On January 2nd, your favorite bakers took a bold leap away from their comfort zone: We both committed to cutting out added sugar for the month of January.
The idea to give up sugar was first inspired by Pinch of Yum’s No Sugar January. I love Lindsey and basically want to copy her life, so I was pretty quickly on board with the idea of doing No Sugar January. Over Christmas I mentioned my plan to Audrey and the rest of our family, and they all decided to join me with pretty much zero persuasion on my part. (The fact that we were all engaged in some pretty serious sugar bingeing driven by Christmas cookies and puppy chow probably had something to do with it.)
We all printed out Lindsey’s No Sugar January worksheets and brainstormed the rules that would govern our period of sugar abstinence. Lindsey’s philosophy was to do what works for you and allow yourself some wiggle room. So, for example, if you’d go totally crazy with no sugar outlets whatsoever, allow yourself one or two small indulgences to assuage your cravings (Lindsey’s was dark chocolate). Or if refraining from having a glass of wine all month would make it impossible for you to stay committed, allow yourself weekend wine.
Basically, create a structure that will help you be the most successful in minimizing added sugar intake throughout the month.
Lindsey’s no-sugar commitment also excluded refined grains and alcohol. We adopted that model too.
Here’s what the sugar-free list looked like for me:
Not Allowed:
- Refined grains
- Refined sugar
- Artificial sweeteners
- Natural zero-calorie sweeteners (i.e. stevia)
Allowed:
- Honey
- Maple syrup
- Dark chocolate*
- Weekend alcohol
- Quaker Oats Weight Control Instant Oatmeal**
*I copied Lindsey because I didn’t think I could give up chocolate cold turkey. I actually didn’t end up taking advantage of this loophole even once!
**My GOAT (greatest of all time) packaged oatmeal. I’ve been eating this stuff multiple mornings a week for 8 years. It has 1g of added sugar per packet.
What It’s Like to Quit Sugar Cold Turkey
Considering how hard I’d been going on the sugar intake in the days leading up to January 2nd (hello, multiple desserts per day) and the fact that my normal diet usually allots for a dessert almost every day, I expected cutting out added sugar to be really, really hard.
I was surprised by how easy it was.
Once I set my mind to cutting out sugar, I barely had any cravings throughout the whole month. I didn’t really miss sugar at all! The only intense craving I remember was on day 4 or 5 when a coworker sat down next to me with a steaming cup of hot chocolate. The irresistible aroma of warm chocolate wafted over and hit me in the face like a punch. I immediately felt overcome with a strong physical craving for chocolate! Luckily the craving went away as soon as the hot chocolate cooled down and stopped being so fragrant.
I think there are two main reasons why I didn’t struggle with sugar cravings after going cold turkey on added sugar:
- I cleared my fridge and pantry of all temptations. All that was left was straight-up granulated sugar. When you surround yourself with temptations, they’re a lot harder to resist. Remove temptation and you make it impossible to indulge, so the cravings have nothing driving them.
- I was enjoying the benefits of eliminating added sugar too much to want to mess them up by eating something sweet!
That said, I think the hardest time to avoid sugar was snack time. I’ve always been pretty good about seeking out snacks with low sugar content, but even some of the healthiest bars I’ve found (like Oatmega bars) still have 7 or 8 grams of sugar per bar. I had to get more creative with my snacking, packing something rather than relying on a quick bar to satisfy the mid-afternoon munchies.
What I Learned in the First Week Without Sugar
While cravings surprisingly weren’t much of a problem, the biggest thing I struggled with in the first few days of cutting out sugar was hunger. I felt hungry ALL THE TIME. It felt like no matter what I ate, I would get the hunger rumbles an hour later.
At first, I didn’t understand why I was so hungry when I was basically eating my normal diet minus sugar. What I think was happening was that back when my normal routine was to finish most days with a dessert after dinner, I was unconsciously “saving” calories for dessert. Knowing I would be eating a couple hundred (or more) calories of dessert later, I made sure there was “room,” so that I would have enough appetite and hunger left by the time dessert came around.
Red flag! This is exactly the kind of insight that makes a No Sugar challenge so beneficial. I was basically cutting myself short of nutritional calories in order to make room for empty, sugar-based calories. I believed that I was eating a healthy diet because I minimized the sugar content of the food I ate throughout the day, even though I would more than max out my daily sugar quota on a larger dessert after dinner. That’s totally backwards. We should be eating our fill of nutritious food before we even start considering dessert, not working backwards from dessert as a given to make sure we save enough room for it. I was making dessert a priority, when it should be a special treat.
Once I figured this out, I increased the size of my main three meals to account for the dessert deficit, and sure enough, the constant hunger went away.
Benefits of Cutting Out Added Sugar
Even if you’re not a sugar fiend, you’re probably consuming more sugar than you realize—and it’s probably having more of an impact on your well-being than you would ever guess. When we’re used to eating added sugar all the time and having it be a given part of our daily diet, that’s what our bodies expect. We forget (if we ever knew) what it feels like to life live in a body that doesn’t receive regular infusions of added sugar.
Once you cut out added sugar, you’ll start to experience a LOT of benefits. Everyone’s reactions to cutting out added sugar will be a little different based on what your other lifestyle habits are. These are the benefits I experienced, and I think they’re pretty common when you cut out added sugar.
More energy.
