Book review: Year of no sugar (2014)- Sneak Peek

Book Review:  Year of no sugar (2014)

Losing weight, being more fit, becoming more healthy are among the top new year's resolutions. This book details the struggles an American family goes through to stick to the goal of having no sugar within a year, including being creative in the kitchen, struggling to dine in a sugary world, being smart travelling, and how the kids dealt with it too (think birthdays, halloween, kid's parties). Hilarious accounts of vegetable subs with lettuce, and everything tasting like Bananas/Dates.

My psychological perspective:

Loved it.

It could have been an account of how someone gave up cigarettes, alcohol, tv dramas, facebook, chocolate, internet for a year. But this family made a decision to quit added fruitose for a year. 

It was not written as a scientific account, but a down to earth account of how a family dealt with quitting sugar for a year and their own observed changes with the year. Now there could also be many confounds, but these aside, what I loved about the accounts were that it wasn't smooth sailing.

Wouldn't mind getting a few experiments going, but to get matched controls would be very difficult.

But it's important to be balanced. As a one year project, quitting sugar is interesting, but it takes so much effort, that it becomes almost an obsesssion. And certainly, with more eating disorders presenting at my clinic, I have found that an over emphasis on "good" and "bad" foods is risky. Sure, having no sugar is difficult, but eating in moderation- what does that mean anyway?

My Christian Perspective:

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4)

¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶ And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.(Romans 7)

While food in itself is not a sin, many people around the world are addicted to Sugar. From my Christian perspective, any addiction is sin. Yet, it's soooo hard to control. This book gave some really good insights into just how hard it is to control. But, on the other hand, over-control based on a set of rules and obsessing over food also becomes a sin... 

I find myself laughing about this paradox, and asking WWJD.

My overall rating: 

Excellent
This is a very useful resource or a decent use of time. 

Available in April 2014. Pre-order this one! It's funny, real, and inspiring. Also read Sweet Poison to understand what this author is going on about.