Wasn’t that a film title? I’m sure I remember watching something with a name like that.

Anyhow, I’ve been on a no sugar regime for a couple of months and I’ve seen quite a lot of improvement. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever tried cutting out. Sugar is just everywhere. And I’m not just talking about added sugar, here – this is serious, I’m really going for it to see how much improvement I can get: so fruit, honey and anything ending in -ose is out. The intention is to cut it out as far as possible to begin with, then maybe I’ll be able to find a level of intake that is ok.

I find it quite ridiculous that I need to avoid fruit and dried fruit to make myself better – things that I’d always known to be healthy are now off limits! It seems irrational and I still can’t get my head around the fact that fruit can be bad for my body.

It’s been quite revealing to see how much sugar I was consuming. I didn’t think I was eating that much to start off with – I don’t really drink fruit juice as I tend to have water or fizzy water, and puddings are generally a treat in our house. But I was having fruit yoghurt or granola for breakfast – both packed with sugar. A snack might be dried fruit: raisins, dates, prunes, apricots. But we’d often have a bit of chocolate in the evening and as well as drinking wine, I’m rather partial to a gin and tonic or a Pimms and lemonade in the summer.

And what I’ve noticed since I’ve been sugar free is that barely a week passes without it being somebody’s birthday (almost obligatory to eat cake) or people come for Sunday lunch so I’d make a dessert.

So I cut it all out, and began to reap the benefits. But sometimes I slip a bit, particularly at weekends – it’s just not Friday night in my book without a glass of wine! But sometimes that one glass would turn into 2 or 3 and I’ve accidentally had a load of sugar. Or somebody at work brings some gluten free treats just for me and I feel obliged to have one (I’m not ready to tell my colleagues I’m off sugar as well as gluten – I can’t face the inevitable questions).

Eventually I began to notice something. I found out that when I have something sugary, it actually takes 48 hours for it to show up in my skin. Two days later, I get a breakout. That’s quite a long time. But I had a look online and I’m not alone! members.irosacea.org

Also, I find it strange that sugar isn’t featured on any of the rosacea support lists of food to avoid: www.rosacea.org

I bet there must be other people out there who haven’t yet discovered that sugar is their skin’s nemesis, and the fact it sneakily takes 48h to show up only makes it harder to figure out. If you know anyone suffering with rosacea or acne, please ask if they’ve considered sugar as a trigger – it was only by chance that I figured it out and I’ll be forever grateful to the lovely lady who suggested it to me.