Forty days later

Counting back, I’ve now been sugar free for...40 days. Wow, that’s a long time. Well done me! Also, I just made the connection that I started at the beginning of Lent. Huh. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in giving up sugar at this time of the year. But anyway, here I am 40 days later, and I thought it was time for an update. You know, am I losing weight? Do I feel better? Do I miss sugar? Will I be desperately hoping the Easter bunny is real and has left me some chocolate eggs on Sunday?

Let’s start with weight. Sugar is an excess calorie, so I could lose weight just by cutting it out and therefore reducing my overall daily calories. On the other hand, I’ve thrown caution to the wind and am eating full fat dairy- you can read why, here. I’ve also been kind to myself while withdrawing from sugar and haven’t stinted on other (non sugar) treats like potato chips and nuts, both of which are fatty. Fat has more calories than sugar, so I may actually end up eating more calories this way. Hmm.

This is probably why I’ve been drawn in the past to low-fat, high carbohydrate approaches in preference to low-carb, high fat approaches. It’s rational to think that you should remove the food group with the highest calories (fat), but it’s also simplistic. The body doesn’t process everything we eat as energy in the same way. One of the really important things I learned about sugar in David Gillespie’s books and from my own forays into the research is that fructose in sugar interacts with our appetite controls in a very dangerous way. 

Now that I’m avoiding fructose like the plague, I’ve found that I’m eating way less in a day than I used to. I could do a side by side comparison of my food then and now but I’d be too embarrassed about the ‘before’ shots. I’ve already revealed what used to be in my snack cupboard as well as some of the stupid ‘diet’ foods I used to know and love. 

But as an example of how things have changed, I’m now almost snack free. I used to be a mid-morning, mid-afternoon and evening snacker. I think this was made worse by being an at-home mummy because I would be feeding my baby boy things at all hours (babies snack a LOT) and would just naturally have a little something myself as well. Now I don’t snack during the day at all- I’m just not hungry between meals, and even my meals are smaller. I’ll admit that the after-dinner snack habit has been harder to break. This is definitely a habit, not hunger, but I’m aiming to change this as well. I know I snack more after dinner if I’m just watching TV without anything else to do (I’m a chronic multi-tasker, I can’t just watch TV), so I’m trying to make sure I have things to do, like...writing this blog.

[This reminds me of a study I read when I was looking into the exercise question. These researchers looked at the energy consumed by teenagers when they did typical daily activities. They found that when teenagers watch tv, they eat. When they exercise, they eat (well, presumably after). And for both of those activities they consume more energy than they burn. In fact, the only activity where the teenagers didn’t eat more calories than they burned was doing homework.  Perhaps this is partly because homework is not traditionally a snacking activity (unlike watching tv). But I think it might also be because the brain is actively engaged in something, rather than free to ponder the snacking possibilities. So there you go, homework is good for you (and I’m sure that’s the line they used in the media release for that particular study). And you, dear blog, are like homework to me. In a good way.]

So, to answer your question (or the question which I posed on your behalf- you're welcome) is that yes, I have lost weight. I wish I could give a figure here because I’m all about the data, but I was determined when starting this whole sugar-free thing not to get caught up in weighing myself endlessly. With the result that I (perhaps stupidly) failed to get a baseline weight to go from. I know from weighings in the not too distant past that I was at least a certain weight, so I can say for almost certain that I’ve lost at least...

(drum roll please)

3.2 kg

Yesssssss. I need to lose more, but the best part is knowing that, however gradually things move, they are moving down, not up. I don’t need to watch my weight anymore. My body is doing that for me, because I stopped blindfolding it.  Er, with a blindfold made of sugar...Ok, I need to work on that metaphor, but hopefully you get the picture.

So, weight loss, check.

I’m feeling good too. My skin is great (I’ll have to look into that one sometime), I’m not as moody, I don’t get highs and lows throughout the day caused by what I eat. It wasn’t easy for about three weeks- I definitely wanted sugar. I wouldn’t have thought I could come out the other side and just feel completely uninterested in sugar, but...here I am.  I have a box of home-made fructose free chocolates in the fridge which I made last week, and I’ve eaten about three of them. They are delicious, I just don’t crave them. I forgot about them actually. I’ve also got some of the coconut bread I made a few weeks back sitting in the freezer, waiting for a time when I want it. I’ve asked myself today whether I really honestly would say no to an Easter egg if, say, I were to find one in the garden Sunday morning after the Easter bunny has been by. And totally honestly (but grammatically confusingly), yes, I would say no. I know I feel dreadful if I eat sugar now- I’ve done it a few times accidentally (canned corn, I’m looking at you!). It’s not worth it.

