Tips for Surviving Sugar Free February

Sugar Free February is just around the corner, and I know many people have decided to take part. I personally first gave up sugar going into February three years ago, and I haven’t looked back since.

It was certainly easier than I expected, but then I was guided by the I Quit Sugar 8 Week Program, and it can be a bit more overwhelming when you are trying to do it by yourself. What sugars do you avoid? Is all the stuff labelled “sugar free” ok to have this month even though it’s crammed full of artificial sweeteners? Should you have fruit? Will you have withdrawal symptoms? How do you deal with them?…

A thousand questions may be racing through your mind, so I thought I would take a few minutes to help guide you through some of them, to make sure that this Sugar Free February is a positive experience for you.

So, let’s take a look at some of the key tips for surviving Sugar Free February:

Define what you mean by sugar

Have a good long think about what exactly you are looking to avoid when it comes to sugar. Sugar in the form of glucose, found in lots of foods including healthy whole grains, is necessary for the body’s survival. Fructose, however, is not needed. At all. All the goodness you can get from fruit is available in vegetables (although I still feel that having 1-2 pieces of whole fruit a day is a great thing!). Think about things like: refined carbs (white bread, white pasta, white rice, etc), fruit juice (pure sugar), dried fruit, canned fruit (always in juice or syrup), honey, syrups, dates, etc. These things can provide a little nutritional benefit that can always be found elsewhere, and often cause you to eat more than you should and be hungry again when a crash hits soon after. They can also cause strong sugar cravings, making you more likely to cave in to sugar. In fact, fruit juice, honey and syrups are now classed as “free sugars” themselves by the World Health Organisation.

Personally, I found the only way to truly get sugar cravings out of my system was to quit all of these things (I tried to replace refined carbs with wholegrains where possible, and quit all refined and unrefined sugars, and sweeteners – natural or artificial.). I even quit fruit in all forms, even fresh, for 4 weeks (which was not as difficult as it sounds – 4 weeks goes very quickly). Maybe you will choose to keep whole fresh fruit in your diet for the month ahead, but make sure to limit it so that you are not just gorging on sugar in that form instead, as it is unlikely to break your dependence on sugar and sweetness in the long run!

Read labels – or better yet, don’t buy labelled foods!

Start reading labels on food products before you eat them. You may be seriously surprised by all the sugar you are consuming in your supposedly healthy diet. I know I was. Low-fat products, sauces, ready meals, muesli bars, breakfast cereals, dried fruit-based products, fruit juice and flavoured yogurts are often high in sugar and were big surprises to me when I first started checking labels. Unfortunately, in the UK, our labelling system isn’t great and it can be hard to work out what is naturally occurring sugars and what is added, but I tend to avoid any product that is more than 5% (5g per 100g) sugar unless I will be having really tiny amounts at a time, and I tend to keep the World Health Organisation’s recommended 6 teaspoons (25g) a day limit in mind at all times.

The only 100% sure way to avoid added sugar in products is to buy products without labels, or that have only one or two ingredients. Fresh or frozen fruit & veg, fresh or frozen good quality meat & fish or beans & pulses for vegetarians or vegans, good fats like grass-fed butter, extra virgin olive oil or raw coconut oil, whole grains, porridge oats, eggs, full-fat dairy (whose only ingredient is milk) or unsweetened non-dairy products, creamed coconut, nuts & seeds. I try to make this 90% of my shop, and when I buy a “convenience” product, I first check how easy it is to make myself, then check the array of choices for the lowest sugar or most “real food” option and keep reading labels until I am happy with my choice.

Try not to replace sugar with other forms of sugar or sweetener

It is so easy to think you have conquered sugar but be eating a ton of fruit (in any form), smoothies or juices, “sugar free” but sweetener-laden drinks or treats, etc. When I choose or make things made with natural sweeteners, I go for xylitol or stevia first, but even these things (including sweetened recipes on this website) are occasional treats and we are only able to treat them as such because of where we are having first broken our sugar addiction. I needed 4 weeks without any fruit or sweeteners in order to reset my tastebuds, body and cravings enough to be able to eat these things only once or twice a week and to have fresh fruit once or twice a day. If I had spent those 4 weeks simply switching to artificial or natural sweeteners or gorging on fruit in all its forms, my body would still have expected sweetness in excessive amounts, and I would still not be able to treat it as an occasional thing.

