LAWYER David Gillespie lost over six stone in just one year by cutting sugar from his diet. He read thousands of scientific papers to find out why sugar is so bad for us and turned his results into two best-selling books. Here's how he did it - and how you can too.
SUGAR RUSH: Western countries are eating an average of 35 to 40 teaspoons a day [GETTY ]
DAVID'S FIVE STEPS TO GIVING UP SUGAR
1. Remove the easy sugars from your diet
That means all sweets, chocolate, cakes, biscuits, soft drinks (except diet ones) and fruit juice, cereal bars, most breakfast cereals and fruit yogurts, plus sweet spreads such as jam and honey, and all dried fruit.
Don’t treat this as an exercise in deprivation: view it as breaking an addiction. You will probably suffer withdrawal symptoms for a few weeks and crave food every two or three hours, but substitute sweet snacks for savoury ones (see 5, below), switch to diet drinks and persevere.
Once this tricky bit is over, you will stop craving it altogether and feel healthier, slimmer and more in control of your appetite.
2. Go through cupboards and get rid of the hidden sugar
Look at every label: you’ll be surprised how sugary many foods are, from salad dressings and mayonnaise (especially the low-fat versions which have more sugar) to balsamic vinegar and condiments such as barbecue sauce, tomato ketchup and hoisin sauce.
Any ready meal, pizza or packet of sausages with more than three per cent sugar is also a no-no. Once you’ve followed steps 1 and 2, you will have eliminated most of the fructose you encounter in a day: you’re now aiming to get to a maximum of five teaspoons of sugar a day, all in.
3. Restock – carefully
Those foods lowest in sugar tend to be displayed around the outer aisles of supermarkets, so start “shopping the perimeter” for meat, dairy, veg, fruit and bread.
You will have to cook more meals from scratch, although you can still buy ready-packaged food – just make sure you examine the label.
If it contains more than 3g of sugar per 100g, don’t buy it. If it’s a liquid, don’t touch it if it contains any sugar at all.
Always avoid low-fat options and anything advertised as “light/lite” (manufacturers will have taken out the fat but added sugar to improve the taste).
When buying fruit, go for higher-fibre, lower-sugar ones: berries and kiwis are better than bananas, grapes and pineapples.
4. Change your habits
If some routines in your life are closely linked to eating sugar, you may have to give them up for a while.
For instance, if you always reach for a chocolate bar as a reward after exercising, strange as it seems, you may have to give up going to gym for a few weeks until the worst of the cravings are over.
Similarly, if watching TV in the evening goes hand in hand with snacking, find another way to relax for a while: read a book, use the computer or go for a walk.
5. Come up with enticing alternatives to a sweet hit
Identify your danger points: when are you most tempted to snack on sugar? Write them all down, being honest with yourself, and think up an alternative.
If you reach for the biscuit tin when making a cup of coffee, keep a jar of nuts by the kettle instead (yes, they are calorific, but not sugary).
If you get hunger pangs in the evening, drink a glass of milk and have some cheese – or some crisps if you really fancy a treat.
Substitute mixers such as tonic for slimline versions and swap your mid-morning muffin for toast and butter.
AVOID TEMPTATION: Keep healthy snacks like nuts on you to help you steer away from sugary treats [GETTY ]
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