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How to Be "Sugar-Free"
Being totally sugar-free is of course impossible. Besides, there are healthy sugars, like glucose, that occur naturally in your body. The sugar in milk is lactose, which is also healthy. Some people are lactose intolerant, but this just means that you can't digest it, and taking an enzyme pill can easily solve that problem. These sugars do not cause damage to your metabolic system. Your body is equipped to utilize these sugars for energy, and has feedback systems to tell your brain when you have enough.
The type of sugar that causes metabolic dysfunction and obesity is fructose. This is found in table sugar which is processed sugar or refined sugar. It is also found in high fructose corn syrup, honey, brown sugar and many other "natural" sugars. All of these additives or sweeteners contain about the same amount of fructose, about 50-55%. Fructose is also found in fruit juice and in fruit. It's OK to eat fruit because the fructose is bound to fiber. But fruit juice is like processed sugar, since the fiber is processed out, leaving essentially only concentrated sugar water.
It is healthy and quite reasonable to strive for a diet that is almost entirely free of fructose. All foods that contain fructose are non-essential foods. Most foods that contain fructose are "social foods", that is, not eaten for the nutritional value, but because of social custom. These are foods that were relatively recently invented, and propagated by the food industry for the purpose of increasing profits at the expense of the consumers' health. In a way, they are similar to tobacco products, but they hide under the disguise of being a food or beverage. The obvious examples are sugary desserts, donuts, sodas, milkshakes, sugar or chocolate candies, ice cream, fruit juice, sports drinks, and sweet tea or coffee.
It is impossible to participate in our current society without eating and drinking these social foods, but fortunately nearly all of them now have sugar-free versions! There is really no reason to ever eat or drink products that contain more than a trace of fructose-containing sugar.
Many diet books and diet guides have sections that suggest alternatives to harmful foods. Here is a table set up in that format to suggest alternatives to fructose-containing social foods:
| Don't drink: (sugar-loaded social beverage) | Instead drink: (safe social beverage) |
| fruit juice | sugar-free Koolaid, sugar-free Crystal Lite, or sugar-free flavored water |
| sweet tea, sweetened coffee | unsweetened tea, and add sugar substitute to sweeten tea or coffee |
| soda | sugar-free or diet soda |
| energy drinks | forget the 5-hour energy drink, just drink lots of water (coffee and tea are OK in moderation) |
| milkshake | for now, all milkshakes are out; have a serving of low-sugar ice cream instead |
| Gatorade, Powerade, sports drinks | water is best for hydration in athletes and non-athletes |
| cranberry juice | sugar-free cranberry juice |
| Don't eat: (sugar-loaded social food) | Instead eat: (safe social food) |
| candy bar | sugar-free chocolate bar or sugar-free chocolate candy |
| high sugar cereal (over 5 gm of sugar) | Cheerios, Kix, Special K, Wheat Chex, several others (under 5 gm sugar) |
| ice cream | low-sugar ice cream (under 5 gm sugar) |
| chocolate sundae | low carb ice cream with sugar-free chocolate syrup (remember, nuts are also sugar-free) |
| honey, jams and jellies | sugar-free jams and jellies |
| donuts, bagels | bacon and eggs are completely sugar free, much healthier (still working on the safe sugar-free donut!) |
| M&M's | sugar-free Reeces Pieces |
| Cracker Jack, caramel popcorn | plain popcorn, with or without butter |