Eat good fats, but don’t go overboard

While getting sugar out of my system, I found adding in good fats like nuts, seeds, avocados, eggs, grass-fed meats, wild fish, coconut oil, olive oil, full-fat milk and butter were great ways to curb cravings and keep me fuller for longer. I still consume all of these things, but I try to make sure that I don’t overdo it. Fortunately, it is far far harder to eat an excessive amount of fat than it is an excessive amount of sugar. Seriously, what could you eat more easily: a massive chocolate bar or a cup of butter? By all means use good fats to curb cravings, but do not see it as an excuse to eat more than you should, and be aware of how much you are eating.

How to get through the withdrawal period

I’m not going to lie – the withdrawal can be tough. I had mood swings, struggled with sleep and constipation, and I got some serious serious headaches (“sugar hangovers”). There would be days where I felt like I couldn’t think about anything other than sugar. And I was a “healthy” sugar addict who had been consuming crazy amounts without realising in cereal bars and fruit juice. But I found it rough.

The good news is that many people have gone through this before, and we can tell you that you do come out the other side of it. It is short-lived, and you feel so much better for it! For that time period, make sure you have healthy foods, particularly snacks in the house that you can turn to when you feel like you can’t resist sugar. Have some friends or family who are going through the same thing or have given up sugar before who you can talk to. And drink A LOT of water. And liquorice or rooibos tea. It’s so helpful!

Craving busters

I Quit Sugar’s Sarah Wilson swears by a couple of teaspoons of coconut oil after lunch to keep sweet cravings at bay. I have to say, it does work! It hits a sweet spot and keeps you full. Others I know swear by plain yogurt and/or cacao in any form. Cacao powder mixed with warm milk and cinnamon helps some. Water and tea were great for me. I found that half the time, when I thought I was really hungry, I was actually thirsty, and drinking a tall glass of water, or sticking on the kettle to make a chai or rooibos or liquorice tea would be immensely helpful and would give my body what it actually wanted. Roasted root vegetables like sweet potato, squash or carrots could help give you a sweet hit without the sugar. Some people are cheese fiends and find a small hunk of really yummy cheese gave them the “treat” they were looking for.

But perhaps the best way of all to deal with cravings is not to replace it with another food. Unless you are really hungry and a drink doesn’t work, I found the best advice to be to do things like get out of the house for a walk, read a book, do some exercise, get a non-food treat like a manicure or a cinema trip. Something that would get your mind off your craving or create better habits around “treats” and help break the food as reward pattern.

Try not to do it alone!

The best part of the 8 Week Program for me has always been the community. Having so many other people going through the same thing as you who are all there ready to chat over things, confess when they’ve had a slip up, encourage you when you have, and support you throughout the process is amazing. If you are not fortunate enough to have that arranged for you – try and arrange it yourself! Do Sugar Free February with your family or friends, and get at least one other person you can chat with during this time. It’s so much easier to succeed in it when you have support and accountability. If you don’t have someone you can do this with, try finding an online Facebook group or forum so you have people you can turn to, even virtually, during the tougher moments. The Raising Sugar Free Kids Facebook group (click Community on this page) is somewhere you are more than welcome to find others trying to come off sugar and looking for support and community!

Don’t beat yourself up if you fall off the wagon – just make sure you get back on!

We’ve all been there in the sugar quitting process – we’ve given in once, or twice, or a few times. The main thing is not to beat yourself up, to own up to the fact that you made a mistake, to pay close attention to how it made you feel, whether it felt worth it or not, how it affected your body, and so on, and then pick yourself back up and try again. It’s a process, and falling off the wagon once does not mean you’ve failed and should just give up entirely! Just try again the following day, and perhaps up your intake of fresh vegetables (to use a Sarah Wilson phrase: “crowd out the cravings” with fresh foods) and drink plenty of water.

Enjoy it – enjoy cooking, discovering new foods, and your awakening tastebuds!

It might sound weird right now to tell you to enjoy giving up sugar, but it’s strange how quickly you get to a point where you’re surprised to find you don’t miss it anymore and are actually enjoying real food more than you thought possible. To this day, I’m still surprised by how amazing food tastes to me since giving up sugar. Sugar had seriously deadened my tastebuds, and there were fresh foods I didn’t particularly enjoy back then that I now love because the flavour is so much better than I ever remember it being. I never ever thought I would be one of those people who would say this stuff, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised. And I know you will be, too.

If you have any questions or things you really want to talk about in relation to Sugar Free February, please do email me: claire@addsomeveg.com, I’d love to hear from you!