The Sugar Charade: WEEN YOURSELF OFF IT NOW!

November 14 looms large, a day dedicated to diabetes, a condition that 400 million people and counting are believed to have worldwide.

So, what’s to blame?

In 1980, the US government published its first “Dietary Guidelines” handbook after consulting with nutritional scientists. A single group of lobbyists acting on behalf of the sugar industry was about to shape our dietary habits forever. The enemy? Fat. Our diets became more carb-heavy. Butter was bedevilled. Pasta was served up by the bucketload. Huge servings of orange juice lined our tables. Low-fat became the new norm: low-fat yoghurts, low-fat cereals, low-fat oatmeal. But these meals were laden with sugar. Postwar obesity figures skyrocketed as sugar made us heavier, slower, unhappier.

In 2017, we’ve got a cast-iron addiction to sugar even as evidence points to its disruptive effect on the human body.

There’s thirty-seven years of bogus science that needs undoing to get our bodies feeling healthier and happier than they’ve ever felt before.

Here are a few things to remember:

We shouldn’t be eating more than 4g of sugar a day

4g. That’s it. A typical 100g chocolate bar contains ten times that – but it’s not really chocolate at all. It’s another synthesised facsimile dipped in an endless sugar bath. 100% real chocolate is 100% cocoa. It typically has a rich, bitter taste, but savoured as a small delicacy, it’s absolutely delicious.

If you want to see what you feel like on a low sugar diet, start inspecting the packages in the supermarket and searching out their sugar content in grams. Keep 4g as your daily limit, and forget about the processed foods aisle along the way.

Why sugar?

Manufacturers use it because it makes food taste good. But we need to ween ourselves off the notion that sugary foods are scrumptious.

Fruit is a treat

In reality, fruit contains all the sugar we need, and it should be eaten whole as an after-dinner treat: an apple here, an orange there. Steer clear of juices loaded with blended fruits because they contain excessive amounts of sugar and perpetuate the dependence.