and lived to be 96! I don't think it hurts to cut back on sugar, most of us eat too much of it, but I also think there are a lot of so called "poisons" that are just things we eat too much of and if we used them in moderation they are fine. Be healthy and do what makes you feel healthy, When I am reading books and blogs on healthy eating I always try to remember that drinking too much water can kill you as well!! Good luck on the lifestyle change, and my mom lowered her cholesterol with niacin and oatmeal, go figure!

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  9. Kathy, how did your mum take niacin? Yes, time will tell if it works for me.

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  10. Too Funny, this is all sounding so Paleo. All the research i did before starting supported what you are saying. Nearly everything we have been taught about the food pyramid for the last 40 years has been incorrect.

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    1. Yes there are some conflicting messages out there, Lynda.

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  11. Good luck Nana Chel! You are definitely on the right path. Hubby had the same thing happen: Dr told him his cholesterol is too high and he had to go on medication. Instead he told the doctor he'd loose weight first and then get retested in a few months. Hubby went on a no sugar, no bread diet and lost weight really quickly around the belly. It did the trick!

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  12. Good to hear that, Zena. Glad it worked for your hubby.

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  13. Hi Chel - Try having your coffee half strength. Reduces the bitterness you are experiencing until your system gets used to the no sugar. Not drinking it at all will give you a headache for a while.

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  14. I hadn't though of that, Sandi. It isn't quite so bad with whole milk as I normally have skim powdered milk but I guess the latter is no good either. Giving up fruit for eight weeks will be the hardest part I think.

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