Guest Post by Brian (Rachel's Husband)

I wasn't quite sure what to think of a sugar free month, but when Rachel said natural sugars were still allowed, I felt better. :) I did cheat a little though, I have lunch with a friend weekly at Subway and while I eliminated pop in favor of tea and gave up on having cookies, I was unable to avoid the sugars in the bread. The biggest thing that I think it pointed out to me as the month progressed was how many products have processed sugar in them and how may names they disguise it as.

Trying to find a ham or turkey for Easter dinner was impossible, everything was either made with sugar or soaked in a sugar bath. Ended up having a pork roast instead. When trying to figure out a meal for a boy scout outing, I could only find one type of hot dog that had no sugar, corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup. Hebrew National was the only option, fortunately it is a good tasting option. Some of the other brands had all three types of sweeteners listed above in them.

Not having sugar also cut down on my coffee intake. At home I had already gotten accustom to using natural maple syrup as sweetener but I still used sugar when away from home. Now I had to just drink black coffee when away from home and quickly found out who has good tasting coffee. It is amazing how enough sugar can hide bad coffee. :)

In the end I think it was a good month. We decided to keep a few things but had to go back to sugar for others if nothing else than for ease. With as much bread as our family goes through alone, it was keeping Rachel busy baking. It is too bad that America in general has become so dependent on sweeteners. I think most people have lost the ability to taste the true flavor of the food they are eating. Just like in the coffee, all the sugar that is added covers food that usually tastes better without it.