How to eat well: Sugar? I never touch the stuff

I am often asked what I eat, but rather than list everything, I find that it easier to say what I don’t eat.
Firstly, as I was born with coeliac disease, an intolerance to gluten, I can’t eat wheat, barley or rye. I have an unpleasant reaction, one that I will gloss over in print, to allium, especially garlic, raw onions and chives, so those are out too.

These elements I have no choice about, but the one food I avoid out of choice is sugar. There is nothing inherently wrong with sugar (after all, it’s natural in as much as it comes from a field), and of course, it tastes pretty good too. But sugar, in nearly all its forms can cause problems.

It is rapidly digested by the human body which in turn can lead to a spike in glucose and thus insulin levels. All carbohydrates are broken down into simple sugars, but in the case of sugar itself, it’s the speed at which this happens that has a knock-on effect on how we feel — mostly causing frequent fatigue and cravings for more sweet food, and ultimately weight gain.

Organic sugar, brown sugar and cane sugar have much the same effect — colour and origin have little importance when it comes to basic biochemistry.