Sugar

LizzieMay

Hello!
Has anyone out there given up sugar and have any advise on how to deal with cravings?

CILLAJ8

Yes, but I've only just started. Been almost a week. It has been hard. I usually have a piece of fruit when I'm craving it. Or I get up and go for a short walk. It's hard, but so worth it.

quiksylver296

Nope. I allow extra calories for some chocolate or ice cream every night after dinner. I would freak out and eat the entire house if I tried to completely cut sugar out of my diet.

GottaBurnEmAll

I gave up sugar for ten years, and the cravings stop after a while.

I did use artificial sweeteners during that time and still satisfied my sweet tooth.

I eat sugar now in moderation, and still make use of artificially sweetened items. I find that the older I get, the more of a sweet tooth I seem to have. I sometimes make a meal out of protein ice cream! (Home made, there's a recipe for it in the volume eaters thread.)

OliveGirl128

Op, do you have medical condition that's making you do this? Otherwise what do you think eliminating sugar is going to do for you?

Sunna_W

If you cut carbs at the same time, it's less agonizing IMO...

Old_Cat_Lady

For the wild cravings: Have healthy, high protein snacks planned. Such as a cheese stick, half an avocado, nuts, etc. I even started drinking protein powders. I remember taking a shower or going for a drive. I now eat less than 30 grams of added sugar a day. I don't count sugar from natural foods such as milk or tomatoes.

locoloon

Stevia is your friend. Flavored liquid concentrate to make water like kool-aid, plain in coffee or tea, or in unsweetened almond milk. Stevia sweetened dark chocolate.

kommodevaran

Trying to give up sugar would be, well, stupid. This isn't to say I haven't tried. It's just to say it's futile. You can't give up sugar and have a healthy diet - there's sugar in fruit, vegetables and dairy. And sugar is sugar - after all, "table sugar" is made from plants.

There's nothing wrong with cravings. Everybody has them. Sweet foods are supposed to taste good. Unbearable cravings, on the other hand, come from misinformation, bad eating habits, temptations and deprivation - so they can be dealt with a lot easier than, but also very differently from, what you think.

A healthy diet provides a wide range of nutrients, and sufficient, but not too many, calories. Healthy eating habits is a healthy diet and a healthy attitude towards food. Sweets aren't toxic. Snack food doesn't wipe out the nutrition from your meal. The problem with foods that are often referred to as junk food, is that it's calorie dense, providing little nutrition, is very easy to overeat, and very easily available, so it can easily crowd out real food and/or lead to overweight, unless you're careful. But if you're careful, there's no problem.

So my advice would be to read up - from reliable sources (and educating oneself on what constitutes a reliable source), and using common sense - get in a regular meal structure, eat food you like, and don't surround yourself with foods you tend to overeat.

lemurcat12

I would never give up sugar, it's in foods I consider very important, like vegetables. Assuming you really mean added sugar, however, I have done it.

Specifically, I gave up added sugar for a while (twice for about a month each time) and also did a very low carb diet for a couple of months where I effectively had no room for added sugar. I honestly did not find it particularly difficult or struggle with cravings, but as with any habit change you get used to it as time goes on.

More specific thoughts/advice would depend on the specific timing/type of cravings, I imagine.

For the most part, I don't really think people crave just sugar, but foods they enjoy with sugar in them or eating at certain times and in certain situations (which might involve sugary foods). I found that just getting out of the habit of eating between meals (none of my meals ever really involved much added sugar) made it easy.

