Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times / Lifestyle

No sugar thanks, life is sweeter without it

Leah McLennan
NZME. regionals·
18 Mar, 2014 05:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article
I Quit Sugar for Life, Your Fad-free Wholefood Wellness Code and Cookbook, by Sarah Wilson, Pan Macmillan, $34.99.

I Quit Sugar for Life, Your Fad-free Wholefood Wellness Code and Cookbook, by Sarah Wilson, Pan Macmillan, $34.99.

Life has been pretty sweet for Sarah Wilson since she gave up sugar.

The former Cosmopolitian editor remembers the last time she ate the white stuff. It was a hot day in January 2011.

"I had a chai tea with honey in it, with a small block of chocolate," says Wilson. "It wasn't that naughty."

Wilson never imagined that three years later this snack would represent such a significant turning point in her life. Since she last tasted sugar, Wilson has built a career and a mini-industry out of her mission to quit - her online presence has become so popular that it requires a team of 11 to run "the whole juggernaut".

In January last year, readers learned how Wilson ditched the sweet treat in I Quit Sugar.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The book, which was the number one Australian non-fiction bestseller of last year and is also available in New Zealand, has just come out in the UK and will be released in the US in April.

No doubt this will increase the number of devotees to Wilson's online eight-week quit sugar programme, of which there are now 180,000 followers. In her latest lifestyle manual, I Quit Sugar for Life, Wilson explains how to banish sugar from your life forever.

"If there's one word that sums up this book it's 'sustainability'. It's not a diet, what I've put together is a wellness plan that is responsible and sustainable."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

For 40-year-old Wilson, who has Hashimoto's disease (a type of autoimmune disease that affects the thyroid) eating well is "absolutely non-negotiable".

"Eating well is actually non-negotiable for most people," she says, before citing research on obesity by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Last year, New Zealand climbed to fourth in the OECD's rankings of advanced nations with the largest proportion of obese citizens (28 per cent) behind the US, Mexico and Hungary. Experts say factors such as rising affluence, a culture of convenience, growing portion sizes and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle have made one in two New Zealanders overweight.

"Sugar is the new tobacco, the health scourge of our times," says Wilson. "It's cheap, addictive and widely available."

Wilson - who eats fruit and 85 per cent cacao chocolate - says she hasn't missed sugar since she last sipped that chai tea three years ago.

"Giving up sugar was easier than I thought, and I felt better than ever, so I just kept going and going."

I Quit Sugar for Life, Your Fad-free Wholefood Wellness Code and Cookbook, by Sarah Wilson, Pan Macmillan, $34.99.

Save
    Share this article

Latest from Lifestyle

Bay of Plenty Times

Snoop Dogg concert axed after NZ promoter loses name suppression over sex crime

17 Sep 12:41 AM
Lifestyle

Top NZ musicians quit Spotify over royalties and CEO’s $1.2b defence ties

17 Sep 12:08 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

Eye-catching: 2500 glass eyes in need of a new home

12 Sep 01:05 AM

Sponsored

Poor sight leaving kids vulnerable

22 Sep 01:23 AM
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Lifestyle

Snoop Dogg concert axed after NZ promoter loses name suppression over sex crime
Bay of Plenty Times

Snoop Dogg concert axed after NZ promoter loses name suppression over sex crime

The show was due to take place this weekend in Auckland.

17 Sep 12:41 AM
Top NZ musicians quit Spotify over royalties and CEO’s $1.2b defence ties
Lifestyle

Top NZ musicians quit Spotify over royalties and CEO’s $1.2b defence ties

17 Sep 12:08 AM
Eye-catching: 2500 glass eyes in need of a new home
Bay of Plenty Times

Eye-catching: 2500 glass eyes in need of a new home

12 Sep 01:05 AM


Poor sight leaving kids vulnerable
Sponsored

Poor sight leaving kids vulnerable

22 Sep 01:23 AM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP