Healthy Food
Recently I started cutting as much unnatural sugar as possible. No sweets, no (limited) chocolate, Limited foods with added sugar. I've turned into one of those annoying people who read the back of everything I eat and to be honest I don't need to do too much reading, as my diet these days has been primarily meat, fish, nuts, seeds, fruit, vegetables, whole foods essentially where nobody has had a chance to add sugar.
Here's an example of a healthy lunch I had last week. It was super tasty.
Sneaky Food companies
If I've learned one thing on this healthy journey I've been on so far in 2025, it's that food companies are a shower of profit hungry sneaky bastards! Well, most of them anyway. It's bad enough that sugar is added to Bran Flakes and Wheatabix these days, but what's worse is the food companies try to con us with alternative names for sugar or it's derivatives. Here are just a few:
Agave
Barley malt
Brown sugar
Cane juice/evaporated cane juice
Cane sugar
Cane syrup
Corn sweetener
Corn syrup
Corn syrup solids
Dextrose
Fructose
Fruit juice concentrates (for example, apple juice concentrate)
Fruit nectars
Glucose
High fructose corn syrup
Honey
Invert sugar
Lactose
Malt sugar
Malt syrup
Maltose
Molasses
Raw sugar
Sucrose
Syrup
Trehalose
Turbinado
That really bothers me, as you've to be so vigilant if you want keep added sugar close to zero, which is what I'm trying to do.
Some people may be thinking if I can't have sugar in the mornings, then what can I have? It rules out so many cereals, and I like cereals in the morning. Well, that was me too folks, I like wheatabix, I like brand flakes, but now I know that they do add sugar to these items.
I decided to change up and the bowl of food below is what I often have for breakfast these days and guess what? Its delicious!
It comprises off chopped fruits like bananas, apple, grapes, strawberries, raspberries, topped up with almonds, walnuts crushed up. I add chia seeds on the top and you're ready to go.
It's really, really tasty and really, really healthy.I top mine up with milk to give it some moisture. Natural yoghurt works too.
Sugar Addiction
Something I have really come to notice by giving up sugar is just how addictive sugar is. It's quite frightening actually. I always knew sugar was addictive in some way, as when you have to a bar of chocolate or some sweets or a nice bit of cake , you always want more.
The real surprise for me was when I gave up added sugar, I got some very severe headaches for a couple of days from the sugar crash. Even though I wouldn't say that I had a huge amount of addes sugar in my diet, the sugar crash was real and the headaches lasted for a couple of days.
Now that I'm off sugar though I don't rely have any huge inclination to go back on it. Sure, I might see a donut or something really sugary like that, which I'd like and think 'Oh wow that looks nice', but I've managed to stay away so far.
Now if somebody offers me some sweets or chocolate for example I'll politely say no.
I do break it though, if I go out for lunch or dinner, I might treat myself to a savoury dish that I know has added sugar, but I'll try to avoid desert and have starter/main or double main instead.
There's so much tasty, healthy and colourful food out there, but you have to look carefully, as these days our supermarkets have more 'non-foods' and ultra processed crap that is slowly killing us.
If you are thinking you'd like to go on this healthy journey, why not join me? Start small. Here's an idea.
Start with Every Monday morning no added sugar, just a healthy breakfast.
Then add Tuesday morning...
Over time try all weekday breakfasts...
I guarantee you that you'll feel better bith physically and mentally, but try baby steps, rather than a big bang approach.
Let me know how you get on ❤️