Hello, 

I'm a relatively new convert. Initially, Michael Mosley sparked my interest in October 2013. I embarked on the 5:2 phenomena and started reading books and articles, as well as watching web downloads, mostly to do with insulin. My darling Dad passed away in 2010 as a result of pancreatic cancer and I wanted to know what the pancreas does. I couldn't understand why an energetic man, who ate healthfully his whole life, was physically in amazing shape - at 81 he played 3 rounds of 18 holes a golf each week, pulling his clubs (carts were for 'old people'), mowed his lawn and gardened hard, kept a meticulously self-maintained home and could still bash his body out beyond the breakers and body surf to shore ... well, it just didn't make sense that he complained of a 'bit of a funny feeling' after his last round of 18 and was dead 8 weeks later. I've read enough now to understand just how much sugar he ate unknowingly. I was also sick to the eyeballs of 'dieting' to maintain my weight. For the first time in my life I just stopped dieting, cold turkey. I pretty much introduced full fat (only the good stuff) back to my body, changed the way I cooked, fell madly in love with cooking for the first time in my life, became very interested in our kitchen garden and, somewhere along the road better travelled, I went from 70kgs to 55kgs ... and I've recently realised that sugar was the main single factor that I'd been reducing from my daily diet and fibre was the biggest introductory factor in each meal. Last week I picked up Sweet Poison from my local bookshop. I'd seen it many times and meant to buy it. Boy am I pleased I did. I am still very 'green' about how much of the poison I should limit myself to. I understand 2 pieces of fruit equates approximately to the daily fructose limit. So, does that mean 'that's it'?  Do I count vegetables? How many grams, or teaspoons, in total do I account for? 

Please help!

Thanks, Rebecca

Hi John,

 I'll check out the quit plan. Another book which may be of interest is Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholz. It's a big read; quite an in-depth analysis of the past 40+ years and very interesting. 

I agree with you about 're-training' the kids' pallets. Low-fat styled products and processed crap haven't made their way into our shopping trolley since October 2013. I prefer to cook from scratch; both because I love cooking and, probably more importantly, I know what I'm eating. It makes shopping a breeze - only about 3 aisles to navigate!

Thanks for your response :-)

Rebecca