Was I really sugar free?
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I used to binge on food that was considered "bad." I guess people consider it bad because it has added sugar. I binged on that kind of food because I had a history of restricting "bad" foods. It was a cycle: restrict/binge, repeat over and over. I too, did not think I could eat foods with added sugar because when I did I would binge on them. My binge eating was not consuming 4000 calories at one time, but it was binge eating because I would feel like I couldn't control myself, I'd eat more sweets than I knew I should. and I would feel terribly guilty and ashamed afterwards. Example: I'd eat one Oreo cookie and then consume a whole package in the blink of an eye without really enjoying them. I finally freed myself from that lifestyle when I accepted that food is fuel and there are NO evil foods. There are foods that are more nutrient dense and foods that are less nutrient dense and all of them have calories and can fuel my body. I went through a "refeeding" period when I finally broke out of that awful restrict/binge mindset and boy did I refeed. After years of restricting I ate all the foods I'd tried so hard to restrict. That "refeeding" lasted several months and I did gain some weight as I knew I would when I decided to embrace the idea of Eating The Food. However, the weight gain was worth getting to the point I am now...I have a healthy relationship with food. I eat to achieve my goals without restricting/binge eating. I have 4 packages of Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs in a drawer. It is my favorite candy. I haven't had one for several days because I haven't had the desire to eat one. I might eat one tomorrow, if I have the desire and I will feel no guilt when I do eat one. They are yummy. If anyone would have told me 18 months ago a package of Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs would last more than two days in my house I would have told them they were crazy.
I hope you can find a way to make peace with sugar in a way that is sustainable for the long term, whatever way that may be.
I'm really happy that you were able to find peace.That's awesome.
and what you're saying males sense but I'm doing this because I just got done with a four month refeed and I feel like my bingeing got worse. I hope this is sustainable for me. I don't see why it wouldn't be since I'm not cutting out any major food groups. But we'll see. I think we all need to find what works for us.
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*Makes0
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girlviernes wrote: »I know that it's not necessary for me to take out added sugars but it's just not going to work unless I do. I don't understand how to moderate sugar. Its like I get on auto pilot scooping sugar from the canister into my mouth and a simple piece of bread or pasta can trigger it. I have tried and I simply can't do it. A bowl of cornflakes can send me into a deep sleep and when I wake up all I want is sugar. I can moderate everything else though. Idk this is the only option I've thought of to keep myself in my calorie range. Which is 1800 a day.
You can, trust me, sugar does not control you. However, it may take time to figure out how to make it work for you. There is nothing inherently bad about not including added sugars in your diet, so if that works for you, go for it. Unfortunately, for a lot of people that just reinforces the idea that they can't control themselves with sugar and it can increase their difficulty with sugar in the long run.
I would suggest a few things:
1) Relax a little bit. The main thing right now is to keep tracking. Every day that you do that you are making progress.
2) You can take a break from added sugars, but after a couple of weeks consider purposefully having them in small quantities (e.g. having a piece of chocolate). This will allow you to see that you really can have them and reduce your fear of them.
3) The more you get some healthy fat, protein, and fiber (veggies, chia seeds, fruit) at each meal, and get regular exercise, you are setting yourself up physiologically to reduce sugar cravings.
I always respect what girlviernes has to say. I'll add fiber changes how sugars (lactose, fructose, sulacrose, fruit, donuts, whatever) are metabolized. The insulin impact of sugar in fruit ( chemically identical to the much maligned HFCS) is mitigated by the fiber in fruit. So fruit/vegetable juice (sugar with no fiber) has a high glycemic load whereas a dessert following a high fiber meal does not. This doesn't violate CICO, it just means fiber is a part of managing glycemic load. Getting fiber before/after/with the sugar will prevent insulin spikes. Which lead to cravings.
The GI index is kind of a joke as it only evaluates foods from an individualistic perspective. I would ask, what would happen if you have some cake after you had a ton of veggies? You could easily get 20-40g of fiber and then ingest faster reacting sugars.