So, I don’t think I’ll go back. I can’t promise- it’s not easy to avoid sugar totally, and it’s an addictive substance. It’s definitely trickier when eating at other people’s houses even if they are trying to be sensitive to your sugar-free needs. Not because of obviously sugary treats which I don’t care about saying no to, but because of hidden sugars which they may inadvertently serve up. Like the time I was eating dad’s home-made spaghetti sauce and after a process of cross-examination to rival any court room managed to work out that the reason it tasted sweet despite being ‘sugar free’ was that dad had innocently added just a dash (or two) of barbecue sauce which on inspection had about 40% sugar. I may just have to take the sugar hit every now and then and put up with the consequences, because this stuff is everywhere. But I don’t want it, so I won’t seek it.

So, forty days in, here I am. If you want to ask questions or comment about any of this, the comment box below will be happy to oblige. And any suggestions about homework/blog topics I should tackle in the future are also welcome. That’s unless you have given up commenting on blogs for Lent- in which case, you must wait until Sunday.

Happy Easter everyone J

Ghost Stories

Well, I’m back from good old Tas, and Easter is approaching rapidly. Thanks to my recent discovery that it is possible to make my own chocolate, I’m not worried about feeling like I'm missing out on treats this Easter. And let’s be honest, commercial Easter egg chocolate is pretty awful: bland, sugary and gritty (unless you get the really expensive chocolates of course). Surely they are just re-using the same unsold eggs year after year?

Mmmm last year's chocolate...

Egg pic by luigi diamanti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net. I added the recycle symbol though. Wasn't that clever?

Anyway, I started thinking about the way I’ve handled Easter in other years, and from there, it was a natural step to musing about the Ghosts of Diets Past. When I think Diet (with a capital D ie, a structured diet program, as compared to just ‘trying to be good’ with what I eat), I think Weight Watchers. I specifically remember doing the old WW at Easter time one year because I had calculated that I could have two Red Tulip ‘bird eggs’ Easter eggs (candy coated with solid chocolate inner) for 2 (or maybe 3, I can’t remember) WW points. I would save up my points during the day so that I could savor a couple of bird eggs after dinner. 

With these and similar tactics, I’ve ‘succeeded’ with WW twice- both times I lost around 10kg. This is about the same amount I need to lose this time, so why am I not doing this again? The clue is that it worked for me twice. Twice. Meaning that I regained the weight. Meaning that it doesn’t really work, unless my definition of success is to be looking trim and feeling gorgeous for a month or two before slowly regaining what I worked so hard for. Unless I want to pay the WW monthly fee and count points for the rest of my life (I don’t), then I need another answer, and hence I'm trying the whole quitting sugar thing.

Is it just me, though? Am I just too greedy or just not motivated enough, or [insert shortcoming here]? There is evidence that Weight Watchers and similar calorie restricted programs work (for example, here and here. However, the research into these programs is usually very short term. The outcomes they measure are usually after 6 or at the most 12 months. What happens in the longer term? Well here’s a chart from this study which looked at weight loss maintenance up to 5 years after dieting:

Weight loss maintenance years 1-5 post diet. From: Anderson, Konz, Frederich & Wood, 2001

The bottom trend line shows the weight loss over time of people using calorie restricted diets which use normal foods (programs like Weight Watchers, although this program wasn't specifically studied). While they initially lost an average of around 9kg, just two years later they had regained more than half of this amount, and 5 years later they were only 2kg lighter than when they started. This is an average, remember, so for some the weight regained was more than this, for some it was less. The top line shows the trend for people using more extreme diets (very low energy diets usually involving meal replacement with a shake or similar and a very restricted calorie intake). For these guys the initial weight loss was much greater (around 24 kg) but two years later they had also regained more than half of what they lost, and 5 years on the average dieter had regained 13kg.

