Let's All Quit Sugar! (Sort of)

As some of you know, I have been a real fan of raw diets and juicing for almost four years now.  My gurus have been Kris Carr, Kimberly Synder and Joe Cross. However, these diets ( and all of the beautiful colorful juices peppered through my instagram feed) are pretty super high in fructose. And suddenly with all these peeps eating Paleo and "Quitting Sugar" it left me wondering if I could find a middle of the road. One of the biggest catalysts for this journey is pretty personal. My mom is sick... again. Ten years ago my mom kicked breast cancer to the curb with some pretty serious chemo. Come to find out this chemo from her past is pretty much causing her blood to act pretty funky today. And though, some argue it, many claim that cancer loves to live off of sugar, so my theory is to starve that jerk. But to be fair I should write that many dietitians do state that getting rid of fruit from our diets does more harm than good, especially when it comes to the cancer patient. For example:

"As Julie Baker, Clinical Oncology Dietitian at our hospital outside Atlanta, explains it: “Our bodies use glucose, the simplest unit of carbohydrate, as their primary fuel. Without adequate carbohydrate intake, our bodies will obtain glucose, or fuel, from another source. Possibilities include the breakdown of proteins we eat or proteins stored in our body, which may ultimately lead to muscle loss and malnutrition.”  

All in all though, as a collective, we ingest way too much sugar.  The American Heart Association recommends 6 teaspoons of sugar (100 calories) per day for women and  9 teaspoons (or 150 calories) per day for men. Most of us... if not almost ALL of us blow that daily intake out of the water, easily digesting two or three times that amount.  It is with that in mind that I launch this journey. Taking cues from many wellness sources I am going to devise a plan that marries the principles of both raw and paleo-esq diets into something that I hope some of us wanting to maintain that low to no sugar lifestyle can adhere to. One thing we have have to be cautious of if you are eating pre made foods (like sauces and dressings) this is where the hidden sugar lies in wait. This plan revolves around food that we make ourselves. By leaving out most pre made sauces and dressings we can almost eliminate excess sugar from our diet. 

And cutting out the sugar we attempt to fight off all the bad things we are finding come with over-consumption. We are talking about modern diseases. What makes it a modern disease? What does that even mean!? It means, we are tackling problems now that are ancestors did not have to worry about. Diseases like heart disease, type-2 diabetes and cancer. EPIC.AMOUNTS.OFCANCER. And of course, obesity.  

As a hybrid plan we will not be counting green apples, lemons, limes, blueberries and raspberries  against us. We will be allowing coffee, dairy and animal products. As a general rule of thumb when it comes to fruit will be as follows: The best fruits to choose from are Kiwi, Blueberries, Raspberries, Grapefruit and Honeydew Melon. The High-Fructose fruits and ones we should avoid are: 

Grapes, Red Apples, Pears, Mangos, Cherries and Bananas. (But even on my plan we will allow these... just not as much) The Plan will be based as a high vegetable intake diet. Basically, I tend to lean on fruits more then veggies... and I am going to up the veggies. 

I am excited and scared out of my mind by this journey. But deep in my heart I know it is time to clean out the excess sugar from my life. I am knee deep in family cancer, my own battles with hormone based disease (PCOS) and I know that there is no other choice than to find a maintainable limited sugar lifestyle. Balance is key and from all the low sugar plans I have studied, none of them seems to fit just right. So I am going to attempt to make one, juicer and all. 

Sometimes it's the journey that teaches you a lot about your destination.
- Drake