"Addicted" to sugar
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If you can't learn to moderate it, you will yo-yo all your life. If you cut it completely, it will only cause you to binge later. You will lose some weight, and then find yourself having to "reset your pallette" again down the road. Is that how you want to live your life?
There is a group of ladies at my office to "do aktins" every two or three months or so. After about three weeks of strict adherence, they end up doing ridiculous things like putting ice cream in their coffee every morning. If they just spent half the effort trying to create a healthy relationship with food that they spent vilifying one food group, they'd probably be at a weight they were happy with, and i wouldn't have to hear about their latest efforts every few months.
It is natural for humans to crave sugar because it is an efficient calorie source. It is not evil, and there is nothing good to be gained long term by avoiding it completely. You can try to avoid certain specific trigger foods like chocolate cake (or whatever it happens to be for you,) but don't cut out an entire category/ ingredient or you'll go nuts.0 -
mamapeach910 wrote: »If you truly have trouble moderating your intake of sugar to the point you cannot control your intake, it might be helpful for you to completely eliminate it for a while.
This will give you a chance to reset your taste buds.
It's probably best, while you're doing this, to avoid fruit as well.
After a few weeks, see if you can add back small amounts of sweet things in moderation.
This is very good advice. I cut out treats in January for a few weeks and when I added them back in I was able to consume them in moderation. I also have noticed that I eat treats when I wait too long between meals or don't eat enough protein/0 -
mamapeach910 wrote: »If you truly have trouble moderating your intake of sugar to the point you cannot control your intake, it might be helpful for you to completely eliminate it for a while.
This will give you a chance to reset your taste buds.
It's probably best, while you're doing this, to avoid fruit as well.
After a few weeks, see if you can add back small amounts of sweet things in moderation.
Great advice! This is exactly what I did, and I no longer consider myself addicted to sugar (and this week I had like 6 different types of it in the house, things I normally would have eaten until it was all gone, and I wasn't tempted!)0 -
Now things like apples, yogurt, smoothies, and tea with honey are my go-to's when I'm wanting something sweet0
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~~extra_medium wrote: »If you can't learn to moderate it, you will yo-yo all your life. If you cut it completely, it will only cause you to binge later. You will lose some weight, and then find yourself having to "reset your pallette" again down the road. Is that how you want to live your life?
There is a group of ladies at my office to "do aktins" every two or three months or so. After about three weeks of strict adherence, they end up doing ridiculous things like putting ice cream in their coffee every morning. If they just spent half the effort trying to create a healthy relationship with food that they spent vilifying one food group, they'd probably be at a weight they were happy with, and i wouldn't have to hear about their latest efforts every few months.
It is natural for humans to crave sugar because it is an efficient calorie source. It is not evil, and there is nothing good to be gained long term by avoiding it completely. You can try to avoid certain specific trigger foods like chocolate cake (or whatever it happens to be for you,) but don't cut out an entire category/ ingredient or you'll go nuts.
Very great advice -I 100% agree!!!
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Is it really sweets or is it the combination of sugar, fat and salt that you really crave? Most people who claim that it's sugar don't realize that's it's not the sugar so much at the combination of the three. Cakes, chocolate, pastries, breads, all seem to be "addictive" while pure sugar and fruit seem to get a lot less love. In the 80's and 90's they would have said it was the fat and salt that was the problem.0
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Wheelhouse15 wrote: »Is it really sweets or is it the combination of sugar, fat and salt that you really crave? Most people who claim that it's sugar don't realize that's it's not the sugar so much at the combination of the three. Cakes, chocolate, pastries, breads, all seem to be "addictive" while pure sugar and fruit seem to get a lot less love. In the 80's and 90's they would have said it was the fproblem at and salt that was the problem.
Read what the OP wrote. It is anything sweet.
And what this basically boils down to is not an addiction. It is a behavior problem with sweet treats and OP has lost weight before controlling this behavior so undoubtedly can do it again..
Twinkies, Cakes, chocolate, donuts are not considered things you go to want because you crave protein and healthy fat ...
And BTW we are no longer in 80's and 90's...not sure what this had to do with anything....just saying
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Wheelhouse15 wrote: »Is it really sweets or is it the combination of sugar, fat and salt that you really crave? Most people who claim that it's sugar don't realize that's it's not the sugar so much at the combination of the three. Cakes, chocolate, pastries, breads, all seem to be "addictive" while pure sugar and fruit seem to get a lot less love. In the 80's and 90's they would have said it was the fproblem at and salt that was the problem.
Read what the OP wrote. It is anything sweet.
And what this basically boils down to is not an addiction. It is a behavior problem with sweet treats and OP has lost weight before controlling this behavior so undoubtedly can do it again..
