A Sugar Free Diet: What do I eat?

One of the most common questions I get about giving up sugar is, “What do I eat?” Or, “What does a sugar free meal look like?”

There is a lot of freedom in the container of sugar abstinence, many different ways to eat:  vegetarian, vegan, low-carb, raw foods, paleo (a hunter-gatherer diet), high protein, clean eating (whole, unprocessed foods.) I prescribe to the philosophy that there is no one diet that works best for everyone, what is called integrative nutrition. Rather, each person needs to find the foods that work for his or her body.

How do you do this?

You eat something, note how it makes you feel, and adjust. You find the foods that love you back. (A food diary is a fantastic tool for this process, as you can observe yourself and make the connections between your health/mood and food choices.) You gently release or moderately eat even “healthy” foods like bananas or whole wheat pasta if they make you feel terrible. The trick is making peace with those choices – and not creating fodder for the mind to feel deprived.

What do I eat? I’m constantly experimenting, fine tuning, and listening. So while I can share what I eat today it is exactly that – what I am eating today. Tomorrow may be different.

Right now, about 70% of my diet consists of vegetables, as organic, whole, unprocessed and local as I can get. My intake of veggies includes land veggies, sea veggies, and root vegetables (winter squashes, yams, carrots, and red potatoes, for example.) I eat them with some healthy fat – flaxseed oil, cultured butter, or coconut oil. They are the mainstay of my meals.

To those, I add nuts, some meat (I’m actually eating very little meat these days as opposed to when I first got off sugar and ate more meat), some grains (primarily brown rice and the pseudo-grains millet, quinoa, and amaranth) and cultured foods (plain kefir, coconut milk kefir, and I’m going to start making my own cultured vegetables.) I eat some fruit, mostly apples and berries. I also eat legumes – mainly black beans, lentils, and chickpeas. Treat foods are homemade popcorn (not the microwave kind,) corn tortillas, and Food for Life sprouted grain tortillas.

For more information on cultured foods, read Donna Gates’ book, The Ecology Diet, a lifeline for anyone wanting to get off sugar and heal their digestive system. She describes how, when you are initially getting off sugar and the candida overgrowth that accompanies it, you may desire more meat to balance your body. That was true for me. Eventually, as your body heals, you may notice that you desire less meat. Again, that was true for me.

I struggled for years with eating meat, because I felt sad killing an animal so that I could thrive. I also felt guilty and felt like I “should” be a vegetarian. Here’s something that helped me:   Compassion begins with yourself. Eating foods that harm your body in order to prescribe to a “virtue” or philosophy doesn’t help anyone. Eating in a way that makes me flourish honors everyone around me, because I am able to give my best self to the world in service. And at this time, that includes eating some animal protein and animal foods.

So while the answer to “What should I eat?” will be different for each person, I wanted to offer suggestions of meals that I eat, to give you an idea of what my sugar abstinence looks like. Here are meal ideas taken directly from my plates. You’ll see that I don’t eat many “typical” breakfast foods; I tend to eat my dinner leftovers for breakfast and/or lunch the next day. Other commonalities? You’ll see a focus on whole foods, what’s known as “clean eating:” vegetables, lean protein, a bit of fruit and healthy fats (olive or flaxseed oil, nuts and seeds.) What you won’t see? Sugars, excess salt, flour, or processed food (if it comes in a can:  I typically don’t eat it.) I also eat several smaller meals spaced out over the course of a day. My biggest meal is usually lunch, with a light dinner. My typical, favorite breakfast is kefir with almonds and ground flaxseed.

It’s taken me 10 years to get to this point. I was a typical junk food eater in my teens and early twenties – sodas, and then diet sodas, lots of fast food and restaurant food, candy, sweets, ice cream and sugar, lots of processed food and processed carbs (potato chips, crackers, white flour, etc.) bagels and fat free (and sugar laden) yogurt for breakfast. I slowly and slowly changed my diet as I learned more about nutrition. I eat drastically different now, but I didn’t do it overnight. It was over a 10 year process. So be gentle with yourself. Start with one small step. Don’t compare yourself to others. Honor each change that you make. Try not to look at how I eat and feel overwhelmed. Just take the next step and keep taking the next step and you will slowly and surely change.

I know that eating this way may seem like a shock to those who are used to a standard, Western diet. Much of what our grocery stores sell isn’t real food, but packaged goods overflowing with preservatives and empty calories that can make you feel terrible, body, mind and spirit. This is true even of health food stores:  do you go there to buy organic fruits and veggies, or to do as I did:  to load up on granola, “healthy” potato chips, and organic ice cream? Some of my favorite sugary foods are from the health food store! I justified eating them for years because they were “healthy,” denying their true nature:  just because granola is sweetened with honey or fruit sweetener doesn’t mean it’s good for my body. Sugar is sugar, even if it’s organic.

