Need to cut sugar...help

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  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 9,950 Member
    edited February 2015
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    wabmester wrote: »
    J72FIT wrote: »
    What is nonsensical is your absolute position that sugar IS the cause... Please...

    Glucose toxicity to beta cells is pretty well established science, AFAIK.

    So is glycation and the effects on the body.

    Everybody gets old, but not everybody gets diabetes. There are also genetic and environmental factors, obviously.
    So I shouldn't eat the grapes in my fridge...... I'm ascared.

  • wabmester
    wabmester Posts: 2,748 Member
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    Grapes are mostly water, so you shouldn't be scared unless you're drowning in a large vat of grapes. :smile:

    As I said before, a lot of people can tolerate a lot of sugar. For maybe 1 in 4 of us, not so much. I'm one of those who can't. The only way I improved my lipid profile was to reduce carb intake a lot. I tried other diet experiments, like a vegan diet. Not helpful for me.

    The fast vs slow carb is another facet. That's just a matter of controlling insulin spikes.

    There's no doubt that diabetes and insulin resistance has increased in the US. Maybe we're just eating more, and that certainly explains some part of the obesity epidemic. Of course, there are many obese who are not insulin resistant, so there's more to it than just eating too much.
  • Jolinia
    Jolinia Posts: 846 Member
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    ndj1979 wrote: »
    jenna80302 wrote: »
    I personally cut out sugar because it was really effecting my health in a negative way (restlessness, binging, carb cravings, sleep issues, sluggishness, etc. etc.)

    When I stopped eating sugar, I cut out all processed foods, I cut out all sweets and chocolate, I stopped adding sugar to my coffee (I eventually cut out caffeine too), I cut out alcohol, I cut out all yeast (even nutritional yeast), and I cut out all refined or processed carbohydrates (Later I also cut out grains in general (no bread even gluten free, quinoa, rice, oats, nothing)), potatoes (plain and sweet)etc. etc.

    Anything that is high to moderate on the GI or causes my body to produce a lot of insulin is off the table. Yeast played a major role in this (for me), because foods with yeast made me crave sugar (obviosy because that's what yeast uses to bloom (sugar & water)). Now, the only time I eat sugar is when it comes from fruit... Plain and simple.

    Please know this is hard... I experienced major withdrawal from cutting out sugar, but after the first week my carbohydrate and sugar craving were GONE.

    do you binge eat fruit too?

    I do. Dried fruits. Not sure why those and not regular fruits. If a phd in a relevant field wants to explain that to me, go for it. Bring a mallet though, sometimes I'm thick skulled when I try to learn basic biology!
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    @lemurcat12‌ -- believe me yet?

    Who is saying it's wrong to limit sugar?

    Either you don't remember what I said, or you are pretending not to. But it's all good.

    I recall I said that people would argue against eliminating but no one minded limiting, and in fact everyone limits. You said (as I recall) that you agreed that everyone limits, but that people would take issue with it anyway. Is that wrong? I suppose I can go look at the thread.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    I manage to just stop sugar by having my protein shakes because they're sweet.

    Didn't someone just define sugar above as including artificial sugar? Or was that one of the 50 other sugar threads? So hard to keep straight.

    Anyway, I think this is decent advice, as well as adding protein powder to coffee if OP is a sweet coffee person.

    I like the rest of your advice too.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    Jolinia wrote: »
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    jenna80302 wrote: »
    I personally cut out sugar because it was really effecting my health in a negative way (restlessness, binging, carb cravings, sleep issues, sluggishness, etc. etc.)

    When I stopped eating sugar, I cut out all processed foods, I cut out all sweets and chocolate, I stopped adding sugar to my coffee (I eventually cut out caffeine too), I cut out alcohol, I cut out all yeast (even nutritional yeast), and I cut out all refined or processed carbohydrates (Later I also cut out grains in general (no bread even gluten free, quinoa, rice, oats, nothing)), potatoes (plain and sweet)etc. etc.

    Anything that is high to moderate on the GI or causes my body to produce a lot of insulin is off the table. Yeast played a major role in this (for me), because foods with yeast made me crave sugar (obviosy because that's what yeast uses to bloom (sugar & water)). Now, the only time I eat sugar is when it comes from fruit... Plain and simple.

