There has seldom been a book that is so widely discussed in my acquaintance than Sweet Poison; Why Sugar Makes You Fat by David Gillespie. It might be possible that people in Queensland are especially well acquainted with the book. It is written by a Brisbane lawyer who wanted to live a healthier life. Just this week the book has come up in my discussions with friends and workmates at least twice daily.
In February, I had been told by my doctor that if I do not do anything to lower my sugar levels I would have Type II Diabetes and would have to start eating tablets. He said: “I believe that you can fix this, though”. So, I took his confidence in me seriously and thought that if it is about sugar, I should not eat any or at least the least amount possible.
What happened was that I started to lose weight without any apparent reason. It must be the sugar, I thought. I was quite happy about it, too. I thought that if losing weight is that easy, why not go for it with my whole being.
While discussing my experience on the my new sugarless life with a friend, she told me about Sweet Poison. She said that she had read it and that she found it really informative. I asked her, if it made her quit eating sugar. She said: “No, but it made me think!” Her enthusiasm about the book made me buy it and I also bought the Big Fat Lies, the third and the most recent book David Gillespie has written. It talks about fats and the diet industry. The second book The Sweet Poison Quit Plan; How to Kick the Sugar Habit and Lose Weight that includes recepies and a practical guide for quilting fructose from your diet is also a worthy buy.
Sweet Poison is a book you cannot put away after starting it. I read it at one go and was totally rapped by the information it gave me. The book proves beyond doubt that there is a clear connection between sugar consumption and many modern illnesses. Something fishy is going on in the phenomenon that the type of sugar we produce and eat is slowly making us suffer from many previously unknown decides.
David Gillespie outlays the history of our sugar industry in a way that truly makes sense. The reader can draw connections between many agendas to sell products to us. On the other hand it is also a history of stubbornness of the researches to hold on to their convictions and leading whole generations to a single path of dieting vicious circle instead of being open minded about other researches’ findings. In the end it is all about money, anyway and who gets the highest profits through the industry. I was of course already converted through my previous experiences with quitting my own sugar habit and found myself applauding my own smartness, which makes reading a book quite enjoyable.
Sweet Poison got me thinking how I had twice earlier lost a lot of weight and how the diet that I followed on both occasions was devoid of sugar. As a young woman in my late 20’s, I joined the Weight Watches and lost 22kg. My weight slowly built up again after family life and new children came along. However, before reading this book I had not realised the connection with sugar that the way I had planned my eating plans 30 years ago did not include it and that might have contributed to my weight loss without me acknowledging it as a factor.
The second time was a few years back, when I spent a few months in India. The vegan diet that I followed there at a retreat was also very low on sugar. I do remember going to McDonalds and drinking Coca Cola, once or twice, but I lost 7kg anyway with no apparent effort from my part. Not even a thought.
So, it turns out and according to this book “in the space of 150 years, we have gone from eating no added sugar to more than a kilogram a week”. And while once the sugar was “such a rare resource” that our bodies did not think to build an ‘off-switch’, we now can eat sugar to our hearts content with no natural control. Sweet Poison goes a long way to explain why this is so and how to become sensible about your sugar consumption. As with my friend, it might not make you quit your sugar habit, but it will challenge you into making a serious attempt in reading supermarket labels and becoming frustrated on how they are written.
On the other hand, if it challenges you to quit sugar, the second book, The Quit Plan is there to help you to overcome the sugar addiction and the third one is there to take your challenge even further on by contemplating on the fats you eat as well. If you are the kind who goes into these things with your whole being you might want to discuss this with your friends and swap experiences.
Just yesterday, I was talking to a friend, an older volunteer at work who had just experienced an operation. He was following the sugarless plan and was very enthusiastic about it. He had done the same I did and bought several books to his family. The only complaint he had was that the recommendations of the Heart Foundation were in opposition to the sugarless diet as it lays out the theory that it is the fat in our diet that causes the heart disease. He was persisting, though by following his reason. I was left thinking about my own aging challenge and was very inspired by the wisdom he showed with his thoughts on actively aging younger by being sensible about all the directions we get through authorities that contradict each other. We have our own choises to make.
As I lay my already read books on the self, I know that they will not stay there to collect dust. In fact I may put the quit plan directly with my cook books and try the new type of Anzac Biscuit recipe with my new knowledge of the sugars we eat.
Here is a good link to finding about cooking with dextrose instead of sugar:
Have fun and enjoy!