When I reintroduced added sugar (mostly occasionally having something sweet after dinner), I still did not crave it at times I was not used to having it.

carebears1973

Hi I gave up refined sugars in April. Not being silly such as reading ingredients in pasta etc, but the standard junk food and junk drinks. I am a vegetarian and ate fruit whenever I wanted to. I found I craved more fatty foods than sugar so had peanut butter or a handful of walnuts/brazils when the craving took hold. Or the opposite, a pickled gherkin stops sweet cravings in their tracks! Within 2 weeks my eczema which I've had since childhood completely cleared up from my hands and scalp and my normally very dry skin on my face suddenly became oily for a couple of weeks which was weird for me, but great as the natural oils were returning. About a month ago I ate sugar again (in the form of chocolate and cake) for about 2 weeks (hormonal time of the month ladies!) and straight away my eczema and dry skin returned. As soon as I stopped it again, it's all disappeared. On top of that I do not have hunger pangs, I used to want food all the time and snacks. I now have 3 meals per day and have no interest in food inbetween except fruit. I have smaller portions too. This was a natural development not something I planned. I didn't have to take anti-histamines every day and my headaches reduced. All in all I cannot recommend it highly enough. At the end of the day you are just eating healthy and cutting out the bad stuff. The sugar and fibre in fresh fruit is good for you and acts differently on the body. Give it a go, you have nothing to loose.

lemurcat12

carebears1973 wrote: »

Not being silly such as reading ingredients in pasta etc

Why is this silly? I think reading ingredients if you buy foods with labels is probably an important thing to do, so you know what you are eating.

Old_Cat_Lady

One eye opening sugar bomb was pasta sauce (the red stuff) wholly cow. No wonder I love spaghetti. Might have not been the pasta so much, but the topping!
Watching added sugars has been a very educational experience for me.

lemurcat12

I never buy jarred pasta sauce -- I'm a pasta sauce snob and like the homemade kind much better. The book I learned a lot of Italian style cooking from DOES recommend adding a bit of sugar to a marinara, but I never have (in part because I figured it was unnecessary and never have sugar at home). It does have a number of grams of sugar per serving, though -- even though I know none is added, since I made it. For example, one I saved in my recipe box has 7 g per serving, from the tomatoes and other vegetables (and that's a meat sauce, so would be lower than a plain vegetable sauce, probably).

So I think a lot of the claims about pasta sauces tend to be misleading (like those comparing a jar to a candy bar) -- they don't separate out the sugar in the tomatoes and other veg from any added sugar, and they take the whole jar vs. lots of servings.

That said, my understanding is that commercial sauces vary a TON in how much sugar is in a serving and added, so I would absolutely read the ingredients and nutrition facts on those.

(Part of this is that I don't like overly sweet savory foods anyway, so too much sugar would be a huge negative in a pasta sauce for me, ick.)

jemhh

I don't track sugar at all.

When I first started losing weight I limited myself to one treat, which I defined as baked goods, ice cream, or candy, per week. I had terrible eating habits with that kind of thing in that I acted as if any chance to eat them was the last chance in my lifetime and thus I'd better eat as much as possible. Limiting myself to one serving per week on a specific day made me step back and think "I am not going to eat that cookie right now but I know that I will get the chance to eat one on Sunday." I don't remember having cravings at all.

WinoGelato

TheWJordinWJordin wrote: »

One eye opening sugar bomb was pasta sauce (the red stuff) wholly cow. No wonder I love spaghetti. Might have not been the pasta so much, but the topping!
Watching added sugars has been a very educational experience for me.

Most of sugar in jarred pasta sauce likely comes from the tomatoes, not from added sugar....

OP as others have mentioned, we are assuming you meant giving up added sugar, not all sugar? As giving up all sugar would mean not consuming any fruits, vegetables or dairy. If you are looking to cut out, or cut back on added sugars - it may be helpful to consider why you want to do this. Is it for medical reasons? Is there a particular food or type of food that you have difficulty controlling yourself around? Is it really the sugar, or is it the overall food (many of the commonly demonized foods like ice cream, cookies, etc have about as many of their calories from fat as they do from sugar). What is your long term plan - are you looking to learn to moderate these foods, or are you planning to restrict them forever?

nvmomketo

I try to keep sugar to a minimum. Carbs too since they change to simple sugar (glucose) upon digestion.

I found the less sugar and carbs I ate, the lower my cravings were.