Sugar-Free Me

This month I'm aiming for a sugar-free month.

I went sugar-free for an entire year about 35 years ago. I was vegetarian at the time and even though there is no animal protein in sugar, I had read the book "Sugar Blues" by William Duffy and was convinced it should be avoided. (I should read that book again!) Anyway, I had also learned that sugar suppresses your immune system, so the children and I ate no sugar for 12 months. My grown kids still haven't forgiven me, but maybe in another decade or three they'll get over it.

During that year, my son, who was 5 at the time, was badly bitten by a neighbor's dog. He had a gash in his scalp about 5" long and all the way down to his skull. The doctor who stitched him up said that 100% of dog bites get infected, and this was particularly worrisome because an infection in a head wound could affect the brain. In spite of the doctor's prediction, my son's wound did not get infected, and I have always believed it was due to not eating sugar for the months before the incident.

Although I know all this and more (from reading that book) I still have a hard time resisting the siren call of sugar, hence the decision to try to avoid it completely for a month. I just completed day four (successfully, so far) and I have amazed myself at the number of food items avoided that I would normally have eaten without much thought. It is making much more mindful about what I spend my calories on.