Life, Unsweetened: My Premises

A long time ago, braith an’ lithe asked a seemingly straightforward question:

“Did you ever post in detail about *what* you eat? Can you give us a typical day or two’s diet? I need some inspiration to cut down on pasta and sugary stuff! Thank you Also…how much do you sleep…and did you find you needed less sleep when you changed how you ate?”

I’ve been meaning to respond to this, for months, but I keep stalling because my blog is (currently) a safe space for me.

In real life, this discussion alienates and upsets a large number of people.

My sugar-free diet has absolutely changed my life for the better, in all ways, and it’s allowed my husband to live without insulin or incident. Despite that, even family is inclined to push, argue, or attack our diets. The foodie movement, the organic movement, the low-fat movement– all of it manifests as people shouting at me for making my choice.

You should know, I don’t feel the need to convert anyone.

I made the right choice for me, and for my husband, and I am 100% sure of it.

I don’t know your medical history and I don’t know what the right choice for you is– but I do believe that if you were truly educated on these false studies, marketing of foods, effects of sugar, and result-stories, you would probably chose a very similar path. Still, not everyone has the same life goals and I respect that. In fact, if trauma hadn’t hit my home, multiple times, I would never have given up the culture of my eating patterns either.

That said, I think the information is important and I’m going to delve really deeply into this. Food charts. Recipes. Personal stories. Results. Tips. I’m not going to put it on a schedule, because schedules make me anxious, but it’ll be a topic regularly hit upon this month.

But.

Before I start this process of discussing my family’s eating habits, I’m going to start with the things I will take as facts going forward. I won’t be arguing with you about these things, or defending them. Not because I can’t– because, believe me, I can — but simply because it never ends well.

I will henceforth refer to them as My Premises.

You are welcome to form and hold your own opinions.

For the record, my opinions are based on the collaborative reading of quite literally thousands of books, discussions with over a hundred doctors, days worth of hours spent with nutritionists and fitness experts, and the requesting of detailed reports from commonly cited studies.

If you are genuinely interested in learning more, please email me and I’ll be happy to direct you to specific books or specialists, or forward to you the collected reports.

#1 – The food industry is a business industry.

I’ve always been an entrepreneur at heart, so I’m not the person who is going to sit here and tell you that the food industry is a monster trying to eat you up. Business is just business.

You charge what the market will bear and you put your product in as much stuff as possible. That’s not evil, that’s just good salesmanship.
You sell a concept so that people can justify to themselves the purchasing of a product, and you re-word your ads so that the government doesn’t get involved. That’s not evil, that’s just good marketing.

It does put us in a pretty pickle, though. Unless you are growing and catching your own food, you are forced to be a bit of a skeptic. Sometimes you just have to sit back and ask yourself– does milk really do the body good?

(No, it doesn’t, but more on that later.)

#2 – Artificial sugar is better for you than normal sugar.

Be warned that this is one close to my heart. So much so that I’m actually quite snide at two perfect strangers here in this post where I explain my full thoughts: https://rarasaur.wordpress.com/2012/11/01/i-dont-know-if-youre-skinny-but-youre-certainly-a/

#3 – Natural remedies or life changes are better than medicine.

I have no moral problem with medicine, however:

It is expensive.
It usually require layering, ie– you take this medicine to the fix the effects of the other medicine that you need to fix your problem.
It become less and less effective with time.

#4 – There’s not one ultimate health plan.

There are things you can do across the board to live a healthy life, sure. But the details of everyone’s day-to-day plan have to be different. We live different lives! More of my thoughts on this here, complete with cat pictures: Nix the Poncho, Now It’s Personal

#5 – Not everything is good in moderation.

Sorry, mom, but it needs to be said. I don’t murder people in moderation. I’m not cruel in moderation. I don’t stuff penguins in my shorts in moderation. Some stuff, you should just not do. Period.

#6 – You are worth everything.

I don’t know what to say to people who tell me that changes are too expensive, or time-consuming, or too much effort. This sort of thought usually follows a diatribe about how they want to lose weight, feel better, sleep better, have more energy, lose cellulite, lower their cholesterol, get their blood pressure under control, etc.

You have to believe that you would do more good in the world, or for your family, if you had more energy and felt better.
You have to believe that you deserve better than amputation, trauma, exhaustion, and days in the hospital.
You have to believe that you could use money on something more productive than pills.

You have to believe you’re worth feeling better, sleeping better, and living better– or no dieting or health tips will ever make any sort of difference.

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Phew, now that those worries are off my chest I can start posting things about actual food. Hurrah! Is there anything outside of the norm (religion, politics, etc) that you hesitate to write about for fear of losing your safe space? Or is that something that only worry warts like me think about?

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If you want to catch up on my mostly-conceptional posts written about my sugar-free journey, including my story, here are some:

How diabetes has injured my life: http://rarasaur.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/i-wish-i-were-diabetic-2/
My sugar-less journey, in summary: http://rarasaur.wordpress.com/2012/11/02/my-sugar-less-journey/
How I see Nutrition Labels : http://rarasaur.wordpress.com/2012/11/04/simplifying-the-nutrition-label/
How I survive Thanksgiving, and how you can too : http://rarasaur.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/giving-thanks-part-1-lets-talk-turkey/
Why I stopped gifting sugar, too: http://rarasaur.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/someday-prophesies/
Sugary things that might surprise you: http://rarasaur.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/surprisingly-sweet-in-a-bad-way/
How sugar doesn’t have to be part of our culture: http://rarasaur.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/who-invited-sugar-to-the-party/
About poop: http://rarasaur.wordpress.com/2012/11/09/fiber-friends-and-the-poop-tackle/
Sugar-free tips from fictional characters: http://rarasaur.wordpress.com/2012/11/18/you-look-good-in-non-fiction/