Cutting out sugar

nomoyoyoing

Out of curiosity, for those who've eliminated sugar, or if you consume very little of it, what benefits have you seen/felt?

nvmomketo

I basically did. I sometime get up to a 3 or so grams of sugar in a day. I follow a very low carb diet though so cutting sugar wasn't difficult.

The benefits for me (which may be from low carb too) include reduced sugar cravings, reduced appetite, improved skin, reduced inflammation and joint pain, better energy, better cognitive function, better blood glucose levels, lost weight, and it cured my reactive hypoglycemia.

I had insulin resistance so the benefits may be more pronounced for me than a healthy person.

scolaris

I limit sugars. It makes me want them less. I appreciate true flavors more. Just be careful if you then eat a bunch of sugar as a one off. I had two desserts & a margarita at an Oscar viewing party I attended. I was prepared for a calorie blip. I was NOT prepared for the gastrointestinal distress that followed
:-/
whoops

ladipoet

Benefits I've seen & felt as a result of limiting sugar: weight loss, extreme reduction of most if not all of my aches and pains. So ultimately ended up not only feeling better but looking better too! lol

nvmomketo wrote: »

The benefits for me (which may be from low carb too) include reduced sugar cravings, reduced appetite, improved skin, reduced inflammation and joint pain, better energy, better cognitive function, better blood glucose levels, lost weight.

I had insulin resistance so the benefits may be more pronounced for me than a healthy person.

Ditto pretty much everything @nvketomom said above as I too follow a LCHF way of eating so I cannot attribute 100% of my success to cutting down just sugar; however, that is certainly part of the reason for my success.

lemurcat12

If you mean added sugar, I cut it out for a while and didn't really see any benefit. I saw a benefit from improving my diet in general (it was okay, but I increased protein and cut down on snacking and reduced the number of take out meals (Indian, mostly) vs. homemade). I also saw a benefit from sticking to three regular meals and perhaps one planned (and balanced) snack vs just eating food because it was there or I thought I might like to eat, and at first not having sugar helped with that as so much miscellaneous food that appears in my office has it, but on the whole the regular eating patterns mattered, not eliminating added sugar, so I added back some (in moderation -- like I'll have a dessert after dinner if I have calories -- as I never really ate much packaged stuff with it). I also don't worry about having a spicy sauce that might have a bit or the bit in my smoked salmon, as that definitely had no effect on me (and is often much less than would be in fruit or such which I'd never cut out).

LivLovLrn

My body can no longer tolerate sugar cane. Many years ago I eliminated it completely from my diet...to the point that I check every ingredient of every single thing that goes in my mouth to be sure it doesn't contain sugar cane. The differences I noticed are numerous; no more bouts of depression, a mysterious rash I had disappeared, no more issues with hemorrhoids, these are just to name a few.
That being said I have found other alternatives to satisfy my sweet tooth like maple sugar, honey, sorghum and beet sugar.

earlnabby

LivLovLrn wrote: »

My body can no longer tolerate sugar cane. Many years ago I eliminated it completely from my diet...to the point that I check every ingredient of every single thing that goes in my mouth to be sure it doesn't contain sugar cane. The differences I noticed are numerous; no more bouts of depression, a mysterious rash I had disappeared, no more issues with hemorrhoids, these are just to name a few.
That being said I have found other alternatives to satisfy my sweet tooth like maple sugar, honey, sorghum and beet sugar.

So pure sucrose from cane affects you but pure sucrose from beets do not? That is surprising. Most people prefer to avoid beet sugar because sugar beets are also the main crop to produce MSG, since extracting it from seaweed is so expensive.