Sugar Busters!
What It Is
"Cut Sugar to Trim Fat" proclaims the dust jacket of
Sugar Busters! Inside the book, you read that "Sugar is
toxic!" And that's the basic premise of the diet. The
authors tell you to eliminate all sweets made with refined
sugar and certain fruits and vegetables with a high-sugar
content because they wreak havoc on your biochemical system.
The diet also promises to lower your cholesterol, achieve
optimal wellness, increase your energy, and help treat
diabetes and other diseases.
So proclaims the diet that became a self-published
phenomenon in New Orleans, until a major publisher released
Sugar Busters! in 1998. It's still selling so strong in the
hardcover edition that the paperback hasn't been released
yet. The four authors are H. Leighton Steward, a former CEO,
and three doctors from the Big Easy: Morrison C. Bethea, MD,
a cardiothoracic surgeon; Samuel S. Andrews, MD, an
endocrinologist; and Luis A. Balart, MD, a
gastroenterologist.
Although the authors say that counting calories or
measuring food is not a part of the Sugar Busters! plan,
they suggest you "look at portion size," which is another
way of cutting calories -- even though they claim that
"calories are not the answer to weight gain or loss." In
addition, the authors point out that moderate exercise will
not significantly affect weight loss if you continue to eat
foods with high sugar content. Finally, they caution that
the diet is not for exercise fanatics.
What You Can Eat
While the authors say there are
only a few things you cannot eat on the diet, these banned
foods include some of the more common staples of the
American diet: "You must virtually eliminate potatoes, corn,
white rice, bread from refined flour, beets, carrots, and,
of course, refined sugar, corn syrup, molasses, honey,
sugared colas, and beer." A short list, but note that you
must stop eating all refined sugars.
The basic plan is to eat high-fiber vegetables,
stone-ground whole grains, lean and trimmed meats, fish, and
fruits. If you choose alcohol, you should drink red wine.
Bake, broil or grill meat, and cook with an oil that is high
in mono- and polyunsaturated fats and low in saturated fats,
such as canola. You eat three meals a day of moderate
portions, and you can have snacks such as fruit and nuts,
although fruit should be eaten by itself. And fruit is
preferred over fruit juice, and best eaten a half hour
before the meal.
You should eat:
Meats, including:
- Lean beef and pork
- Canadian bacon
- Poultry
- Game meats, such as venison
- Fish and shellfish
Vegetables, including:
- Beans
- Lentils
- Peas
- Spinach
- Lettuce
- Squash
- Zucchini
- Mushrooms
- Asparagus
- Artichokes
- Cabbage
- Celery
- Cucumbers
- Broccoli
- Brussels sprouts
- Eggplant
- Onions
Fruits, including:
- Apples
- Lemons and limes
- Pears
- Cherries
- Raspberries
- Kiwis
- Grapefruits
- Apricots
- Melons other than watermelon
- Tomatoes
- Tangerines and oranges
You also can have dairy products, and whole grains and
cereals --- just don't add sugar to them! Spices and dark
chocolate are also permitted. You should not eat:
- Baked beans
- Carrots
- Corn
- Ripe bananas
- Raisins
- White bread, pasta, rice
- Potatoes
- Beer
- Bacon, fried chicken, most cold cuts
How It Works
The authors use basic science to
explain their theory -- up to a point. A snack or meal that
is high in carbohydrates (of which sugar is the basic
building block) raises the level of glucose in the blood
stream quickly. This stimulates the pancreas to release the
hormone insulin. This release produces too much insulin, say
the authors, so that the body is not able to convert that
glucose into glycogen (which is used for immediate energy
needs). Alas, the body's ability to store or hold glycogen
is limited to a measly few hundred grams -- an average of
700 grams can be stored in the liver and muscles.