    Please know this is hard... I experienced major withdrawal from cutting out sugar, but after the first week my carbohydrate and sugar craving were GONE.

    do you binge eat fruit too?

    I do. Dried fruits. Not sure why those and not regular fruits. If a phd in a relevant field wants to explain that to me, go for it. Bring a mallet though, sometimes I'm thick skulled when I try to learn basic biology!

    I don't binge, but it's far easier to overeat dried fruit. I have some dried cherries (just cherries, no added sugar) for oatmeal or to eat with cashews or other nuts, and I could eat a whole pack of them if I let myself. I love cherries, but I couldn't eat the same quantity of them just because it would be too filling too fast and plus with the pits eating them is more work.

    Similarly, we had dried apricots with cheese at a work thing, and I could have eaten all of those too if I'd let myself. With whole apricots I could eat maybe two, because they are again more filling, at least immediately (I assume I would have been stuffed a bit after eating the dried fruit).

    But those claiming this is the powers of sugar would be wrong, because I could have eaten all the cheese just as easily. I never get the low carb folks who claim one can't overeat on fattier or protein rich foods like cheese or steak, because I promise I can. That's more related to how I got fat than sugar is.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
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    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    @lemurcat12‌ -- believe me yet?

    Who is saying it's wrong to limit sugar?

    Either you don't remember what I said, or you are pretending not to. But it's all good.

    I recall I said that people would argue against eliminating but no one minded limiting, and in fact everyone limits. You said (as I recall) that you agreed that everyone limits, but that people would take issue with it anyway. Is that wrong? I suppose I can go look at the thread.

    Not quite. I said invariably if someone said they wanted to cut or limit sugar, they'd received responses that said something like "you don't need to" "sugar is not the debil" etc. You suggested this thread as an example of that not happening. And then ...
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited February 2015
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    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    @lemurcat12‌ -- believe me yet?

    Who is saying it's wrong to limit sugar?

    Either you don't remember what I said, or you are pretending not to. But it's all good.

    I recall I said that people would argue against eliminating but no one minded limiting, and in fact everyone limits. You said (as I recall) that you agreed that everyone limits, but that people would take issue with it anyway. Is that wrong? I suppose I can go look at the thread.

    Not quite. I said invariably if someone said they wanted to cut or limit sugar, they'd received responses that said something like "you don't need to" "sugar is not the debil" etc. You suggested this thread as an example of that not happening. And then ...

    No, I suggested this thread as an example of the distinction of cutting entirely vs. limiting. I'll find it. People had already slamming cutting entirely in this thread when I was talking to you about it, since it was after my first thread here, which talks about that very distinction.

    Edit: Here's my post from the other thread:
    There's a thread like that now, and I thought what happened was really obvious. "I need to cut sugar" can mean "I need to reduce sugar" or "I need to cut out all sugar." At MFP--no argument from me--someone saying she *needs* to eliminate some item without giving a reason will get questioned or told it's not necessary. Someone saying she needs to cut down is a different story. But maybe I'm wrong--I posted the same thing in that thread, so if someone disagrees with me, you will be right.
  • Jolinia
    Jolinia Posts: 846 Member
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    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Jolinia wrote: »
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    jenna80302 wrote: »
    I personally cut out sugar because it was really effecting my health in a negative way (restlessness, binging, carb cravings, sleep issues, sluggishness, etc. etc.)

    When I stopped eating sugar, I cut out all processed foods, I cut out all sweets and chocolate, I stopped adding sugar to my coffee (I eventually cut out caffeine too), I cut out alcohol, I cut out all yeast (even nutritional yeast), and I cut out all refined or processed carbohydrates (Later I also cut out grains in general (no bread even gluten free, quinoa, rice, oats, nothing)), potatoes (plain and sweet)etc. etc.

    Anything that is high to moderate on the GI or causes my body to produce a lot of insulin is off the table. Yeast played a major role in this (for me), because foods with yeast made me crave sugar (obviosy because that's what yeast uses to bloom (sugar & water)). Now, the only time I eat sugar is when it comes from fruit... Plain and simple.

    Please know this is hard... I experienced major withdrawal from cutting out sugar, but after the first week my carbohydrate and sugar craving were GONE.

    do you binge eat fruit too?

