Chef Gráinne O'Keefe: Eighteen months without sugar - ‘everyone asks about chocolate, but yes, I can still eat it'
It has been 18 months since I cut refined sugar from my diet, and it still surprises me how often people bring it up. When I
wrote about it for The Irish Times
last November, I didn't expect much reaction. I figured it would be one of those personal pieces that quietly disappear into the food section archives, but then people started asking me about it. And not just online. At the restaurant (Mae in Dublin's Ballsbridge) at least once or twice a week, someone comes in and asks, 'How did you do it?' or more often, 'How can I try it?' And the honest answer is that it is simple – but like anything worthwhile, it takes some effort.
Giving up sugar initially, I wasn't just ditching biscuits and desserts. It was a full elimination diet. The goal was to figure out what was causing some inflammation and to reset my immune system. Having cooked professionally for 17 years, food has always been a central part of my life. I have also done more allergy and intolerance tests than I care to remember. Skin patches, blood tests, the lot. Nothing conclusive. But by cutting out refined sugar, among other things, something shifted. My skin cleared up, that sluggish post-meal heaviness lifted, and I just felt better. Not supercharged or transformed. Just noticeably better.
What shocked me, even as someone who works with food every day, was realising how much sugar is added to products that should not require it. Mayonnaise, spice mixes and sauces – so many shop-bought versions have it right there in the ingredients list. It is not there for preservation. It is just there to enhance flavour and make things more addictive.
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How to ditch sugar and still enjoy food. This one is a Tarte Tatin. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill
Quitting sugar was not a gradual process – it was cold turkey, and very deliberately so. I needed to commit properly to figure out what was affecting me. Sugar did not show up on any test results, but when I eliminated it in its refined form, I noticed my body reacted differently. Subtle things disappeared – mild rashes on my cheeks, a flushed feeling not unlike what some people get after a glass of red wine. I wanted to isolate the cause, so I cut out alcohol too, just to be sure.
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What was most interesting and unexpected was how my palate changed. I have never had a sweet tooth. I would happily skip dessert and go straight for the cheeseboard. But when I stopped eating sugar, I began to crave sweetness. Not cake or sweets, but fruit. Natural sugars. Suddenly, dates tasted like toffee. Apples were satisfyingly sweet. My body had adjusted, and I started to enjoy the taste of natural sugar.
I began creating recipes that were sweet but did not use refined sugar – things I enjoyed eating that did not upset my system. Date syrup became a favourite. I would soak Medjool dates in water, blitz them into a smooth syrup, and use that to sweeten everything from dressings to desserts. Apple syrup is brilliant too, especially for things like apple tarte tatin. I would cook the apples in orchard syrup with a bit of butter, cream, calvados and vanilla.
There are plenty of alternatives to refined sugar – honey, maple syrup, chicory root syrup, coconut sugar, xylitol. Each one has its place and not all of them are created equal. Some are better suited to baking, others work well in sauces. But what they all have in common is that they are not as stripped of nutrients or as concentrated as white sugar. Plus, there are the natural sugars already present in a lot of food – lactose in milk, fructose in fruit. It is all sugar, technically, but when it is part of a whole food, your body processes it differently.
For me, that made all the difference. Consider eating two tablespoons of sugar – your body can process it (although you would probably find it too sweet), but if you tried to eat the equivalent amount of sugar by eating only strawberries, you would feel full long before you took in the same amount of sugar. That's the food's natural way of telling us when we have had enough. Concentrating the sugar removes that natural regulator.
Sugar-free treats: Medjool dates, stuffed with blitzed peanuts and sea salt, topped with a banana slice, dipped in homemade chocolate, then frozen. It is like a Snickers bar but better. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill
One of the questions I get asked most is about chocolate – can I still have it? Can I make it? The answer is yes, and yes. Even as a chef, I will admit I used to think chocolate was more complicated to make than it is. The truth is, making chocolate is ridiculously simple. I am not talking about tempering couverture or sourcing Peruvian cacao beans. I mean, every day, eat-it-on-the-couch chocolate. You just need good quality cocoa powder, cocoa butter or coconut oil, a sweetener like date syrup or honey, maybe a pinch of salt and some vanilla, warm the lot and mix. That's it. It sets in the fridge in half an hour, and honestly, it is delicious. Add a splash of milk to make milk chocolate.
