Jed Diamond is taking the next month off of sugar, and here’s why you should too.
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Like most people I usually overindulge over the holidays (beginning with Halloween and going through New Year’s) then make my resolutions to be healthier, lose weight, eat better, and exercise more. But this year I’ve decided to get a head start and begin in December. Sometimes the “wake up call” for a new direction comes when we least expect it.
Let me say at the outset that I consider myself a pretty healthy guy. I’m not a “health-nut,” but I’m a leader in the “men’s health movement” and I try and practice what I preach. I’m usually ahead of my doctor in finding early warning signs of problems and correcting them before they cause any damage. But I was blindsided by my recent lab results:
“Of most concern,” my doctor wrote, “is that your hemoglobin A1c which is a long term marker for elevated blood sugars indicates that you are early prediabetic.” Me, prediabetic, how could that be? I don’t eat that much sugar. Well, the more I looked into what I actually eat, the more I had to conclude that “I probably eat more sugar than I think I do.”
I stay away from putting sugar in my tea, don’t drink soft drinks or other sugary beverages, and I don’t eat much candy. I know I have to watch out for baked goods, which I love and are high in sugar and fat. But I often forget that sugar is hidden in many of our common foods where we least expect them, including the following:
- Salad dressing
- Catsup and barbeque sauce
- Soups and sauces
- Breakfast cereal
- Chinese food (think, sweet and sour anything, Yum!)
- Dried fruit (lots of natural sugar, but often more is added)
- Yogurt (Yeah, I love that blueberry yogurt)
- Bread (bread? Many supermarket and restaurant sandwiches have added sugar to sweeten the bitter taste and research has shown that in some brands, a slice of white or whole wheat bread can contain up to half a teaspoon of sugar.)
- Cocktails (Anything with an umbrella in it.)
What’s so bad about sugar? According to Seth Martin, M.D., a cardiologist and assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, “Too much sugar can disrupt metabolism and fuel maladies ranging from heart disease to cancer.” Dr. Martin also warns about the connection between diabetes and heart disease. “When it comes to heart disease, high cholesterol and high blood pressure have claimed much of the public attention, but sugar is, without doubt, a central character in fueling cardiovascular damage. In fact, two out of three heart attack patients in the United States have either diabetes or prediabetes.”
That got my attention and when my colleague Barry Friedman told me about his program, “30 Days Sugar Free,” I asked him to tell me more. I knew Barry as a successful business man and world-class entertainer. “I could easily have been voted ‘Least Likely Person to Ever Go Off Sugar for a Single Day’ before this whole crazy idea came to me on Feb 28th, 2012,” says Barry. He tried it. It worked. He wrote a book: I Love Me More Than Sugar: The Why and How of 30 Days Sugar Free and he developed the one month program that I’m excited to be starting.
When I signed up I got a message from Barry and his staff that resonated for me:
Take Control of Something That’s Been Making You Sick and Tired Your Entire Life
“Achy joints. Afternoon crash. High blood pressure. Over weight or obese. Skin problems. Anxieties. Taxed immune system. Rotting teeth. Insatiable hunger. Insulin resistance. Heart disease. Gout.
This is a small list of the ways human beings pay a high price for their addiction to processed sugar.
You’re here because you are considering another way of being in the world.
Welcome… we’ve been waiting.”
I’m ready to begin. I’ll keep you posted on my progress. Drop me a note if you have questions or suggestions. If you’d like to learn more about my health-promoting activities come visit me at www.MenAlive.com.
Originally posted on MenAlive. Reprinted with permission.
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Photo credit: Getty Images
Just to let you know, So far this Christmas, I made my peanut, cashew and almond brittles, had maybe one chunk (2 inch square) of the cashew and a total of 5 oatmeal raisin cookies and you know what? I’m good with it. It helped that my wife and did all the baking at my daughters house, no cookie tins here in our house.
I love the reasons you’re doing this, Jed. With a ‘why’ that strong the how is going to be a cakewalk (pun intended).
Your goals are reasonable and I trust you’ll discover a whole lot about yourself that wasn’t part of the original plan. Such is the landscape of any worthy challenge.
Barry, you offer a great program and love the personal support.
Good for you Jed, I hope it all works out for you and that you’re not tempted too much. I’ve found that now that I’m much older, the sweet table is less appealing. I am a sucker for coconut and banana cream pies but thankfully those are not traditional for Christmas gatherings. My home made cashew, peanut and almond brittles can be tempting but I get sick of them because I make them … reach the point I can’t stand the smells. As with Thanksgiving, I’m expecting to walk away from the dinner table without feeling like crap. Oh, my… Read more »
Tom, Thanks for the support. You sound like you make some good stuff. Any chance of a sugar free cashew, peanut and almond brittle? Homemade popcorn balls sound reasonable.
I have made sugar free caramel corn but I don’t have a clue if the same can be done with brittle. I suppose I could use a similar recipe for the caramel corn and apply it to nuts? It’s worth a try.
Since I have your attention …. years ago GMP was set up where if someone replied to a post, there would be an email notification. What I do now is I save the links to the articles and visit them later as I did with this one. Are they still doing that?