A midlife health check for Liz Hoggard revealed her blood sugar levels were just below pre-diabetic, so when she was challenged to go sugar-free for a month it seemed like a timely intervention. My Yorkshire childhood gave me a fatally sweet tooth. It’s hard to believe now, but the 1970s high tea would feature a main course plus bread and jam, dessert and cake.
Today I cook from scratch, but at the end of a meal, I need a sweet treat to switch off the hunger hormone (known as ghrelin). Sometimes dates will suffice, but in times of stress it’s a Bounty or a Dairy Milk bar. My weakness is rubbish 1970s confectionery, though I’ve tried to love 80% single-estate dark chocolate.
I can down a Bounty Chocolate Trio pack in five minutes (I genuinely believe I’ll stick to one bar). I assumed I could offset the excess sugar with a healthy diet and exercise. But at my midlife health check the blood test measuring my blood sugar levels was 41 (mmol/mol), one point from being pre-diabetic.
My dad had Type 2 diabetes before he died of a heart attack, and my slim mum is pre-diabetic. Poor blood sugar and insulin control is also a risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease..