OP, then is probably more mental than anything. The fact that you got upset that you didn't catch 2g of "added" sugars could be a bit concerning. With that said, it can be beneficial to minimize added sugar from a nutrition perspective, but if you have a solid diet overall, there is no reason to freak out over a few grams of added sugar. I try to get the majority of my calories from fruits, veggies, meats and whole grains but I do have a treat each night. So 80-90% of my calories are from whole sources, while 10-20% are from others. For me, knowing I can have a treat and still get fit, helps me continue down this path.This is a long term thing, and at some point, you have to be able to live life. So at some point it's probably good to recognize that you can be good 80-90% of the time, but on occasion, it's ok to loosen up.
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And I wouldn't hold much value in a NY times article.
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christinev297 wrote: »I'm going to sugar hell as I go way over everyday.
we'll keep each other company over there
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Natural sugars are fine. I just watch my added sugars from sources not in nature, although I do go easy on grapes as they have lots of natural sugar. I just ensure I balance with other things. I love fresh raspberries with some natural almonds as a snack, small banana with some nut butter, etc. I love chocolate but stick with over 75% cocoa dark chocolate, which I prefer anyway. After a hard workout I'll have a banana or orange or something with higher sugar.0
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lulucitron wrote: »Natural sugars are fine. I just watch my added sugars from sources not in nature, although I do go easy on grapes as they have lots of natural sugar. I just ensure I balance with other things. I love fresh raspberries with some natural almonds as a snack, small banana with some nut butter, etc. I love chocolate but stick with over 75% cocoa dark chocolate, which I prefer anyway. After a hard workout I'll have a banana or orange or something with higher sugar.
ten grams of natural sugar = ten grams of refined sugar0 -
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lulucitron wrote: »Natural sugars are fine. I just watch my added sugars from sources not in nature, although I do go easy on grapes as they have lots of natural sugar. I just ensure I balance with other things. I love fresh raspberries with some natural almonds as a snack, small banana with some nut butter, etc. I love chocolate but stick with over 75% cocoa dark chocolate, which I prefer anyway. After a hard workout I'll have a banana or orange or something with higher sugar.
All sugars are fine in the context of a wholesome diet because your body will break down the sugars the same.
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Demon_Lord wrote: »It is not the sugar itself that matters, but the benefits you get at the cost of it. IF you eat a lot of sugar because you had an apple, don't sweat it because it contains the vitamins you need. If you eat the sugar from muffins, however there is no health benefit, hence is called empty calories. Eating right is about eating plenty of foods that benefit you and eating the rest in moderation.
Basically, yes, but that's why the distinction between types of sugar is missing the forest for the trees. There's more sugar in an apple than one of my chocolate chip cookies, but fewer nutrients and lots more calories in the cookie--although on the other hand the cookie has fat (the source of many of the extra calories) if you happen to be in need of that, unlike an apple. Neither has protein of any meaningful amount. Both taste good, and I personally think enjoyment can be a perfectly good reason to include something like the cookie in one's diet, in moderation. If not overeaten, I see no harm. (I also think the idea that the cookie is "addictive" is laughable or insulting to real addicts.)
One example I find useful is adding a little sugar to oatmeal (I don't like this, as I prefer oatmeal without the sugar, but some find it necessary to make the oatmeal tasty to them) or a rhubarb preparation. Rhubarb just happens to have less natural sugar than an apple, but also has nutrients and fiber, is the rhubarb plus sugar somehow worse than the apple just because the sugar is "added"? Seems like an overly technical and silly position to take.
So as usual my view is look at the bigger picture--does your diet as a whole meet your nutrition needs without exceeding your calorie needs or is it unbalanced in some way (such as too many high calorie, low nutrient foods)? This seems to me a better approach than flipping about about a tsp of "added" sugar vs. unlimited fruit or claiming that somehow honey and maple syrup don't count as "added" sugars or whatever odd things people do.0 -
I'm really happy that you were able to find peace.That's awesome. and what you're saying males sense but I'm doing this because I just got done with a four month refeed and I feel like my bingeing got worse. I hope this is sustainable for me. I don't see why it wouldn't be since I'm not cutting out any major food groups. But we'll see. I think we all need to find what works for us.