There is something satisfying about making things from scratch, especially when you thought you could not – and a lot of the time, the idea of it is much harder than the actual process. We have been sold the idea that convenience is everything, but convenience often comes with compromise. That compromise for me was inflammation, fatigue and feeling out of sync with my body. Once I put a little effort into cooking most things myself, I realised how little I was missing out on.
If you have 30 minutes and a blender, there is very little you cannot make yourself – date caramel, nut butters, syrups and chocolate; even home-made mayonnaise. Once you do it once, you stop wondering if it is possible.
Lately, I have reintroduced some foods to my diet. I eat carbs again – pasta, rice, sourdough bread – usually the ones we make in Mae with just flour, water, and salt, but processed sugar is something I have stayed away from. Not because I am trying to be saintly, but because I just feel better without it. I don't crave it any more. And if I want something sweet, I can make it myself.
One of my favourite snacks now is a Medjool date, stuffed with blitzed peanuts and sea salt, topped with a banana slice, dipped in home-made chocolate, and frozen. It is like a Snickers bar but better – really. Sticky, chewy, salty sweet, rich and satisfying and there is no crash afterwards.
If you are thinking about cutting sugar, my advice is not to make it a huge deal. Don't overthink it. Start by reading labels. Pick one or two things you usually buy and look for versions without added sugar. Or swap in something home-made if you have the time. Do not aim for perfection – just be curious. Try a few alternatives.
You do not need to rewire your entire life overnight, bake your own sourdough or sprout your own chickpeas. You just need to make one small decision at a time. What am I eating today? Is there sugar in it? Can I swap it for something else? That's it.
Don't tell yourself you can't. Remind yourself of how many incredible things you have achieved and how small and achievable it will be to remove something from your life that may not be serving you well. What pushed me to commit if I was getting tempted was the idea that sugar is being sneaked into foods you wouldn't expect. If there's anything that's going to spur someone like me on, it's proving to myself that I can't be controlled, including what I consume.
For me, removing processed sugar was never about deprivation – it was about feeling like myself again. And even though I am not telling anyone else to do it, I would recommend it, in particular if you have been feeling off and cannot quite work out why.
And yes, in case you are wondering, I am still eating dates. Every day. And I still haven't got sick of them.
Gráinne O'Keefe is chef-patron of Dublin 4 restaurant Mae
Recipe: Apple and Calvados Tarte Tatin (refined sugar free)
Serves 6
Ingredients
6 firm eating apples (Braeburn or Pink Lady work well)
3 tablespoons apple syrup (such as Highbank Orchard Syrup)
1 tablespoon Calvados
1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped
25g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons cream
1 sheet all butter puff pastry
Method
Preheat your oven to 200°C (180°C fan).
Peel and halve the apples. Core them and set aside.
In an ovenproof frying pan or tarte tatin tin, melt the apple syrup and butter gently until combined. Add the vanilla seeds and pod. Let it bubble slightly.
Add the cream and Calvados and let it reduce for 2 to 3 minutes until slightly thickened. Remove the vanilla pod.
Arrange the apples cut-side up in the pan. Cook on the hob over medium heat for 10 minutes until they begin to soften and caramelise slightly.
Roll out the puff pastry and cut a circle just slightly larger than your pan. Lay it over the apples and tuck in the edges.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until golden and puffed.
Let it cool for five minutes before carefully inverting on to a plate. Serve warm with a little extra cream if you like.
Recipe: Simple sugar-free chocolate using date syrup
Makes one small bar
Ingredients
60g cocoa butter
30g unsweetened cocoa powder
2 to 3 tablespoons date syrup (adjust to taste)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of sea salt
Method
Melt the cocoa butter gently in a saucepan over low heat.
Once melted, whisk in cocoa powder until smooth.
Stir in the date syrup, vanilla, and salt. Taste and adjust the sweetness if needed.
Pour into silicone moulds or a lined tin.
Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes until set.
Store in the fridge and enjoy within a week.
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