The Sweet Poison Quit Plan
There's no shortage of people telling you that eating sugar is a bad idea. But The Sweet Poison Quit Plan digs into exactly why in language you will understand. It is written by a layman for everyone and it describes in chilling detail the horrific damage being done by every mouthful of sugar. It doesn't just make us fat, it is destroying each of our organs one by one.
First it takes out the liver, then the pancreas, then the kidneys, then the heart and finally the brain. Every single statement is the book is backed by research from the most impeccable sources and it is fully documented. But it isn't about scaring you to death. The Quit Plan is the only book about sugar that gives you a plan for getting off one of the most addictive substance you're likely to encounter.
The trick with quitting sugar is to find it and avoid it. It’s easy to spot in a Mars Bar or a Coke but which brand of bread has the least sugar and which breakfast cereal is the best choice? Unless you like reading labels those are not easy questions to answer. But the Quit Plan sorts through all the foods on sale in the average UK supermarket and tells you exactly which brand to buy.
It then sets you up for the withdrawal from sugar by describing what you can expect and giving you a plan for coping. Then to make sure you succeed it provides comprehensive sugar free meal plans and over 25 recipes for all the things you thought you'd never have again (like ice-cream and cake). This is the practical guide to quitting sugar that we all desperately need.
You struggled with your weight for years so can you tell us about a time when you were at your biggest?
I was at my biggest when my wife Lizzie announced that we were unexpectedly about to add twin babies to our brood of 4 kids under the age of 9. I wasn't coping with the 4 we had let alone adding twins to the mix. I was apathetic, run down, and just sick of having to buy a new pair of pants every year. My weight only seemed to go in one direction. It wasn't like I didn't try diets, I did, and they all worked - for exactly as long as my willpower would last (usually about 2 weeks - what can I say, I'm weak). And then the will power would give out and the weight would come back - usually with interest.
What made you want to find out what was really making you fat?
It didn't seem logical to me that humans were the only animal on the planet that required willpower to maintain their weight. There were no gyms for monkeys or weight loss books for lions. Every other animal seemed to be able to maintain their weight exactly the same way they maintained their height - on autopilot. It also seemed to me that the current human weight problem only really became a problem within the last 150 years. Clearly something had changed so I went looking for answers. Obviously my motivation was to stop being so fat but the more I read the more I realised that something much bigger than looking bad in swimmers was going on.
How did you figure out that sugar was the cause of your problems?
As I read more and more of the evidence on weight, I kept coming back to the work of a famous British doctor, John Yudkin. Throughout the sixites and seventies he had repeatedly proved that sugar was the source of weight gain in lab animals and in humans. He couldn't explain why that was the case because many of the relevant hormones had not yet been discovered. But I found that if I looked for proof in more recent research his theories repeatedly withstood the test of practical observation. Try as I might I could not fault his observation that sugar was the cause of not only obesity but of many modern chronic disease. And to this day I have not been able to find credible research which contradicts that observation. I decided that if that was correct, then all I had to do was not eat sugar (and in particular, fructose) and my weight problem should reverse.
What was your diet and fitness regime like once you had found the culprit?
I didn't change much. All I did was make sure that nothing I ate contained fructose (the dangerous half of sugar). This was easier said than done because I discovered it was hidden in the oddest places. Sure I knew to avoid the soft drinks and chocolates but I wasn't prepared for finding it in my healthy muesli, yoghurt or cereal bar and I was shocked to find that sugar was the primary ingredient in my favourite BBQ sauce. But after I navigated around all of that I managed to find sugar free versions of most things and then just went on eating whatever I wanted as long as it didn't contain fructose. I immediately started losing weight, but this time it felt different. I didn't feel like I was on a diet (I was after all still eating pies and chips, just no sauce), but the weight just kept coming off. That was 10 years ago now and I haven't touched sugar since. My weight loss stopped just above what I would consider ideal weight and hasn't shifted since. For the first time in my life the scales stopped going up every year.
What is your five step plan for quitting sugar forever?
1 - Have the right attitude. You are not about to be deprived of a treat, rather you are the only person in the room not poisoning yourself. Until you can get your head into that space its best not to start.
2.- Eliminate habits - sugar consumption clusters around habits. You always get a muffin with a coffee or you always have a chocolate in front of the TV at night. You need to break those habits and this part of the plan tells you how to do it.
3. - Eliminate sugar from your life - this means going through all the food in the house and tossing out everything that contains added sugar. If the only thing you can eat is sugar free guess what you'll be eating.
4. - Getting through withdrawal - just like with nicotine, there is a definite withdrawal period. It’s important to know what it’s like and to have a plan for getting through it.
5. - Restocking - this is about filling your house with foods you can eat for the rest of your life. There's a surprisingly large selection once you remove the sugar tinted glasses.
Why do we assume that certain sugary foods are good for us?
Because we are told they are. We are told by the processed food industry that low fat is good. But when they remove the fat they replace it with sugar. We are told that high fibre is good but in order have the average breakfast cereal taste better than the box it comes in, it has to be loaded with sugar. It’s this hidden sugar that keeps us addicted and rooting it out is a key part of the plan the book provides.
How does the media confuse us about the foods we consume?
Because the processed food industry is generally paying the bills (through advertising) the media will generally run with whatever message their paymasters want them to spin. The process food industry does not want us to know about sugar because they know that foods with sugar sell an awful lot better than foods without sugar. The result is a focus on things that don't affect sales (like salt and fat) and the media is happy to play ball.
What is your professional background?
I am a litigation lawyer. I am spectacularly unqualified to talk about biochemistry or health. My only relevant training is in having an ability to assess and weigh evidence. That is what I did in an attempt to solve my own weight problem. It worked and then it worked for others that I told, so I was eventually persuaded to write down what I did and why and that is the book you have before you.
What is next for you?
I have written two books (published only in Australia at the moment) on how vegetable oils are responsible for the massive acceleration in cancer rates in the Western World (really, it’s not as mad as it sounds). And my latest work is a book on how to get a First Class education for nothing (it’s a guide to choosing a good schools based on what the research actually says rather than what you hear at the school gate).
The Sweet Poison Quit Plan is published by Michael Joseph, price £7.99 paperback (out tomorrow)