Quitting sugar helped Kunal Bahl become more alert, stay focused in long meetings

His parting with sugar could have been bitter. Instead Snapdeal’s Kunal Bahl reaped a sackful of health benefits from his sugarless experiment.

Sugar is the new tobacco. Modern medical research suggests that sugar is not only responsible for triggering diabetes and obesity due to its high calorific content, but also for flooding the body with harmful toxins. Little wonder, that along with no carbs, no sugar is a mantra for the health aware. A couple of months ago, Snapdeal cofounder Kunal Bahl experimented with a month of no sugar. He shared his tale of abstinence through a blogpost over social media, writing all about the challenges he experienced, and the wisdom he gathered at the end of the month.

Challenges, first
Bahl is a foodie, known to enjoy different cuisines and indulging his sweet tooth often. “I am one of those people who consider food as one of the greatest joys of life, and don't mind indulging myself,” he wrote. “Within food, I simply love desserts. If I could, I would give up eating normal, savoury food and only eat desserts for all meals.”


And since there is no such thing as easing into going from an everyday post dinner dessert fix to no sugar for a month, going cold turkey was his best option. “The first few days were a bit challenging, mostly because of muscle memory of reaching for the refrigerator after dinner. Somehow it seemed like the meal was incomplete and there was a particular taste (sweet one!) that was missing in the meal,” Bahl wrote. He ensured that there were no goodies in the fridge to avoid temptation. He even went sugarless with his daily single cup of coffee.

Observations at the end of the month
When the month was up, Bahl noticed an uptick in his stamina while exercising and in his alertness. “The other thing I started noticing was that my stamina started increasing while exercising. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I lost a few kilos quite rapidly —or maybe because my metabolism increased — or maybe it was all in my mind given I was self aware of the sugar free diet. But the difference was quite noticeable. I could run more, do more push-ups, lift more weights and not be panting endlessly after a workout,” he wrote about the stamina aspect. And about the increased alertness bit, he wrote, “Finally, towards the end of the month of sugar abstinence, I could visibly tell that my mind was much more alert. I was able to pay a lot more attention, especially in long meetings or calls. I was less distracted in general and very focused.”

Another interesting experience for Bahl was greater satisfaction with the sweetness of the fruits he was eating. “Suddenly, most fruits seem sweeter...I would keep telling my wife for a few days, that we must be getting some special variety of fruit which just tasted sweeter. But in fact, there was no change in the fruit seller or the variety of the fruits. My taste buds just starting appreciating natural sugars a lot more,” he wrote.

Bahl took up the no-sugar challenge for himself to start living healthier for the sake of his two-year- old daughter. It all started out with the “simple goal of living longer and maximising the time” he spends with her . Almost six months down the line, word is that he has managed to stick to the plan, and intends to stay on track.

The no-sugar diet has found other takers in the startup universe:

Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder, Ola Cabs

At the ET Awards last year, Aggarwal chose to stay away from the sweet dishes. When prodded, he revealed that he’d been off sugar for over four months and had lost 11 kilograms in the period.

Vishal Gondal, founder, GOQii

Sometime ago, on his blog, he had shared a list of life hacks that could be potentially game changing. One of the items on the list: “STOP having sugar in your tea, coffee, yogurt etc. Sugar is worse than cocaine (go figure).”

Alok Goel, partner, SAIF Partners

Back in 2011, while still working at Google in California, Goel attended a TEDTalk about the role of sugar in one’s lifestyle, exercise and work-life balance on the campus. He weighed almost 80-85 kilograms at that point. After hearing the talk, he decided to follow a strict diet (largely sugar-free) and exercise regimen. With a combination of the two, he managed to drop almost 20 kilograms.