The Year of No Sugar was an informative book about a family who gives up "sugar" for a year. However, the title is deceiving because the family does not completely give up sugar but mostly fructose, some artificial sweeteners, and isolated fruit sugar. Schaub spends most of the year obsessing about sugar (when to eat? how to eat it?) and finding technical ways to consume sugar and all its many alternative forms. For instance, she sets up certain cheat rules or accepted wild cards for her and her family which I could understand when it comes to children. However, the cheating exceptions/rules kept sugar in the family's diet which, I believe, made the whole sugar craving a constant annoyance.
Additionally, the family incorporated a monthly cheat day where they selected and shared a sugary treat. I like the idea of people, especially families, coming together to share a meal. This is a very bonding and social experience and I believe was key to helping the family maintain the project.
Additionally, the family incorporated a monthly cheat day where they selected and shared a sugary treat. I like the idea of people, especially families, coming together to share a meal. This is a very bonding and social experience and I believe was key to helping the family maintain the project.
However, where Schaub's experiment fell apart for me was in her relentless quest to locate chemical sugar sweeteners such as dextrose to support her and the family's sugar addiction. Call me crazy, but with a title like The Year of No Sugar, I expected to read about people struggling to eliminate ALL sugar both regular and artificial. If the goal was to eliminate sugar, and especially fructose, because of its toxic and damaging effects on the body and our health, why replace it with something unnatural that is also dangerous and toxic? Because it is the lesser of two evils? That’s like giving up crack cocaine for cigarettes. Okay, I am exaggerating but you get my point.
My Thoughts:
Don't get me wrong, I respect any attempt to give up toxic foods from the human diet. Heck, I am a life-long pursuer of clean and healthy eating. I give Schaub tons of kudos for the fact that she dared to include her children in the experiment, brave undertaking. However, I just did not like the exchange of one poison for another. I would have liked it if Schaub found healthy alternatives, like using whole natural ripened sweet fruit and vegetables in her cooking and baking instead of chemical sugar alternatives. Natural foods would have helped the family re-train their taste buds and possibly teach the importance of eating real food.
