You gotta start somewhere.
I’ve given up a lot of stuff in my life. In terms of food, I’ve given up meat and eventually all animal products, gluten, processed foods, most alcohol, and through the years, virtually every pizza chain, Denny’s, Chick-fil-A, and Chipotle because they were either assholes to their employees, anti-abortion religious freaks, COVID deniers, or simply made food that would make you both barf and shit spontaneously. But the hardest of all to give up was sugar.
Added sugars to be exact. And it’s important to be exact here.
Because sugars themselves are truly everywhere. Giving up all sugars would mean giving up fruits, vegetables, grains, and more.
It amazes me how many people try to hit you with that gotcha when you say you don’t eat sugar. “You know, fruit has sugar.” Yes, I know. And I’m sorry that I forgot to say “added” but I wrongly assumed someone was sharp enough to keep up.
Giving up added sugars means nothing more than giving up shit no one actually needs. It’s just a flavor enhancer or masker or maybe more accurately, an addictive substance.
That last part is pretty loaded because there are plenty of people who disagree with the concept of sugar as addictive, but they’re probably not actually too concerned about what some anti-sweetener, vegan-diet, gluten-free freak is saying on a blog no one reads anyway, so just go with me on this one.
But giving up added-sugar legitimately hurt. And no amount of peanut butter apples, ultra-sweet grapes, bananas, mangoes, cherries, or even persimmons could change that.
What could change it? Eating added-sugar.
When I gave up added sugars, I did it in stages, cutting back by about three or five or 10 grams each time, every few weeks or months. When I got to the point that I was eating fewer than 12 grams of added sugar per day, I felt real, honest, actual pain that was only resolved by some limited edition, extra-sweet Cheerios we had in the house. I think they were strawberry-banana but don’t hold me to that.
When I realized what those Cheerios were doing (after I had rid myself of pain with most of the box over the course of a week), I finally sucked it up and just decided to deal with the sick feeling, aches, and headaches, which lasted, off and on, maybe five or seven or 10 days. I had something to prove — largely that I was stronger than sugar or maybe that I was a bullheaded jackass. You don’t need to tell me what you decide. I can figure it out.
Still, I needed something that would help me get through what felt like added-sugar withdrawal. I wanted something snacky so I could grab it quickly and not eat a full meal. So I threw together some stuff that I had hanging around my house — peanuts, cocoa nibs, unsweetened dried berries and coconut — and made an added-sugar-free, no-sweetener trail mix.
It was good and it got better the longer I stayed away from added sugars because eventually your taste buds realize the new normal is natural rather than cloyingly sweet. That, BTW, is when you know you’ve won.
Two years later, I still keep this on my counter and eat it most days.
A few things to know:
- Ingredients MUST be weighed. Volume measurements do not work, largely because labels in the U.S. are notoriously wrong and ratios will be off, possibly by a lot. And when ratios are off, so is the taste.
- Ingredients all need to be about the same size. If you decide to go rogue and use almonds or pecans in place of peanuts, for example, chop them so they’re the same size or smaller than the fruit. That way, each mouthful of trail mix has some of everything in it. Eating individual components of this trail mix is blah AF. Ditto for raisins — if you use them instead of mulberries, know that they may need to be cut (they may also overwhelm some of the other flavors).
- Try to find quality ingredients. Not always in your control but there’s some really awful, bland coconut out there. I get most of my trail mix ingredients from Nuts.com personally, largely because their stuff is high quality and shows up at my door within a day of ordering, although there are plenty of places to find all of this.
- Cocoa nibs are not sweet. Just good to know what you’re dealing with here. Don’t expect something like chocolate chips when you’re making this.
- I use blister peanuts because they have really amazing flavor — especially the ones from Trader Joe’s — but honestly any roasted, salted peanut will do.
- Read labels! Almost every ingredient in here has a sweetened equivalent. If you’re goal is added-sugar free, don’t use those. And, eww, stay away from any of the sugar alcohols, too (maltitol, mannitol, sorbitol, etc.).
The No-Added-Sugar Trail Mix (v, gf, NAS)
60g roasted, salted peanuts
60g dried coconut chips (not the fried type)
60g cocoa nibs
60g dried black mulberries
60g dried white mulberries
Dump all of the ingredients in a bowl or container and mix with a spoon or toss, etc. Or use a lidded container and either roll or shake the ingredients to mix them.
Makes 300g of trail mix, which is about 10 servings (30g each).