I promise you:  once your taste buds adjust to clean eating, you’ll feel fantastic. Canned foods will taste too salty and sweet, and you will actually crave fresh foods. Your body will feel “lighter,” even before the scale moves, and your digestion will greatly improve. You’ll eventually crave the foods that truly feed you – that nourish you body, mind and spirit. I taste the natural sweetness in almonds, carrots, peppers, and onions. The variety of textures and flavors of vegetables satisfies my taste buds. I love the creamy taste of nut butters. I use lots of different spices and sauces and seasonings to keep my meals interesting and varied. I eat lots and lots of huge raw veggie salads with a delicious homemade dressing (flaxseed oil, balsamic or apple cider vinegar, fresh basil, and garlic powder) and a nut topping:  so good. I honestly love my food and the way that I eat.

One of the reasons why I didn’t want to give up sugar was because I thought that giving up sugar would mean having a joyless relationship with food – where I’d spend the rest of my days living like a food cop. But you can have both:   joyful meals and celebrations with friends and family, the wonderful sense of nourishment that food gives, while also abstaining from sugar.

You will also transform your body:  fat loss as the result of a lifestyle change, the natural consequence of loving self-care. As you implement good, healthy eating habits (not a diet), and curb destructive sugar binges, your body will gradually return to its genetic set point:  the place where you look and feel your best. Your skin will glow, your hair will shine from all the wonderful, whole foods and fresh water. I use a paleo food plan combined with regular exercise (yoga, weight training and running/walking) to keep my body in shape. It’s what finally worked for me, after years of yo-yoing with an up and down weight.

Here are meal suggestions for sugar free eating, meals right out of my kitchen:

Meals with meat:

• Grilled steak or chicken with grilled veggies and a big raw vegetable salad
• Roast chicken with green beans, salad, and curried vegetables
• A giant taco salad with ground bison, guacamole, salsa, a huge bowl of salad greens, sautéed onions and peppers
• Roast turkey with roasted acorn squash, salad, and steamed broccoli
• Roast beef with tomatoes, onions, and carrots and sautéed squash (zucchini or yellow squash)
• Grilled salmon and stir fry veggies seasoned with Bragg’s liquid aminos (a lower sodium, healthier version of soy sauce)
• Chicken salad with a bit of mayo and veggies on a huge green salad
• Grilled chicken breasts with a caprese salad, fresh peas, and a cucumber salad
• Bison steak, sautéed mushrooms, guacamole, a huge raw vegetable salad, quinoa
• Chicken, salsa, guacamole, jicama, peppers, onions, tomatoes and garlic on a huge salad
• Roasted chicken thighs with olives, onions, garlic, diced tomatoes, and mushrooms; a large side salad
• Hamburgers (without a bun) with sautéed mushrooms, onions, lettuce, and tomato, a side salad, and homemade fries (I slice potatoes with the skin into thin strips, sprinkle them with olive oil spray, and bake them in the oven.)
• A salmon burger (no bun) served with sauteed spinach and onions, a large green salad, and a baked potato
• Grilled venison, elk or buffalo with sauteed kale and onions, sauteed mushrooms
• Baked salmon with lemon juice, soy sauce, and dill, with sauteed swiss chard
• Diced chicken with artichoke hearts and mushrooms in a creamy sauce; hummus and raw veggies; a side salad
• Stir fry veggies with chicken thighs

Meals without meat:

• Split pea soup and a large side salad
• A brothy soup with lots of vegetables
• “Spaghetti:”  spaghetti squash topped with a tomato sauce
• Plain kefir or plain greek style yogurt with almonds and ground flaxseed
• Stir fried veggies with eggs
• An egg frittata with lots of sautéed veggies, eggs and pine nuts
• Baked winter squash with cinnamon and pecans and drizzled with flaxseed oil
• Lentil soup with a large side salad
• Chili with a huge green salad
• Sauteed veggies and a baked red potato with butter
• Baked yam wedges and a huge green salad, a side of sauteed veggies
• Creamy millet (millet made with 4 parts water to 1 part millet) with sauteed veggies
• A quinoa-veggie salad
• Brown rice with sauteed veggies and a raw veggie salad
• Homemade black beans, brown rice and sauteed peppers, garlic and onions
• Roasted red potatoes and veggies, a side salad