Exclusive food special: Sarah Wilson's sugar-free simplicious Christmas

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Brilliant ideas and festive recipes from the I Quit Sugar guru

Totally gaudy Christmas tree cheese ball

GREETINGS FROM SARAH 

As many of you know, I first quit sugar back in January 2011 because I had an autoimmune disease that seriously mucked with my ability to enjoy life. I wanted a better life, a richer life, a well life, so I tried going sugar-free. It worked a treat and I continued with the experiment a little longer. But along the way, several bigger, deeper themes emerged. I realise that food wastage mattered. More than anything else, actually. You see, it goes like this: the biggest source of CO2 emissions on the planet is food waste, not cars, not factories. The biggest food wasters are consumers (us!), not farmers or supermarkets. Indeed we toss out up to 50 per cent of our groceries every week. I’ll say it straight – this is unconscionable and the change we seek so deeply in life (to the planet, to our being) must come from us. We are responsible.

So my new book I Quit Sugar: Simplicious is all about cooking and eating in ways that truly sustain us and the larger world, that cut waste to the bone, and that – quite simply – make life better. Simplicious is to be published in time for the New Year and you can pre-order it now (full details below). But in the meantime, here – exclusively for YOU – is a first taste, with ideas chosen specially for the season ahead.

In years past, Christmas was an overly indulgent affair for me. In the lead-up, I’d eat and drink more than usual. I’d get addicted to the stimulants and to the hedonistic vibe. I have quite an addictive personality and I’d give in to the domino-like descent into mince pies and martinis. Every year it would take several weeks to recalibrate. But I knew there was another way. I put together an I Quit Sugar Christmas ebook (details below), which you can still buy on my website, and in the process proved to myself and to thousands of readers that Christmas can be sustaining, nourishing, whole and – yes – joyous. And it can be sugar-free. See below for more.

Clockwise from left; Roast Christmas pork with sticky sugar-free glaze, Stuffing n'n all the best bits salad, Pickled festive red slaw with caramelised ruby grapefruit, Clean bee's knees cocktail, and Green counterbalance salad

Very frequently asked questions

about sugar, me and you (more info and resources at iquitsugar.com)

SO, YOU QUIT SUGAR – DO YOU MEAN ALL SUGAR?

Not quite. I quit fructose. But we mostly get our fructose from everyday table sugar (sucrose), which is 50 per cent fructose. The fructose component is the one that raises health concerns and that – for complex reasons – our bodies don’t handle well.

YOUR BEST ADVICE?

Ah, should you quit? Hard for me to say, but if you’re after more info visit iquitsugar.com and take a look at my online programme. I advise eating no more than 6-9 teaspoons of added sugar a day (3 teaspoons for kids). 

Since publishing my first two books, both the World Health Organization and the American Heart Association have released the same recommendations (right down to the teaspoon!). Added sugar includes the sugar in honey, syrups and fruit juice (a standard glass can contain up to 9 teaspoons), but doesn’t include sugars naturally present in whole fresh fruit, vegetables, milk and cheese. I also count dried fruit as added sugar, though some people don’t. Where my recipes do contain sugar, I give a count in teaspoons (FYI, 1 teaspoon is about 4g of sugar).

WHAT SWEETENERS DO YOU USE, THEN?

Stevia A natural sweetener derived from the leaves of the Stevia rebaudiana plant. It is 300-450 times sweeter than sugar. I use it in liquid form (you can also get it granulated or powdered).

Rice malt syrup A natural sweetener made from fermented, cooked rice and a blend of complex carbohydrates, maltose and glucose. It is relatively slow-releasing so does not dump on the liver as much as pure glucose.

SO I CAN EAT FRUIT WHEN I QUIT SUGAR?

Yes, please do. Fruit can contain a fair whack of sugar – up to 3 teaspoons a piece – so I advise keeping to 1-2 servings a day, steering your way to low-fructose fruits such as kiwi, blueberries, raspberries and honeydew melon, and never eating grapes (unless you can stick to just a few at a time). When doing my 8-week programme we cut out all sugar including fruit for 4 weeks so that our bodies can recalibrate and we can ‘retrain’ our palate. Then whole fruit is reintroduced.

CAN I DRINK ALCOHOL?

Yup, sort of. 

Wine contains minimal fructose. How so? It’s the fructose in the grapes that ferments to become alcohol, leaving red wine low in sugar. It can contain very low levels of residual sugar – less than 1g per litre in the case of dry reds. White wine contains more residual sugar and should be avoided.

Sparkling wine Bubbles retain quite a lot of the sugar (fructose). Avoid.

Spirits Dry spirits such as gin, vodka and whisky contain little or no fructose.

Beer doesn’t contain fructose. The sugar in beer and stout is maltose, which we can metabolise fine.

Dessert wine A stack of sugar remains unfermented. Don’t touch the stuff.

CAN I EAT CHOCOLATE?

Well, yes. But it depends what kind.

Homemade chocolate If you make it with raw cacao powder, which is less than 1 per cent sugar, and coconut oil (and perhaps a little rice malt syrup) it is fructose-free. Great! This is how I eat my chocolate.

Store-bought plain chocolate The majority is made with cocoa (the refined version of cacao containing fewer nutrients), which comprises less than 50 per cent of the ingredients (the other 50 per cent is largely sugar). It also often contains bad oils and additives (look for versions that use cacao butter not vegetable oil). However, there are varieties with 85 per cent cocoa. This means that a 100g block will contain a total of 15g or 3½ teaspoons of sugar. And if you eat just a couple of squares (say, 20g) it equates to about ¾ teaspoon of sugar – not that much.

SHOULD I QUIT CARBS WHEN I QUIT SUGAR?

I wouldn’t. Do one thing at a time. Quitting sugar is a big undertaking and one that will require your focus and willpower. Once you have mastered quitting sugar, if you feel a desire to do so, try cutting carbs for about 4-6 weeks and see if it suits your body. Don’t get caught up in what everyone else is doing. Experiment and learn for yourself – it’s the only way to truly know if something works for you.

Cardamom and sea salt ganache tart

Pre-order Simplicious with a 25 per cent discount

Our recipes are from I Quit Sugar: Simplicious by Sarah Wilson, to be published by Pan Macmillan on 31 December, price £20. As well as Sarah’s nutrition principles and basics, recipe chapters include Against the Grain Breakfasts, Abundance Bowls, Sustainable Fish in A Dish, Just Like Grandma Used to Make, A Bunch of Sunday Cook-Ups, Midweek One-Pan Wonders, Show-Stopping Treats, A Celebration Menu, and Ferments and Other Gut-Healing Functional Foods. To pre-order a copy for £15 (a 25 per cent discount) until 13 December, visit you-bookshop.co.uk or call 0808 272 0808; p&p free on orders over £12. 

EXTRA CHRISTMAS HELPINGS WITH SARAH’S EBOOK

Visit iquitsugar.com to buy Sarah’s I Quit Sugar Christmas Cookbook, available as an ebook download containing over 65 sugar-free recipes for a clean and nutritious festive season, plus six special meal plans including vegetarian; child-friendly and traditional with a twist.