Twinkies, Cakes, chocolate, donuts are not considered things you go to want because you crave protein and healthy fat ...
And BTW we are no longer in 80's and 90's...not sure what this had to do with anything....just saying
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Wheelhouse15 wrote: »Is it really sweets or is it the combination of sugar, fat and salt that you really crave? Most people who claim that it's sugar don't realize that's it's not the sugar so much at the combination of the three. Cakes, chocolate, pastries, breads, all seem to be "addictive" while pure sugar and fruit seem to get a lot less love. In the 80's and 90's they would have said it was the fproblem at and salt that was the problem.
Read what the OP wrote. It is anything sweet.
And what this basically boils down to is not an addiction. It is a behavior problem with sweet treats and OP has lost weight before controlling this behavior so undoubtedly can do it again..
Twinkies, Cakes, chocolate, donuts are not considered things you go to want because you crave protein and healthy fat ...
And BTW we are no longer in 80's and 90's...not sure what this had to do with anything....just saying
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Wheelhouse15 wrote: »Is it really sweets or is it the combination of sugar, fat and salt that you really crave? Most people who claim that it's sugar don't realize that's it's not the sugar so much at the combination of the three. Cakes, chocolate, pastries, breads, all seem to be "addictive" while pure sugar and fruit seem to get a lot less love. In the 80's and 90's they would have said it was the fproblem at and salt that was the problem.
Read what the OP wrote. It is anything sweet.
And what this basically boils down to is not an addiction. It is a behavior problem with sweet treats and OP has lost weight before controlling this behavior so undoubtedly can do it again..
Twinkies, Cakes, chocolate, donuts are not considered things you go to want because you crave protein and healthy fat ...
And BTW we are no longer in 80's and 90's...not sure what this had to do with anything....just saying
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Wheelhouse15 wrote: »Is it really sweets or is it the combination of sugar, fat and salt that you really crave? Most people who claim that it's sugar don't realize that's it's not the sugar so much at the combination of the three. Cakes, chocolate, pastries, breads, all seem to be "addictive" while pure sugar and fruit seem to get a lot less love. In the 80's and 90's they would have said it was the fproblem at and salt that was the problem.
Read what the OP wrote. It is anything sweet.
And what this basically boils down to is not an addiction. It is a behavior problem with sweet treats and OP has lost weight before controlling this behavior so undoubtedly can do it again..
Twinkies, Cakes, chocolate, donuts are not considered things you go to want because you crave protein and healthy fat ... If OP craved protein and fat (and salt) then the choice would be consuming too much peanut butter or nuts, etc... not the problem here..
And BTW we are no longer in 80's and 90's...not sure what this had to do with anything....just saying
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Wheelhouse15 wrote: »Is it really sweets or is it the combination of sugar, fat and salt that you really crave? Most people who claim that it's sugar don't realize that's it's not the sugar so much at the combination of the three. Cakes, chocolate, pastries, breads, all seem to be "addictive" while pure sugar and fruit seem to get a lot less love. In the 80's and 90's they would have said it was the fproblem at and salt that was the problem.
Read what the OP wrote. It is anything sweet.
And what this basically boils down to is not an addiction. It is a behavior problem with sweet treats and OP has lost weight before controlling this behavior so undoubtedly can do it again..
Twinkies, Cakes, chocolate, donuts are not considered things you go to want because you crave protein and healthy fat ... If OP craved protein and fat (and salt) then the choice would be consuming too much peanut butter or nuts, etc... not the problem here..
And BTW we are no longer in 80's and 90's...not sure what this had to do with anything....just saying
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Wheelhouse15 wrote: »Is it really sweets or is it the combination of sugar, fat and salt that you really crave? Most people who claim that it's sugar don't realize that's it's not the sugar so much at the combination of the three. Cakes, chocolate, pastries, breads, all seem to be "addictive" while pure sugar and fruit seem to get a lot less love. In the 80's and 90's they would have said it was the fproblem at and salt that was the problem.
Read what the OP wrote. It is anything sweet.
And what this basically boils down to is not an addiction. It is a behavior problem with sweet treats and OP has lost weight before controlling this behavior so undoubtedly can do it again..
Twinkies, Cakes, chocolate, donuts are not considered things you go to want because you crave protein and healthy fat ... If OP craved protein and fat (and salt) then the choice would be consuming too much peanut butter or nuts, etc... not the problem here..
And BTW we are no longer in 80's and 90's...not sure what this had to do with anything....just saying
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extra_medium wrote: »If you can't learn to moderate it, you will yo-yo all your life. If you cut it completely, it will only cause you to binge later. You will lose some weight, and then find yourself having to "reset your pallette" again down the road. Is that how you want to live your life?
