How I Quit Sugar And Beat Gout Naturally
How I Quit Sugar And Now Feel 20 Years Old Again Physically And Mentally
A couple months ago I cut out all sugar and processed foods from my diet. Now I feel like I am 20 years old again both mentally and physically.
I suffered with spontaneous swelling of the fingers around Christmas time every year for a few years. Later I would have swelling in an arm, elbow, ankle or knee. It would come up suddenly and hurt terribly for a week or so and then slowly fade away. It took weeks to fully fade away though. One knee still has a bit of a grinding feeling in it to this day.
Because it came after Thanksgiving when I had a lot of sweets and desserts, I started to think it may be gout. I was getting fat and the attacks were coming more often the past couple years. I had lost so much time that I could have been working or doing something useful with my life. I was fed up with it.
But the reality set in during the last attack. My wrist swelled up badly and became unusable. The pain was just like a freshly broken bone day and night for 5 to 7 days without easing up at all. I had no peace or comfort day or night until it started to fade.
That is when I decided to cut sugar from my diet forever.
My New Diet
It is easier to tell you what I ate than it is to tell you what was not allowed. Now first I want to say that I am not a doctor. Please seek professional advice before going on any sort of diet yourself. I am only telling you what I did.
I looked online at a gout diet. I ate only chicken and sardines for meat because almost everything else was on the bad list. I eliminated every source of sugar including ketchup, mayonaise, breakfast cereal, granola bars. I even found sugar in things that I thought were healthy for me.
Milk and dairy products were ok so I started on those along with a lot of vegetables fruits and some rice. Plain saltine crackers with natural peanut butter were my snacks. I also found out that cottage cheese contains a mess of chemicals and is quite bad for you. You have to look for organic and natural foods. And you must read the labels because often they mention "natural" on the front but the product can be far from natural. Even peanut butter can contain a lot of added ingredients.
I also cut out fruit juice because it is a concentrated form and you get way too much sugar at one time in a glass of juice without the supporting minerals, nutrients and fiber from fruit.
Breakfast was often bananas, nuts, fruits and sometimes a whole wheat cereal. I only found two types of cereal that has no added ingredients, sugar or artificial junk in it. Even oatmeal is listed as bad on the gout diet. I love oatmeal. But I cut it from my diet entirely for now.
I read the labels of everything now and I mean literally everything. I wont eat any chemicals, artificial ingredients, colors, flavors or preservatives. And I wont touch sugar in any form.
Sugar And Chemical Withdrawal
Sugar is an addictive substance. As with any addictive substance there will be withdrawal symptoms. It is not going to be easy. Some people prefer to slowly cut sugar from their diet in order to prevent withdrawal or because they are not strong enough to just quit overnight. I am not able to do that and I know it. I would have never really quit.
During withdrawal the symptoms were so bad that I often considered eating sugar just to help me through it all. But the memory of the pain I suffered was too strong and fresh in my mind.
I had brain fog, aches and pains, exhaustion, tiredness and absolute lethargy. It was horrible. I had no strength to even get out of a chair at times to do anything. This went on for a few weeks actually. It was a terrible experience. I often asked myself how long will it take. I read about people who cut sugar for a couple weeks and they felt great. I did not.
I even got ill easily during this period. It was horrible.
Becoming More Normal
After the pain went away and my knee started to loosen up some I started to eat some more normal foods like hamburger and other types of fish. I started out slowly by adding just some little bits of new things here and there at a time.
Now I am at the point where I pretty much eat anything natural including all meats and fish, grains, fruits, nuts and vegetables. I will not have anything artificial or processed now and I avoid sugar entirely. On occasion I will have something with a preservative although I try to avoid it most of the time.
Eventually I will have some honey on occasion but for now I am not even having any of that until my knee is fully healed. And then I will have it in moderation.
The Other Side - Strong As A Bull
Now that I am past the withdrawal and horrible symptoms I am getting stronger every day. I felt myself getting stronger. The mental clarity came later for me. It took a while for that to come.
During the past years after a day of some light work I would lay in pain on the couch in the evening groaning in pain. I figured this is how life is going to be as you age. A life full of pain after some work will be the new norm.
But now I can work all day and feel just as fresh and fit in the evening as I did when I woke up. I am able to work harder and longer hours each day. I can feel the difference. I am pacing myself though so I dont over work my body.
And the mental clarity is something I cannot put into words. I feel fresh and fit all day long now. For many years I suffered with this horrible and powerful exhaustion and tiredness. Even with friends and on fun outings all I wanted to do was go home and take a nap. I would wake up in the morning and just long for bedtime.
Now I know what life is supposed to be like. I can only hope that everyone can feel how I do now that I broke through and cut sugar from my diet entirely.
You can watch the video here:
About the Author
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Troy Reid |
