Lyric Rhodes used to be self-described sugar addict. Marketed as better-for-you snacks, her desk drawer was a treasure store of granola bars, “healthy” cookies, and chocolate-covered trail mix.
She discovered, however, that almost all of the ingredients—just under elegant titles like “brown rice syrup” or “evaporated cane juice—were loaded with added sugars after closely reading their labels.
Lyric remembers it as a wake-up call. “I was still feeding my body continuous sugar spikes even though I felt I was acting morally.”
Driven to alter things, she set out to discover—or make—snacks without sugar for taste. It first proved to be annoying. Many of the choices were either boring or left her feeling inadequate.
But suddenly something changed. Her taste receptors changed, and she started to sense the inherent sweetness in foods including roasted nuts, ripe fruit, even vegetables. Dates started to taste great as dessert. On a banana, a sloshful of almond butter began to feel decadent. She started experimenting in her own kitchen, mixing apples, cinnamon, and oats into warm snack bowls that seemed satisfying and consoling.
Her appetites shifted, and this most startled her. She missed less added sugar the more she steered clear of it. “I used to feel I couldn’t survive the day without something delicious. I feel propelled now, not foggy.
Lyric’s no-sugar-added way of life is about finding new tastes, slowing down, and feeling better in her own skin—not about deprivation. Indeed, her treats remain really good. Simply said, they lack a crash.