I agree 100% we have to find what works for us individually and everyone is different. I wish I could say my refeed was 4 months. Mine lasted about a year and I gained 20 pounds during the process. However, I don't really have the desire to eat Poptarts anymore, lol! I ate them everyday for a long time during my refeed. Finally, something clicked in my brain that told me the Poptarts will be there whenever I want them so I don't have to eat one every day.
I'm not sharing my info trying to get you to change, but just sharing a different perspective. During my refeeding phase I thought about giving it up multiple times, especially when the pounds started creeping on. However, I was in a facebook group called Eating The Food and I just kept reading what the people in the group were posting and I kept telling myself I wanted to get to the point that food didn't consume my every waking thought and wasn't part of every conversation I was having. I felt like I was being controlled by food because I was always planning the perfect "healthy meals" and thinking about how bad certain foods were fo me, etc. I made my expectations about the foods I should/shouldn't eat so difficult to achieve that I was setting myself up for failure. I'm a teacher and the last thing I would ever do to one of my students is to set them up for failure. I give them lessons that are just a tiny bit out of their reach to achieve, but with a little help and persistence they can achieve the goal of the lesson. I decided to use that same tactic with me because I don't deserve to fail in any area of my life.
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Demon_Lord wrote: »Actually, I rarely have food with added sugars. In fact some days I have no added sugars. However I almost always go over my limit for sugar because of fruit and milk. It didn't affect my weight at all.
It does matter where you get your sugar from. WHen you get sugar from natural sources the benefit is the other vitamins you along with it. There are only two types of natural sugars lactose(milk) and fructose(fruits). It is not the sugar itself that matters, but the benefits you get at the cost of it. IF you eat a lot of sugar because you had an apple, don't sweat it because it contains the vitamins you need. If you eat the sugar from muffins, however there is no health benefit, hence is called empty calories. Eating right is about eating plenty of foods that benefit you and eating the rest in moderation.
So glucose, sucrose, maltose, cellulose etc do not occur naturally? They are synthetic?0 -
I have learned that there is a lot of "diet" information available on the web that is simply not true and I don't believe anything unless I find the information from scientific based research studies that are published in peer reviewed publications. That is why I don't buy the "sugar is addictive" articles I've read because they never post links to any research.
Here's some info contradicting the info in the link you provided (from http://www.clinicalnutritionjournal.com/article/S0261-5614(09)00239-8/abstract?hc_location=ufi):
Summary
Background & aims
To consider the hypothesis that addiction to food, or more specifically sucrose, plays a role in obesity and eating disorders.
Methods
By considering the relevant literature a series of predictions were examined, derived from the hypothesis that addiction to sucrose consumption can develop. Fasting should increase food cravings, predominantly for sweet items; cravings should occur after an overnight fast; the obese should find sweetness particularly attractive; a high-sugar consumption should predispose to obesity. More specifically predictions based on the hypothesis that addiction to sugar is central to bingeing disorders were developed. Dieting should predate the development of bingeing; dietary style rather than psychological, social and economic factors should be predispose to eating disorders; sweet items should be preferentially consumed while bingeing; opioid antagonists should cause withdrawal symptoms; bingeing should develop at a younger age when there is a greater preference for sweetness.
Results
The above predications have in common that on no occasion was the behaviour predicted by an animal model of sucrose addiction supported by human studies.
Conclusion
There is no support from the human literature for the hypothesis that sucrose may be physically addictive or that addiction to sugar plays a role in eating disorders.
Just some food for thought!0 -
That was from 2009. Here's a study from 2013:Conclusion
There is no support from the human literature for the hypothesis that sucrose may be physically addictive or that addiction to sugar plays a role in eating disorders.