    I do. Dried fruits. Not sure why those and not regular fruits. If a phd in a relevant field wants to explain that to me, go for it. Bring a mallet though, sometimes I'm thick skulled when I try to learn basic biology!

    I don't binge, but it's far easier to overeat dried fruit. I have some dried cherries (just cherries, no added sugar) for oatmeal or to eat with cashews or other nuts, and I could eat a whole pack of them if I let myself. I love cherries, but I couldn't eat the same quantity of them just because it would be too filling too fast and plus with the pits eating them is more work.

    Similarly, we had dried apricots with cheese at a work thing, and I could have eaten all of those too if I'd let myself. With whole apricots I could eat maybe two, because they are again more filling, at least immediately (I assume I would have been stuffed a bit after eating the dried fruit).

    But those claiming this is the powers of sugar would be wrong, because I could have eaten all the cheese just as easily. I never get the low carb folks who claim one can't overeat on fattier or protein rich foods like cheese or steak, because I promise I can. That's more related to how I got fat than sugar is.

    You sound like me with the dried fruit.

    I don't claim I won't overeat on cheese. I don't buy it every week for this reason and may eventually stop eating it except on rare occasions. I can also eat three or more pounds of meat in an evening. The difference for me is how I feel next day compared to eating thousands of calories of ice cream the night before. With the steak, I get up, bounce off to have a walk or jog, don't feel hungry, might take a day of intermittent fasting, feel great, don't crave more steak. But if I ate that in ice cream I wake up bloated, lethargic, and ready for more ice cream.

    So yum, steak! I can do the same thing with sweet potatoes and greens, seeds, and nuts, too, but I don't stay full on those long enough to do IF to make up for the feast day calories if no meat was involved.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,576 Member
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    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    @lemurcat12‌ -- believe me yet?

    Who is saying it's wrong to limit sugar?

    Either you don't remember what I said, or you are pretending not to. But it's all good.

    I recall I said that people would argue against eliminating but no one minded limiting, and in fact everyone limits. You said (as I recall) that you agreed that everyone limits, but that people would take issue with it anyway. Is that wrong? I suppose I can go look at the thread.

    Not quite. I said invariably if someone said they wanted to cut or limit sugar, they'd received responses that said something like "you don't need to" "sugar is not the debil" etc. You suggested this thread as an example of that not happening. And then ...

    No, I suggested this thread as an example of the distinction of cutting entirely vs. limiting. I'll find it. People had already slamming cutting entirely in this thread when I was talking to you about it, since it was after my first thread here, which talks about that very distinction.

    Edit: Here's my post from the other thread:
    There's a thread like that now, and I thought what happened was really obvious. "I need to cut sugar" can mean "I need to reduce sugar" or "I need to cut out all sugar." At MFP--no argument from me--someone saying she *needs* to eliminate some item without giving a reason will get questioned or told it's not necessary. Someone saying she needs to cut down is a different story. But maybe I'm wrong--I posted the same thing in that thread, so if someone disagrees with me, you will be right.

    A little off subject, but yeah, I remember.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    I hadn't heard of glucose toxicity before. Huh. My first reaction was, "how can glucose be toxic? It's the energy we run on." Then I browsed through an article on the subject. It reminds me of water toxicity. So even something good for us if overdone, is dangerous.

  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    Jolinia wrote: »
    I don't claim I won't overeat on cheese. I don't buy it every week for this reason and may eventually stop eating it except on rare occasions.

    I'm not doing that, but I do eat it more rarely than I used to (except feta, which I eat in my omelet almost every morning).

    I dropped added sugar last month and since I ended up with lots of extra calories I ate extra cheese. It was a nice change. I'm going to try to work in cheese as a post dinner treat more often. However, I will always have to portion out cheese, I'm sure, just like I portion out my ice cream. I know that with things like nuts and cheese and dried fruit (party food!) I can easily scarf down about 1000 calories without even noticing, sigh.
    But if I ate that in ice cream I wake up bloated, lethargic, and ready for more ice cream.

    If I ate that in anything I'd probably feel bad and sluggish the next morning but not really craving it, but of course people are different. I totally agree that it's good to know how food affects you.