I know a few people who've done the "Whole 30" diet which includes cutting out added sugar, among many things (although some of which, like legumes, seem completely arbitrary).

One friend's severe eczema completely cleared up, others pretty much universally reported sleeping better and feeling more alert. Some just lost a lot of weight (as was their intention, although as with most diets probably mainly retained water weight).

We live in a rural area of the UK where farm shops are common so it's relatively easy around here, but I could see it being much more difficult for city dwellers.

I personally wouldn't do it myself and am not a fan of short term "fad" diets but the results are hard to deny.

I was also exercising a lot more and drinking less, so I can't really say what in particular helped the most, but I felt a lot healthier and fitter in general.

It also had a positive effect on my mental health, which was an unintended but nice side effect.

> It also had a positive effect on my mental health, which was an unintended but nice side effect.

Do you think this could be a result of improved sleep? It's one of the benefits I've heard reported by people following a similar diet.

I guess it could. I was definitely sleeping better as a result of one of the things I was doing, or all of the things.

Tried something similar. One thing I noticed is that i became more mentally focused not feel constantly hazy and low energy all the time. Eating lots of carbs and sugar is fucked and affects your mental ability.

I did this back in 1995. I can count on one hand the times I've been sick since then, and every single time has been because I drank too much coffee, not enough water and didn't sleep properly or at all for days.

I do eat organic sugar and honey though, but because I don't eat any white/processed sugar (nor corn syrup) this automatically cuts out 95% (guess) of the bad food I would normally have been eating.

There's no one solution for "wellbeing" of course, but this sure is a big thing to change.

‘Organic’ (brown) sugar and honey are mostly sugar with a little extra stuff.

I've heard this many times, but my experience, and those of many others I've met or read about, is that there is a substantive difference between processed and non-processed sweeteners.

I make my own brown sugar at home, its white sugar + molasses. I don't know how you could consider it less "processed" than white sugar without molasses.

Most people don't know that store bought brown sugar is actually just processed white sugar + molasses.

That is not my argument. I never said "brown sugar", I said "organic sugar", which includes the growing and any processing of the sugar. True brown sugar is something like succanat [0], and it doesn't look anything like what we normally consider "brown sugar".

[0] https://www.amazon.com/NOW-Foods-Sucanat-Organic-Sugar/dp/B0...

What is the difference that you have experienced, precisely?