There is a group of ladies at my office to "do aktins" every two or three months or so. After about three weeks of strict adherence, they end up doing ridiculous things like putting ice cream in their coffee every morning. If they just spent half the effort trying to create a healthy relationship with food that they spent vilifying one food group, they'd probably be at a weight they were happy with, and i wouldn't have to hear about their latest efforts every few months.
It is natural for humans to crave sugar because it is an efficient calorie source. It is not evil, and there is nothing good to be gained long term by avoiding it completely. You can try to avoid certain specific trigger foods like chocolate cake (or whatever it happens to be for you,) but don't cut out an entire category/ ingredient or you'll go nuts.
^^^This - someone told me once while talking about chocolate cravings - it's not the chocolate that makes me dance, it's I who make the chocolate dance .... sounds strange but when you get this, you got it
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I love sweet things too. I cut them out for awhile and then slowly added it back in, but at that point, my taste for it was changed. Big part was grocery shopping- I stopped bringing junk into the house. I started to enjoy dark chocolate, so I'll have a small square or two. I'll have half a serving of nutella on something. If I really want a sweet dessert, I'll find the room for it in my day or have half. This keeps me from binging and still allows me to enjoy food that I love. Learning moderation and portion control was the major thing.
I also started to also approach it from a "will I still be hungry an hour after eating this?" I remember thinking, wow 400-500 calories on a slice of cake is not worth it, I'll be hungry again so soon and I don't feel like wasting those calories on that, I actually want to be full. This mindset also kept me from indulging too much.0 -
Wheelhouse15 wrote: »Is it really sweets or is it the combination of sugar, fat and salt that you really crave? Most people who claim that it's sugar don't realize that's it's not the sugar so much at the combination of the three. Cakes, chocolate, pastries, breads, all seem to be "addictive" while pure sugar and fruit seem to get a lot less love. In the 80's and 90's they would have said it was the fproblem at and salt that was the problem.
Read what the OP wrote. It is anything sweet.
And what this basically boils down to is not an addiction. It is a behavior problem with sweet treats and OP has lost weight before controlling this behavior so undoubtedly can do it again..
Twinkies, Cakes, chocolate, donuts are not considered things you go to want because you crave protein and healthy fat ... If OP craved protein and fat (and salt) then the choice would be consuming too much peanut butter or nuts, etc... not the problem here..
And BTW we are no longer in 80's and 90's...not sure what this had to do with anything....just saying
I know what she said and a lot of people claim "everything sweet" but that's not always the case when you drill down on it. The point of the 80's is that what people consider "evil" changes based on who's making money writing the pop trash diets that are en vogue at the time. And seriously, who ever claims additction to healthy food or proteins? People do crave fat and salt but they often do it with sugary foods as well, thus my point, and how do you know she doesn't have those issue? Maybe they just don't bother her because she only believes that sugar is the issue. You don't know.0 -
Wheelhouse15 wrote: »Is it really sweets or is it the combination of sugar, fat and salt that you really crave? Most people who claim that it's sugar don't realize that's it's not the sugar so much at the combination of the three. Cakes, chocolate, pastries, breads, all seem to be "addictive" while pure sugar and fruit seem to get a lot less love. In the 80's and 90's they would have said it was the fat and salt that was the problem.
Exactly.0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »Wheelhouse15 wrote: »Is it really sweets or is it the combination of sugar, fat and salt that you really crave? Most people who claim that it's sugar don't realize that's it's not the sugar so much at the combination of the three. Cakes, chocolate, pastries, breads, all seem to be "addictive" while pure sugar and fruit seem to get a lot less love. In the 80's and 90's they would have said it was the fat and salt that was the problem.
Exactly.
So why is it that a bag of candy (you name it. Gum drops, spice drops are one of my favorites. Jelly beans. Those candy orange slices. Hard candies. Or even a bag of marshmallows), aren't going to survive more than a few hours in my presences. None of those have salts or fats.
I'm not claiming to be "addicted" to sugar. But I do have a serious problem with sweets.
It's a damn label. Who really cares if it's not being applied properly according to the purists of MFP. If it helps people to reach their goals by limiting their intake of it, why is that such a problem?0 -
Its kinda like this..
Some people with high blood pressure need to limit their sodium,,,,but food has sodium in it. SO, they dont use ADDED salt, ya know, the processed table stuff.
Same thing with sugar,,,,food has sugar in it,,,,SO dont use ADDED sugar, ya know, the processed table stuff.
Enjoy the other whole foods and eliminate the processed stuff with added sugar, pastries, cakes, cookies, puddings, etc.
Not sure if im making sense. Just take a basic approach.0
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