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In his book 'On the House: A Washington Memoir' John Boehner, veteran politician and Speaker of the US House of Representatives, offered his most salient advice for politicians trying to navigate Washington lobbyists, “Don’t fuck with big sugar.” And so it goes, every time the sugar debate comes up we are told to exercise more. No one ever seems to have a major platform to say, “Stop eating refined sugar.” Taxing soft drinks is making a difference, but the real challenge is changing our automatic habitual behaviour. Training yourself to avoid sugar in favour of fresh fruit (not dried fruit) can be extremely difficult. As a side note regarding dried fruit, I once had a Coca-Cola PR man attend one of my free mindfulness diet workshops. He stated, correctly, that once something is in your stomach it is broken down into its component parts. So, what does it matter if you cut out the middle man? I asked him – perhaps a little incredulously – if he thought a fresh apple had more nutritional value than a cooked one. So, make sure you have fresh fruit to hand, always. A bowl of fresh fruit in the kitchen. Something stashed away in the bedroom even. Have something in your pocket, in your bag, and if it’s soft fruit you love, get a hard case just the right size and stash your soft fruit on or near your person. Train yourself. Spend twenty minutes meditating on the physical sensations you receive after eating a Haribo. Note these down. Now do the same twenty minutes on the sensations you feel after eating fresh fruit. Note them. Compare your notes. Get into the bitter. Buy some 99% chocolate. Eat it mindfully. This is actually what chocolate tastes like. Without sugar. After a while you won’t be able to help yourself but arrive at the word, “luxurious”. Order a black coffee and do the same. There is complexity in the taste of coffee that is totally hidden by sugar. Be that person in the supermarket who is reading ingredients. They are looking at where in the list of ingredients sugar is written. The greatest quantity ingredients come first. Failing that look at the nutritional value and see how much sugar is in 100g (3½ oz). Does the bread you buy need to taste sweet? Does peanut butter need sugar? Ham? Finally, make your own crunchy nut cornflakes. You won’t need nearly as much sweetness as you get in the manufactured version. Plus, you can use real honey instead of refined sugar and a tiny amount of honey for the ‘taste’. When you make your Yotam Ottolenghi main meals remove the sweet ingredients entirely. When you make your Delia Smith cakes, halve or reduce by two thirds the sugar quantities and enjoy the added depth of flavour your desserts have. In less than six weeks, you should notice a profound difference. In fact, if you’re eating three sweet things a day I would be surprised if you didn’t lose a stone (6.35kgs) or more. Plus your general mood should improve enormously. So, get the fruit in. Enjoy. And let us know how it goes.
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