Here’s how I know that quitting sugar improved my energy levels: I stopped needing or wanting to drink as much coffee. As someone who’s been drinking 2-3 cups of coffee per day since I was about 12 years old, this was a big surprise! I found that one cup of coffee in the morning was more than enough, and some days I almost didn’t feel like I even needed that. I used to feel the need for an extra coffee boost around 1 pm on days when I was more tired, but I didn’t have a single after-lunch coffee craving during No Sugar January.
Less frequent potty breaks.
If you know me in real life, you know I pee a lot. Like every hour. I’m that girl who requests aisle seats on airplanes because I know I’ll inevitably need to use the bathroom and I don’t want to ask someone to get up for me. I think I just have a small bladder, plus I drink a lot of liquids throughout the day. Mostly water, but then those 2-3 cups of coffee as well.
Cutting out sugar didn’t dramatically reduce my bathroom breaks, but I did notice that I would go 2-3 hours without needing to pee, versus my usual 1. The improvement has been especially noticeable in the morning—probably because due to drinking less coffee, which is a diuretic (makes you have to pee).
Improved sleep.
Barring the occasional night spent tossing and turning, I’m a pretty good sleeper. But I did notice that I fell asleep quicker after cutting out sugar, and I never went to bed with that racing pulse feeling you get after eating a lot of sugar. Leading up to January, I had a really bad habit of eating dessert around 9 or 9:30 pm at night (yeah…not great). My body didn’t have nearly enough time to process all that sugar before I went to bed, so it would still be coursing through my body when my head hit the pillow. Not conducive to a good night’s sleep!
Hungrier in the morning.
By eliminating 9 pm dessert, I increased the window between when I finished dinner and when I got up for breakfast. That window is important for digestion and metabolism, and when I was eating a late dessert, I would often wake up still full in the morning. I’m a big believer in breakfast, so I would eat breakfast anyway. But it feels a lot more satisfying to dig into a hearty breakfast when you’re actually hungry.
Weight loss.
Most people’s first question when thinking about cutting out added sugar is probably, “Will it help me lose weight?” I didn’t embark on No Sugar January with the intention to lose weight, but as a side-effect of cutting out added sugar, refined grains, and (most) alcohol, I lost about 5 pounds. And that’s without making any other changes to my diet—I didn’t exercise any more often and I didn’t try to restrict my calorie intake. In fact, I ate more food during No Sugar January than I was before.
Your body processes whole foods and grains so much more efficiently than it does refined sugar and white flour. If you make no other changes to your lifestyle, cutting out added sugar and refined grains could be enough to trim down your waistline and make your jeans fit a little more comfortably!
Less bloating.
I didn’t feel like I had a problem with bloating before cutting out added sugar, but I would get bloated about a couple times a week. After going cold-turkey on sugar, I barely got bloated at all! It felt so good not to have a bottled up digestive system. At risk of TMI, I would also say that I’ve been more regular since eliminating added sugar. 💩
Feeling more satisfied.
By replacing my “reserved for sugar” calories with calories from real food, I felt a lot more satisfied throughout the day. Before cutting out sugar, I never felt fully satisfied after dinner until I’d had dessert. During No Sugar January, I would finish dinner and feel content. I didn’t feel the urge to reach for a follow-up snack. In fact, I never even felt the need to indulge in the dark chocolate I allowed myself in my No Sugar January rules!
In a Saveur article about going cold turkey on added sugar, Dr. Nicole Avena explains: “We know high-sugar foods…promote hedonic eating: eating for reasons other than hunger… [when you remove] all your hedonically-driven foods that are high-sugar based [it allows you] you to sort of just feel what it feels like to only feel hungry when it’s out of the need of your body, not out of the emotional or pleasure need that’s coming out of your brain.” Bingo!
Skin benefits.
Audrey here – I experienced many of the same benefits as Molly listed above, as well as a marked improvement in my skin. At 18, I’m still dealing with regular acne, and it was getting particularly bad during December, when I was indulging in sugar and dessert every day. Cutting out sugar didn’t totally clear up my acne, but it did make it less of an issue. I did some research, and there is a phenomenon called “sugar face” (that might not be a very official term, but we’ll roll with it), which basically explains that eating too much added sugar is bad for your skin. Cutting out sugar got rid of something I was doing to my skin to make my acne worse.
Giving Up Added Sugar For Good?
No Sugar January ended over a month ago now, so you might be wondering… what now? Are you back to eating dessert every day?
Nope! I can count on one hand the number of desserts or sweets I’ve eaten in 2018. I’ve been enjoying the benefits of cutting out sugar too much to want to go back. I’m not being as strict as I was during No Sugar January, but moving forward I plan to make sweets an occasional treat versus an everyday indulgence. And I’ve been making an effort to replace foods that traditionally have a lot of added sugar (like salad dressings, jelly, and soup) with homemade versions that are low- or no-sugar. Reducing the added sugar in your diet has tons of benefits and absolutely zero negatives.
If I can get deep for a moment, the harder thing for me to grapple with than actually giving up sugar is giving up the role sugar has played in my identity. I’ve been known as a baker and dessert connoisseur for years now (an identity perpetrated in no small part by this blog!). If I no longer bake on a regular basis, what does that mean? I almost feel like I’m letting people down, or betraying some element of my identity. But growing and changing is a part of life, and right now, significantly reducing the role of added sugar in my diet feels more natural and beneficial than continuing on as I was.
So what now? Now I get my kicks enjoying the natural sweetness of everyday foods (milk tastes sweet to me now!) and savor the heck out of an excellent dessert on special occasions.