The Sugar-Free Life: Day 21

This photo of my 11-year-old was taken a week ago, mid detox. She looks happy, and yes, she genuinely is happy. Even without sugar!

And, fundamentally, she feels good.

Day 21 into her green smoothie detox (and removal of all sugar and wheat from her diet), and the changes are already noticeable.

And not just to me.

This morning she told me: "I feel lighter, I can run faster, my tummy doesn't hurt any more, and my face feels so much smoother."

Interesting things begin to happen when we kick sugar out of our system.

Suddenly whole foods that we previously thought unpalatable seem tasty; our skin tone and texture improves, as does our digestion, and a whole host of other seemingly unrelated symptoms just disappear.

My observation is that pretty much everyone who rejects the idea of green smoothies is someone who is addicted to sugar.

As a society we need to think urgently about what we are doing to our kids by addicting them to sugar. When I'm at other parents' homes and I see the kids begging, whining, screaming for sugary treats, (or often just conjuring up yet more creative ways to get their sugar fix by offering to bake cakes!) I feel sorry for the parents. I also feel sorry for the kids. They are addicts and need their 'fix'. It deeply saddens me - as everyone is miserable in this scenario.

My daughter's 4-week detox is a great education for her, to show her just what happens to her body, her energy, her skin, her digestion, her physical ability, her mental clarity .. when she kicks sugar out of her blood and her cells.

I wish she would just keep going. But I know this won't happen, when she is surrounded by a culture that throws sugar at her at every opportunity. There are no sugary treats in our house, but there are a mountain of them at most other homes she visits. The temptations for an 11-year-old are just too overwhelming to resist.

When we soothe our kids' sugar addiction by giving them more sugar we are not doing them any favours. I treat many children with digestive disorders, candida and parasitical imbalances, allergies like asthma and eczema, anxiety and depression. And all of these conditions could be eliminated, if not vastly improved, if sugar (and wheat) were removed from their daily diets.

Is it easy? Hell no! Is it easy to change anyone's addictive behaviours? Of course not. It's challenging.

But is it worth it?

Always.

We need to eliminate all sugar-sweetened foods from our homes and from our schools for our kids to stand a chance of gaining long-term physical and mental good health.

We need to stop thinking of sugary foods as 'treats' as ways to demonstrate our love, or just to gain a peaceful half an hour without whining.

We need to find the strength and steadfastness in order to give our children the physical and mental strength to navigate this challenging world into which they are born.

They need all the help they can get.