Coffee and sugar

My daughter in law found a book in her local library which is very interesting. So she went off and bought a copy. It is called The Fat Revolution.

 It’s probably a bit controversial, as so many health professionals tell us to cut out fat, go fat free, use margarine instead of butter etc.  The problem with all this is that they seem to replace the fat with sugar. So how do you cut out fat and sugar to keep a healthy diet? It’s really hard. You end up with lean meat, fruit and vegetables, which is fine, but quite restrictive. And others tell us to keep the meat intake low, and of course you need to restrict your salt intake so your blood pressure is okay. It all gets a bit tedious.

Anyway, Peter decided he was going to quit coffee. For almost all our married life he has drunk copious amounts of coffee. We don’t have it strong, less than one level teaspoon in a large mug would be usual, and we don’t keep percolated coffee in the house much, which in my opinion is much stronger. 

But one day he decided to go cold turkey and cut it out altogether.

My daughter in law thought he would find it really hard, with withdrawal symptoms etc, but not a bit of it. He just stopped. That was about three months ago. He might have the occasional cup now, maybe one a week if we are out somewhere, but otherwise it is water. Now he has almost never drunk water in our 48 years of marriage. Hardly ever. Sometimes if he was working outside and sweating a lot I would take out a jug of water and he would have some of that, but just drinking water throughout the day was not part of his routine. The thing is, that in the coffee was the sugar, and over a day his intake of sugar was highish. And not only his, but mine also.

Add to this the sugar we eat in food, cake, biscuits, icecream etc, not all the time but from time to time, the sugar intake goes up. So Christine Cronau’s book was very interesting.

She advocates no sugar, or as low as you can go. But this is not easy when you have a really sweet tooth and have been used to having it in your diet all your life. But I must say, it has not been too bad. Christine does suggest eating fat is okay, natural types of fat, for example full cream milk, cream, some animal fats, and using butter rather than margarine etc. This makes life much easier, and avoiding the sugar has not been so hard.

I have been reluctant to just chuck out of my pantry all sugary foods, not that there were tons of it anyway, but most of that food has  now gone, and my own sugar consumption has gone way down. I have to say it is not too hard. The one problem I had was this……how to you get past the ‘get up and make a coffee’ first thing in the  morning. I hate coffee without sugar. And the first cup of coffee was always my start to the day. Well I have replaced that now with Chinese tea, of which I have plenty still in my cupboard. I bought a lovely teapot from The Tea Centre in Robina, and we have some double walled glasses which I really enjoy using, so now it is a pot of green tea first thing in the morning.

I love these shops, they have the most beautiful cups and
mugs, tins and tins of fabulous teas, and some wonderful
Chinese tea sets.

 In the picture the tea looks pretty weak stuff, but actually it is a lovely golden colour.

 So far so good. I must say I have noticed a real improvement in energy levels. That's a plus.