Where I stand with sugar

I'm writing this on the eve of my fifth day without sugar.  I've been keeping a daily commentary going on Facebook with how each day has felt.  Looking back, and I knew it at the time, the second day was the worst.  I craved EVERYTHING.  Thankfully I have a strong will power and avoided our treat cupboard, but it was surprising how much I craved sugar.  And I didn't think I had that much sugar to begin with in my diet.  But I've learned, it's in EVERYTHING.

It is recommended that a woman not consume more than 25g of added sugars per day, and men 37g.  It adds up fast.  Here are a few examples:

A medium slurpee has 15g of sugar
A caramel macchiato from Starbucks has 37! (Keep in mind part of that is the sugar in the milk, so you can take off about 12 from that total).

Now the extra kick for me, is I started substituting with honey.  It's nautral right?  It is, but your body still sees it as sugar and treats it that way.  Any benefit that honey offers over sugar is so minimal (about 2% I read) that it truly is no different.  The only difference is you can use less honey when cooking, than what is needed for sugar, so it reduces it a bit.  But honey is still counted as an add.  Boo!

So needless to say, I've been doing some refining (ha!) around here with how I prepare our food, and I will start to share those recipes with you here on this blog from time to time.

What I can tell you on Day 5, is that fruit and vegetables have SO much more flavour and I find myself reaching for grapes or cherry tomatoes as a snack.  And (shock), that morning latte?  I think I've come to realize I loved the sugar, not the latte.  It's just not as appealing anymore.  I make one every morning and only drink half the cup.  What I do miss is a good chai, so I'm working on coming up with a good (sugar free!) substitution.