So, it seems that the diet success story is pretty short-lived for the average weight-loser, it’s not that long before they are in a position where they will probably need to diet again. While there is a lot of research into the reasons behind weight-regain after ‘successful’ dieting, there are few helpful answers. Some studies (here and here are examples) suggest psychological factors, such as satisfaction with the new weight, body/self-image and ability to handle stress as important. But there are also internal metabolic factors to take into account, for example these guys hypothesise that the body’s internal systems are more geared towards gaining weight than losing weight. Neither answer is all that encouraging, but it’s clear that we don’t know the full story, either way. There’s a lot more to learn about how to lose weight and keep it off.

I’m wondering if a key part of the secret (for me anyway) is not to Diet (with a capital D) at all. I’ve found that all this does is make me focus more on food. I spend all day (well, a lot of it anyway) thinking about my next meal, or snack, planning how many points I have, deciding whether I can sneak in a birds egg or not. Weight watching is all well and good, but food watching is counter-productive, in my experience. Then there’s the problem of what happens when the Diet stops.  

I really, really don’t want to say it because it’s so clichéd, but you know I’m leading up to the word lifestyle. As in 'this is a lifestyle, not a diet'. I can’t live with counting calories (or points), watching what I eat all the time, negotiating with myself to keep away from X so that I can have Y, but...turns out I can live without sugar. At least, so far. It may sound strange to anyone who feels that giving up sugar would be a major hassle, but the sugar free thing has been far, far easier to live with than WW or any other Diet I’ve tried. I’m past craving sugar now. I don’t find that I am looking for snacks between meals or after dinner. I’m not actively watching my portions but I’m sure I’m eating less. Even with the chocolate and coconut cake and the full fat milk and the cheese (oh, the cheese!), yada yada, I’ve lost a few kilos in a few weeks. I’m not dieting (sorry, Dieting), I’m just living sugar free.

Can I lay the Ghost of Diets Past to rest forever? I don’t know, but I’m hopeful.

Free your chocolate

When I wrote my last post, I planned to take a few days break while I visited family in Tasmania. I thought I should come back to my blog on Monday next week, and maybe do a post reflecting on the fact that I’m staring down the barrel of a sugar-free (and therefore chocolate free) Easter. I’d talk about how my very supportive husband decided that we should have Easter cheeses instead of Easter chocolate, and how I felt this was a very ‘off the grid’ thing to do, and that I decided to call it Cheester.

Well, two days into visiting mum and dad, and I’ve thrown all those ideas out the window because I just made delcious, fructose free chocolate from scratch! Now THAT’s off the grid. Thought I'd better write down what I did before I forgot the details. Here is a sneak peek for those who can't be bothered scrolling:

(For those thinking “huh? There are a range of ‘sugar free’ chocolates available from every health food store you care to name, not to mention the health food aisle at the supermarket”, here’s a quick run-down on why I’m making this from scratch. Basically commercial sugar-free chocs (and most sugar-free sweets as well) contain maltitol (or a similar sweetener) which is a sugar substitute. Although these are not the same as cane sugar, many of them act like cane sugar when they enter the body. For example, maltitol becomes glucose and fructose just like sugar. So no, I can’t have those if I want to stay off fructose. Also where’s the fun in that? I’ve never made chocolate before, I feel like Nigella Lawson right now.)

The idea for making chocolate started back in Melbourne when I found some blocks of 100% cacao in Jones the Grocers. The blocks are by Willy’s World Class Cacao and Chocolates from the UK. I had watched a TV series about Willy who is a passionate chocoholic who wanted to make and sell these 100% cacao as a gourmet cooking ingredient. He sources the cacao beans from places like Venezuela and Madagascar. You can order the blocks online and have them shipped from the UK, but Jones the Grocer stocks them in Australia, so I happily purchased two 180g blocks of the Madagascan black 100% cacao (at $20 a pop) and took one with me to Tasmania to present to mum and dad who are also trying to be fructose free.

For anyone who hasn’t tried 100% cacao before, let me tell you it is strong, bitter stuff. It tastes like the very essence of chocolate, minus the sugar and cream.