Just some food for thought!RESULTS:
High-fat compared with high-sugar equicaloric milkshakes caused greater activation in the bilateral caudate, postcentral gyrus, hippocampus, and inferior frontal gyrus. High-sugar compared with high-fat equicaloric milkshakes caused greater activation in the bilateral insula extending into the putamen, the Rolandic operculum, and thalamus, which produced large activation regions. Increasing sugar in low-fat milkshakes caused greater activation in the bilateral insula and Rolandic operculum; increasing fat content did not elicit greater activation in any region.
CONCLUSIONS:
Fat caused greater activation of the caudate and oral somatosensory regions than did sugar, sugar caused greater activation in the putamen and gustatory regions than did fat, increasing sugar caused greater activity in gustatory regions, and increasing fat did not affect the activation. Results imply that sugar more effectively recruits reward and gustatory regions, suggesting that policy, prevention, and treatment interventions should prioritize reductions in sugar intake. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as DK092468.
Source: Relative ability of fat and sugar tastes to activate reward, gustatory, and somatosensory regions.
All of the people who post here day in and day out saying they have a problem with sugar... probably have a problem with sugar. There's research being done showing there is actually a physiological reason for this and it's not just because cake tastes good. Like the above study and the write up in the New York times about it:“We do a lot of work on the prevention of obesity, and what is really clear not only from this study but from the broader literature over all is that the more sugar you eat, the more you want to consume it,” said Dr. Stice, a senior research scientist at the Oregon Research Institute. “As far as the ability to engage brain reward regions and drive compulsive intake, sugar seems to be doing a much better job than fat.”
The new findings add to a growing number of brain studies that are providing a more complex understanding of what drives people to overeat in the first place.
Heavily processed foods loaded with fat and sugar activate and potentially alter the same reward regions in the brain that are hijacked by alcohol and drugs of abuse. Though the extent to which these foods can provoke addictive behavior remains controversial, the results may help explain why millions of people who diet and struggle to lose weight ultimately fail.
Source: In Food Cravings, Sugar Trumps Fat
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I used to binge on food that was considered "bad." I guess people consider it bad because it has added sugar. I binged on that kind of food because I had a history of restricting "bad" foods. It was a cycle: restrict/binge, repeat over and over. I too, did not think I could eat foods with added sugar because when I did I would binge on them. My binge eating was not consuming 4000 calories at one time, but it was binge eating because I would feel like I couldn't control myself, I'd eat more sweets than I knew I should. and I would feel terribly guilty and ashamed afterwards. Example: I'd eat one Oreo cookie and then consume a whole package in the blink of an eye without really enjoying them. I finally freed myself from that lifestyle when I accepted that food is fuel and there are NO evil foods. There are foods that are more nutrient dense and foods that are less nutrient dense and all of them have calories and can fuel my body. I went through a "refeeding" period when I finally broke out of that awful restrict/binge mindset and boy did I refeed. After years of restricting I ate all the foods I'd tried so hard to restrict. That "refeeding" lasted several months and I did gain some weight as I knew I would when I decided to embrace the idea of Eating The Food. However, the weight gain was worth getting to the point I am now...I have a healthy relationship with food. I eat to achieve my goals without restricting/binge eating. I have 4 packages of Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs in a drawer. It is my favorite candy. I haven't had one for several days because I haven't had the desire to eat one. I might eat one tomorrow, if I have the desire and I will feel no guilt when I do eat one. They are yummy. If anyone would have told me 18 months ago a package of Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs would last more than two days in my house I would have told them they were crazy.
I hope you can find a way to make peace with sugar in a way that is sustainable for the long term, whatever way that may be.
I'm really happy that you were able to find peace.That's awesome. and what you're saying males sense but I'm doing this because I just got done with a four month refeed and I feel like my bingeing got worse. I hope this is sustainable for me. I don't see why it wouldn't be since I'm not cutting out any major food groups. But we'll see. I think we all need to find what works for us.
