SugarBusters Wore Me Down

by Jesse
(Akron, Ohio, USA)

I have a real sweet tooth and love carbs (not the good kind), so SugarBusters had a lot of appeal. I bought the book and started the diet a few days later after I waded through all the technical/scientific/medical data that made no sense to me anyway.

At first, it was difficult to stay on the diet for a few reasons. The biggest issue I had was locating staple items that do not contain sugar.

Bread, for example, contains some kind of sugar that is necessary to activate the yeast. So it’s difficult to find bread that is made without sugar, honey, and molasses.

Eventually, I located bread at a locally-owned health food store. It was about $9 a loaf, which weighed at least six pounds. It tasted like dirt, but I got used to it.

The second issue was the recipes. They are rich with cream, eggs, butter, etc. So unless your dinner partner has undertaken the SugarBusters plan, he or she is likely to be unwilling to eat these foods on a regular basis.

Try convincing your guests that cream and butter and pork won’t make them fat. The SugarBusters message is not easily communicated.

The third, and perhaps, most serious issue I had was my unwillingness to go into restaurants and be militant about the food. Or to carry on and on about why I can indeed drink breves (coffee drinks made with 8-12 ounces of half-and-half).

I was not willing to grill the wait staff about the contents and preparation of menu items. Nor was I willing to make a scene, which doesn’t seem to be a problem for a lot of people who put themselves on this plan.

I lost weight, yes. I felt better, yes. But it was too damned much trouble to stay on the diet. I do feel that the eating plan gave me the opportunity to break some bad sugar habits I had, but it isn’t a practical diet for the long run. It was exhausting.

Looking back, it was one of those “flavor of the month” diets: a craze, a fad. And those never work.