Mum and I decided to try making some (edible) chocolate from this, and with the help of a friendly local health food store (who not only gave us a recipe but supplied us with the right ingredients), we were able to do this pretty simply. The recipe handout is credited to Roar Vanilla. It called for cacao powder and agave syrup (which has a lot of fructose), so we had to experiment a little. We also added soy lecithin as an emulsifier which I'll explain further below.

But without further ado, here is our version, adapted from theirs, which is 100% fructose free, very simple, and delicious. 

Fructose-free chocolate

• 80 grams cacao butter, chopped finely (we sourced ours from the health food store)
• 40 grams chopped/grated 100% cacao
• 3 Tablespoons dextrose syrup (see below)
• 3 x rock salt crystals (we used Himalayan salt- long story but mum wanted some anyway so we happened to have it. I’m sure normal salt would do!) You can leave salt out altogether if you choose
• 1 tsp lecithin granules soaked in 1 Tbs boiling water (health food store had these but we also saw them at the supermarket health food section)

Dextrose syrup:

Stir 100g boiling water and 230g dextrose in a saucepan on the stove until the dextrose is dissolved completely. It should go from being a white liquid to a crystal clear one (see pics). You could halve this recipe as you don’t need much (I used 3 tablespoons) but it seemed easier to do all the stirring in this quantity than a smaller one.

When dextrose is dissolved and syrup is clear, take off the heat and place to one side.

Note: Dextrose is glucose, so you may be able to just use glucose syrup from the baking section of the supermarket instead of making the above. Glucose syrup is much thicker than the syrup described above, so I’m not 100% sure it would work the same- if you try it, let me know how it goes!

To make the chocolate:
Place at least 2cm of water in a pot and put a bowl on the top to make a bain-marie. Don’t let the bowl touch the water.  Heat the pot until the water boils, then remove from the heat.

Add cacao butter to the bowl.Stir until melted. It melts pretty quickly into a clear but yellowish oily liquid

I'm melting...

Add salt crystals (optional)- these will dissolve during the next steps.

Add 3 tablespoons of the dextrose syrup. You can add more if you wish- depends on how sweet you want it to be.

Add 2 teaspoons of the watery-lecithiny mixture (see pic of what our lecithin mixture looked like- ours was not fully dissolved in the hot water but the lecithin granules were soft and pretty quickly broke down further in the chocolate mixture).

Lecithin is an emulsifier, and we wanted it to help the syrup and cacao butter to mix better- which on our observation it seemed to. The original recipe did not have this step at all, so you could leave it out if you prefer, but I’ve left it in because we think that it helped the texture of our chocs.

Add half of the 100% cacao, stir until it melts into the mixture, and then add the second half and do the same.

Ours had a bit of a foamy look on the surface as you can see. I think on reflection this was the lecithin and perhaps I should have left it to dissolve further. However, it didn’t affect the texture (which was entirely smooth) or taste of the final chocs.

The liquid at this point was very thin, much thinner than I was expecting to be honest.  

Pour into molds or ice trays.

Ours made 36 chocs- 16 in the heart mold and 16 in the ice cube  tray.

Put in the freezer or fridge to set. Ours went in the fridge and by about ½ hour they were set enough to pop out of the mold and eat. Here they are again.

My babies. I'm so proud.

As it doesn't have any cream or milk, it obviously makes a pretty dark chocolate which we estimate tastes about the same as 80% dark chocolate. Mum pronounced it ‘as good as Lindt’. The texture is chocolate heaven- it melts so deliciously in the mouth. When I do it again, I’ll experiment with adding some chopped hazelnuts or similar to the chocolate in the last step. Yum!

I guess the only other thing worth posting is the cost. The cacao 100% bar was $20 and we used 40g so $4.44 worth. The cacao butter was $19 for 250g and we used 80g, so $6.08 worth.  So the main ingredients cost $10.52 for 36 chocs.  Up to you whether you think it is worth it- I loved doing it and will enjoy experimenting with different versions.

If you do try this, be sure to let me know, below. I’d love to hear how you go, especially if you experiment with any modifications.

So that’s it. A long post, but a pretty easy recipe in the end, and the result was fabulous. I’ll be making more of these at home for Easter, although we might keep the cheese idea as well. J