Thursday, March 26, 2009

Chini kum... a sugar free life


"Sugar is without question the number one murderer in the history of
humanity — much lethal than opium or radioactive fallout..." Putting' it
bluntly, the human body cannot handle man-refined sucrose erroneously called
sugar"- Japanese natural healer,
Sakurazawa


With a lot of enthusiasm and determination, I had decided to give up sugar and white flour (
maida). It felt great, coz discipline is not one of my biggest virtue, especially when it comes to my food habits. It all started one evening when I asked Bawa, “what do I do if I feel sleepy and lethargic even after proper 6 -8 hours sleep. “look at your diet, and cut out white sugar and maida” he said simply. So my Inspiration came from Bawa, who even bakes delicious cakes and other desserts sugar free, so giving up wasn't so tough.

I even flaunted my sugar free status on twitter, gtalk and face book, and drew quiet a bit of attention.

And then for a couple of day by some weird quirk of fate, the choicest of the gourmet sugar loaded delicacies were offered to me. Blueberry cheese cake, hot chocolate fudge, strawberry with whipped cream, jalebi.....it was okay till then,

but for the past 24 hours, there was mysore pak, soft drinks, tomato ketchup !!!!

stuff which I wouldn't touch normally suddenly felt like a life saving drug!

And then all those Cafe coffee days, Baristas and cake shops that I wouldn't look at twice, seemed to pop out with all its vividness while everything else including traffic blurred into the background.

The worst was, every single item on their window seemed to have sprouted an ‘eat me’ sign.

“its alright to just have one ‘strawberry-kiwi’ smoothie, who knows I might even get enlightened”.

“what if I was starving, wouldn't one bite of a back forest pastry save my life”

And then comes the worst bit, people started bombarding me with dabba after dabba of Ugadi sweets.

“Well, I can go sugarless after Ugadi, I cant go hurting people’s sentiments by not accepting their ‘sweet gestures’ ?”

Wait that’s not the worst bit, the worst bit is people acting as if you are terminally ill.

“Are u diabetic?”,

“What's wrong with you?”, or the less extreme

"Are you on a diet?"
"do u wanna loose weight?"

Then I think about why I am leading a diabetic life? and I get my answers alright!
read this -
http://daghettotymz.com/current/whitesugar2/whitesugar2.html,


Q & A

Dear Bau, I have been off sugar since yesterday, and you're right, I
feel much better (less tired). I am giving it up for good, but everything from
pani puri to tomato ketchup these days contains sugar. Can you please give me some tips to help me stick to this.
Answer: Once u get off it, you will realise that there are many alternatives available steer clear of all the chemical sweeteners, they are worse. Jaggery, honey, maple syrup are fantastic alternatives and in a bit you will get used to their taste. After 3 months try eating a normal sugar thing and it will leave u disgusted.


Most importantly, I feel great, though my taste buds sometimes violently protest.

But if it leaves me stronger, healthier and improve my lifestyle which I know it will, its all for the good. And oh I also saved quiet a bit of money not eating junk which I can (and i did) unashamedly spend on shopping.

11 Annotations:

Goli said...

I wonder why people dont use more of jaggery in our daily cooking. Sometime back this friend used to give me this jaggery tea and it really used to be good.
Would try making jaggery cake sometime, lets see how it comes out.

Kaushik said...

Hi,
JGD!This post has really inspired me to give up on white sugar. Hope to be rid of the white sugar addiction soon. I had came across ur blog thru some YES+ chennai friends & have been following your blog for sometime & found some inspiring posts,no wonder you are working as a journalist.Keep up the good work.
Cheers,
Kaushik

Ree said...

i agree with u. however, i naturally eat less sugar and go for honey n stuff, and i am a dessert hater so those names do not tempt me...u know me :P so I guess, once in a while, when mum in law i eat her sweet dishes, i say yes happily. i leave it up to the rest of my healthy lifestyle and kriya to take care of this once in a while lethal attack :D

komal said...

hey madhuri i quite agree with bau i hate refined white sugar .. am so used to honey now i need a sweet rush i have a tsp of honey and am fine but yes i still do have the occassional pastry and still am addicted to eating chocolates like its gonna go outta fashion but i have it in moderation..JGD..

Unknown said...

I ended giving up on most baked goodies for avoiding eggs and hence have cut on my sugar...willtake some time completely giving up though

Ashish said...

Going sugarless.....
But anyways we are not having non-veg and other kind of food... So satwa is high compared to others....

Actually I never experienced sugarless things, I am just imagining taste of some food items not containing sugar....

Keep it UP

Krishna Kalyan said...

Awsome!! After reading your blog is started hating sugar.... but i am not sure for how long

Srikanth.K said...

Delightful! But, as the saying goes, 'Life is short, Make it sweet' !!!

Jaigurudev !
Srikanth.K

Mayank said...

Was hoping it is something about the movie but should have guessed! :))

Q - is the brown sugar that u get in most shops any better?

I know I m better off without coffee n tea but sometimes when I do take it...

Can so relate to way u miss things and the heightened craving! :D

Abhay Karnataki said...

hmmmm.
apparantly there is some unpolished sugar, that is not so harmful. Bawa mentioned it in his whipped cream article on his blog.

kuldeeplaheru.blogspot.com said...

sumptuous layout, splendid writing style, good ideas...
in short very nice blogging..
i loved it..

Keep blogging dear!

EnJoy Gurudev!!!