Tidying the Temple.

Ok, so it turns out that I’m not a “preachy” blogger.  I’m not really surprised.  I don’t feel called to any sort of ministry where this would be the case.  Silly me thought if I were writing it, rather than saying it, it might be different.  Turns out, NO!  I even have three blogs sitting in drafts.  Well, it’s really the same post written 3 different ways, none of which I’m happy with.  So let me sum up what I was trying to say in three words…Trust in God.  There, done! Now, let me talk to you about something I can write about, caring for your family!  Specifically, nutrition.  I’m going to take several posts to talk about this, as it was quite a journey of discovery for me, and I’d like to give each stage the attention it deserves.

In October last year, I became aware that there are some things in our standard foods that we just shouldn’t eat.  I began removing “sugar” from our diet, specifically fructose (unless it was in it’s natural form, like in a piece of fruit).  There were many great results to this change.  The first, and my main motivation, was weight loss.  I lost 5kg in about 5 weeks, despite switching to full fat milk and real butter.  This was my kind of way of eating!  The trouble was that I didn’t lose any more, and I had plenty more to lose!  More investigation was required, and there will be more on that next time

The second benefit was that our children were slightly less out of control.  Oh, I’m kind of kidding on that last one, sort of.  We have beautiful children, though Mr 4 can be a challenge.  I think a lot of that is just being a 4 year old boy, but we can certainly notice a difference in him when he’s had access to more sugar than normal.  Miss 5 can now monitor her own sugar intake and doesn’t go nuts at birthday parties any more.  She had a run of 3 parties in 3 weeks.  The first week I talked to her about having some control, but the lure of the lollies were just too much and she had her fill, followed by a sore tummy and a resolve not to do it again.  Since then she’s paced herself, alternated sweet & savoury foods & shared her loot bag with the family.  I’m very proud of her! 

Oh, we save a bucket load on tomato sauce now!  In our sugar filled days the kids would ask for sauce with everything, and the initial amount of sauce given would never last the meal.  Now sauce is an optional extra, even if it is the sugar filled kind!! 

If you’d like to learn more about fructose and it’s effect on your body, I recommend you read Sweet Poison, by David Gillespie.  He goes into the effects of fructose in your body, which is way more than behavioural or weight related benefits.  Sugar does a lot of damage you can’t see until it’s too late.  It’s not a hard read at all, and even if you don’t like everything he says, it’s hard to ignore the evidence! Scripture is clear that we’re to treat our bodies as temples.  This should go beyond thinking about how we use or misuse our bodies, or whether or not this means we shouldn’t get a tattoo, it should start with what we put IN our bodies.

Have you tried to give up sugar before?