I've had a similar experience of finding peace with food. Looking back, I think my own problems with sugary foods and binging were part psychological (I told myself I couldn't control them and they were bad, and then when I ate them I overdid it) and part physiological (I was diagnosed with insulin resistance, so if I take in too many simple carbs at once and on their own, I can get onto a physiological craving cycle). For me, the answer is in having a balance of foods, with my diet predominantly focused on veggies, fruits, moderately high protein and fat, but also including starches daily, and getting daily exercise. That plus working on sleep (this is the next frontier for me) helps me get the physiology on my side, and including treats on a fairly regularly basis and realizing that I do have control and choices gets the psychology on my side. Since making these changes, I have times where I get a bit off balance, but I don't need to panic, just keep tracking and keep going back to the habits that work for me. Every time I get back into balance is more evidence that this is within my control.
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AlabasterVerve wrote: »
That was from 2009. Here's a study from 2013:Conclusion
There is no support from the human literature for the hypothesis that sucrose may be physically addictive or that addiction to sugar plays a role in eating disorders.
Just some food for thought!RESULTS:
High-fat compared with high-sugar equicaloric milkshakes caused greater activation in the bilateral caudate, postcentral gyrus, hippocampus, and inferior frontal gyrus. High-sugar compared with high-fat equicaloric milkshakes caused greater activation in the bilateral insula extending into the putamen, the Rolandic operculum, and thalamus, which produced large activation regions. Increasing sugar in low-fat milkshakes caused greater activation in the bilateral insula and Rolandic operculum; increasing fat content did not elicit greater activation in any region.
CONCLUSIONS:
Fat caused greater activation of the caudate and oral somatosensory regions than did sugar, sugar caused greater activation in the putamen and gustatory regions than did fat, increasing sugar caused greater activity in gustatory regions, and increasing fat did not affect the activation. Results imply that sugar more effectively recruits reward and gustatory regions, suggesting that policy, prevention, and treatment interventions should prioritize reductions in sugar intake. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as DK092468.
Source: Relative ability of fat and sugar tastes to activate reward, gustatory, and somatosensory regions.
All of the people who post here day in and day out saying they have a problem with sugar... probably have a problem with sugar. There's research being done showing there is actually a physiological reason for this and it's not just because cake tastes good. Like the above study and the write up in the New York times about it:“We do a lot of work on the prevention of obesity, and what is really clear not only from this study but from the broader literature over all is that the more sugar you eat, the more you want to consume it,” said Dr. Stice, a senior research scientist at the Oregon Research Institute. “As far as the ability to engage brain reward regions and drive compulsive intake, sugar seems to be doing a much better job than fat.”
The new findings add to a growing number of brain studies that are providing a more complex understanding of what drives people to overeat in the first place.
Heavily processed foods loaded with fat and sugar activate and potentially alter the same reward regions in the brain that are hijacked by alcohol and drugs of abuse. Though the extent to which these foods can provoke addictive behavior remains controversial, the results may help explain why millions of people who diet and struggle to lose weight ultimately fail.
Source: In Food Cravings, Sugar Trumps Fat
Lol appeal to novelty and thay study still doesn't support sugar is addictive.
There is a new study coming out that I've seen, 100% of self diagnosed sugar addict are either ignorant or liars, again proven true in this very thread0 -
Heroin addicts care about heroin more than their family because of the strong hold it has over them. They also get track marks and some even become physically unattractive because they aren't eating enough. They can sometimes become homeless because of where they prioritize their money.
How many morbidly obese people do you know who eat out every day and refuse to address their weight issues? They live in denial. Or the extremely obese who cry everyday and are in severe depression because they can't stop eating junk food? People are willing to undergo invasive surgery for stomach bands to lose weight so they don't have to put in the personal effort. They risk dying early and leaving their children because of their food yet they don't stop.
Odds are that they aren't overdosing on scrambled eggs and cucumbers. Usually it's processed foods, sweets, sodas, sugary coffee drinks, breads, etc
My mom is about to get surgery, her liver is dying, her kidneys are packed with sludge, her cholesterol ridiculous, blood pressure is up, her doctor is recommending an electric scooter for mobility, and yet she still maintains that she refuses to change her habits. I was raised on macaroni and cheese, snack cakes, sodas, donuts, cereal, miracle whip, etc. She's only 49 and she has picked death by food over her family. I would call this an addiction.0
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