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Year of No Sugar

A Memoir

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

For fans of the New York Times bestseller I Quit Sugar or Katie Couric's controversial food industry documentary Fed Up, A Year of No Sugar is a "delightfully readable account of how [one family] survived a yearlong sugar-free diet and lived to tell the tale...A funny, intelligent, and informative memoir." —Kirkus

It's dinnertime. Do you know where your sugar is coming from? Most likely everywhere. Sure, it's in ice cream and cookies, but what scared Eve O. Schaub was the secret world of sugar—hidden in bacon, crackers, salad dressing, pasta sauce, chicken broth, and baby food.

With her eyes opened by the work of obesity expert Dr. Robert Lustig and others, Eve challenged her husband and two school-age daughters to join her on a quest to quit sugar for an entire year.

Along the way, Eve uncovered the real costs of our sugar-heavy American diet—including diabetes, obesity, and increased incidences of health problems such as heart disease and cancer. The stories, tips, and recipes she shares throw fresh light on questionable nutritional advice we've been following for years and show that it is possible to eat at restaurants and go grocery shopping—with less and even no added sugar.

Year of No Sugar is what the conversation about "kicking the sugar addiction" looks like for a real American family—a roller coaster of unexpected discoveries and challenges.

"As an outspoken advocate for healthy eating, I found Schaub's book to shine a much-needed spotlight on an aspect of American culture that is making us sick, fat, and unhappy, and it does so with wit and warmth."—Suvir Sara, author of Indian Home Cooking

"Delicious and compelling, her book is just about the best sugar substitute I've ever encountered."—Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Powers

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  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      March 1, 2014
      A Vermont blogger mom's delightfully readable account of how she and her family survived a yearlong sugar-free diet--and lived to tell the tale. After Schaub watched a video of a professor of medicine that claimed sugar was "a poison" and suggested that American culture "was the modern-day equivalent of an opium den," she was both horrified and intrigued. She knew that eating sugar in excess was unhealthy. But Schaub had no idea that sugar--and, specifically, its main ingredient, fructose--was at the heart of a worldwide obesity epidemic that was affecting infants as well as children and adults. Determined to help her family kick the sugar habit (or at least moderate it), the author challenged her husband and two young daughters to live without sugar for one year. What she and her family didn't realize was that going truly sugarless would mean more than just giving up desserts. They quickly discovered that everything--from bread to soups to salad dressings--contained trace amounts of sugar, but Schaub and her family worked around the problem. They created recipes (a few of which the author shares) for meals made from whole foods and treats sweetened with fruits or dextrose, a sugar which contains no fructose. Over time, the author found that her family's hyperfondness for sugar gradually faded and that she herself no longer enjoyed confections as much. In fact, she developed powerful, and unpleasant, sugar headaches that left her feeling irritable and lethargic. The most telling result of this experiment revealed itself in her children's pattern of attendance. During the family's year of no sugar, the girls' illness-related absences from school dropped by 75 percent. Sugar may have become the cultural shortcut "to better taste, to more convenience and to ever-higher food industry profits," but as Schaub suggests, the path to health and happiness is best traveled conscientiously rather than quickly. A funny, intelligent and informative memoir.

      COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Library Journal

      April 15, 2014
      This blog-turned-book details Schaub's one-year challenge of eating meals containing no added sugar. After watching a YouTube video called "Sugar: The Bitter Truth," writer Schaub decided that she, her husband, and their two daughters would eschew all forms of added fructose, which the video convinced her is a poison, for 12 months. The author makes a few exceptions--one dessert a month containing sugar is allowed; each family member can choose one item that deviates from the plan (wine, diet soda, or jam); and the kids had autonomy outside of the house to decide whether or not to have sugar. The year began on shaky ground as the clan discovered that added sugar is in nearly everything: bread, tomato sauce, crackers, salad dressing, and Worcestershire sauce are just a few examples. Dining in restaurants and traveling proved tricky but not impossible, and after growing tired of confections sweetened with bananas, coconut, and dates, Schaub discovered dextrose and began baking with it. VERDICT Schaub's writing is witty and humorous and she makes the science behind the dangers of sugar accessible to the lay reader.--Pauline Baughman, Multnomah Cty. Lib., Portland, OR

      Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      February 15, 2014
      A confirmed sugar addict since childhood, Schaub was shocked to discover the role of sugar in an array of illnesses and the fact that sugar (mostly high fructose corn syrup) is an ingredient in nearly every American food product. She challenged her family (husband and two young daughters) to join her in a year of abstention from added sugar (everything from table sugar to molasses to fruit juice) and chronicled their trials and triumphs. Inspired by the research of Dr. Robert Lustig (Fat Chance), Schaub learned the connection between overconsumption of sugar and cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Her own research identified sugar in most school and restaurant meals and in surprising places on the store shelves, including sauces, dressings, soups, and breads. She debunks questionable nutritional advice, pokes fun at her own past experiments with health fads, and recalls the particular challenges of sweets-laden Halloween and Christmas. At the end of the year, the family was healthier, and they had accumulated a store of ideas and recipes (included in the book) to counter the craving for something sweet.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

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  • English

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