I saw an article that addressed the no-added-sugar challenge on TikTok.  The article’s author argued that abstaining from added sugar was damaging because abstinence contributes to eating disorders.  I disagree a thousand-fold.  I found life was a nightmare with added sugar; on the other hand, I am having an optimal experience with no added sugar.  Sugar, like an addictive drug, caused me to crave more and more sugar, putting me at risk of gaining weight from unhealthy calories, which would cause me to starve myself, putting me at further risk of eating disorders.  So, to restate this, added sugar consumption was a significant factor in my historical eating disorders.

But with zero sugar consumption, lots of exercise, and extremely healthy eating, I keep my weight stable at around 129 pounds.  I never worry about ballooning or starving myself and enjoy foods I love.  For instance, today I ate a big salmon and spinach poke bowl with ginger and other veggie delights, three steamed eggs, Sunny Boy cereal with unsweetened organic cacao powder, almond milk, a plain Greek yogurt with unsweetened organic cacao powder, and three green teas with no sugar, and it’s still the afternoon.  I eat tons of unsweetened organic cacao powder, which tastes delicious, has 40 times the antioxidants as blueberries, and doesn’t harden our arteries due to added sugar.  I also swam for an hour today and have done 10 minutes of bike sprints.  I stay the same weight.  The picture of my poke bowl lunch below is surely not indicative of an eating disorder.

To not be addicted to added sugar requires 100%, not 99%, abstinence.  Otherwise, we’re prone to be servants of sugar.  When I ate lots of added sugar and other junk, I was so ill I could no longer work.  I lay by the toilet for full days, wanting to vomit but not able to.  The people who criticize a no-sugar diet aren’t those who transformed from being so sick they believed they would die in two years.  They aren’t those who cut out added sugar to become so healthy that they aim to compete in the Olympics.

Healthy foods shoot off endorphins, mainly due to a healthier gut microbiome, which is responsible for most of our immunity.  In other words, our healthy bacteria love healthy foods, which makes us crave healthy foods, as we experience the bacteria’s joyful rushes when we eat nutritious foods.  I also read that when we exercise, we also exercise our gut bacteria.  These healthy bacteria form communities and welcome healthy newcomer bacteria while crowding out the harmful bacteria.  They prefer the positive energy—especially from healthy foods.

Fortunately, there’s an easy way to tell if something has added sugar.

So why might people in power advocate for sugar? Wouldn’t we want to promote sugar if our industry depended on its validation?