Recently at work, many of the girls had been talking about this new sugar free lifestyle they have taken on. They had all read this book called "I Quit Sugar" by Sarah Wilson which inspired them to take on this sugar-free lifestyle, relying on proteins, fats and low sugar carbohydrates to make up their diet.
This first struck me as somewhat an extreme twist on the Mediterranian diet or the Atkins diet. They were eating lots of nuts and lentils but had little fruit in their diet. They reported the results to me saying that they felt much less bloated and was experiencing more stable moods. This seemed quite extreme to me to be eliminating fruit from their diet since fruit had always been advertised as "healthy" and were the source of many vitamins and minerals.
I took to science to figure out the physiological effects of a low sugar diet. After three days of rummaging through the endless articles available online, I was unable to find any science-based information on the effects of quitting sugar. I also started to think about what Sarah Wilson meant by the terms "quite sugar", since she did not advise to quit lactose, maltose or glucose rather quitting fructose and refined carbohydrates. It was difficult to interpret exactly what was and wasn't allowed in the diet since she did not give much away on her website, insisting that I buy the book in order to find out more.
In a study where a group of rats were fed high-fructose corn syrup and the other fed with sucrose-supplements, it was shown that the rats that had been fed fructose had a higher level of fat deposits and higher levels of triglycerides in the blood. This may indicate that fructose in comparison to sucrose may increase the likelihood of lipogenesis. Although, there are no further studies which back up this statement and it is not certain that the physiology of a rat is the same of that of a human.
In conclusion, I believe that this "I quit sugar" craze is not scientifically based and seems to show effects similar to those that are on a healthy diet already.
