Sugar-Free Lent: The day before

Sugar-Free Lent: The day before

Just to let you know: I  never was a person who'd rather have a piece of cheese than pudding.

I DO LOVE CAKE AND I WILL HAVE A DESSERT WITH EVERY MEAL IF POSSIBLE.

I was the youngest of 6 girls and sweets were rare in our house. I was never a child who still had the chocolate Santa at Easter or the Easter Bunnies melting away in the heat of August.

The sweets I was given never saw the dawn of the next day.

But my mother had to feed 6 of us without any help so sweet things were seldom and precious. She did bake but the cakes were there for 7 of us and that was 2 slices each. I have been known for over-indulging at friends birthdays but a day in bed with a sore tummy sorted that out.

But nothing diminished my love for cake and puddings. This was not an issue when it was an occasional thing. It became one when I had full access to sugary things. The chocolates a colleague was given and didn't want to eat all on her own because she wanted to keep her figure, the cream cake I just make for myself with nobody to share.

Sugar was all of a sudden part of my every day life. I would make a cake and have a slice of it whenever I needed a little snack. And because it was my cake, the slice was big. And after that, it would be another slice because the cake was so nice and it wouldn't keep forever.

I would plan for days in advance which cake I would make and what I would use to make this one special.

So what is the problem you might wonder? Sugar is not good for the body. It makes us fat and therefore causes all sort of health issues. There is a little video on my blog to explain about that.

My problem with sugar is slightly different. It doesn't make me fat. To the contrary: I will lose weight. How can this happen? 

I have a condition called Gilbert Syndrome or Morbus Meulengracht. It basically has something to do with an missing enzyme which leads to high bilirubin level which affects the liver. For me it basically means that if I drink alcohol, eat too much fat or too much sugar I will get a blinding headache. If I even have a slight headache I feel nauseous and cannot eat. Then I will lose weight very quickly sometimes more than a kilo in just one day.

So there is obviously an issue I have to address. That is the reason why I will go sugar-free for Lent because I cannot face going sugar-free for ever yet.

So Bye-Bye cake for now.

Photograph by Roger Giraud-Saunders