Sugar detox --> blood sugar crashes, dangerous?

AnvilHead

abarriere wrote: »

I know this is digressing, but I have done 3 Whole 30's (last one was a Whole 20 because I was over it), and I have learned a few things. 1. I don't have any intolerance to any one food group (aside from mild lactose intolerance), so there is no point in further eliminations, 2. I don't like the psychological effects of demonizing food, it made me feel up when I was "good" and down when i was "bad", 3. Unless you decide that your new lifestyle is no added sugar forever and ever, the effects of the Whole 30 are very short lived, 4. I can overeat sweet potatoes, steak and sauteed veggies as much as I can overeat cookies and ice cream (i know, it's weird).

For me, yes I did feel good at the end, but it's because I lost weight. The hard part is after. Since you aren't counting calories the entire time, you aren't set up for when you start adding things back in. Overtime, the weight does creep back. I know it's not a weightloss program per se.

From my experience, detoxing from sugar is not a solution, unless you have medical problems and really need to. It's not going to cure you from your sugar cravings forever. Obviously, if you are going overboard, maybe it's time to reel it in. Why give up yumminess if you can fit it in and still lose weight?

All good advice, just one point about the bolded: There is no such thing as "detoxing" from sugar. It is not a toxin and there is no way to "detox" from it, so whether it's a solution or not is irrelevant, because it's a nonexistent thing.

"Detoxes" and "cleanses" are a scam perpetrated by the diet/nutrition industry to detox and cleanse all that dirty money out of people's wallets. Nothing more. There's no scientific proof that they work, and plenty to say that they don't.

abarriere

totally, i should have used quotes, i was trying to tie it back to the original post, though unsuccessfully!

lemurcat12

abarriere wrote: »

4. I can overeat sweet potatoes, steak and sauteed veggies as much as I can overeat cookies and ice cream (i know, it's weird).

Heh, it's not weird at all. I mostly gained weight when I was obsessed with eating super naturally. I won't say I never ate added sugar during that time period (I thought baking was fine if I pretended as much as possible that it was 1910, not 2010), but because baking a pie is time consuming and mainly only fun for me if I'm doing it for others I didn't eat a ton of baked goods -- my main extra calories were from things like too much chicken and the sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts I roasted with the chicken (oh, that lovely fat), added fat like olive oil, cheese (which admittedly would not be okay on W30, but I now can control myself with it), nuts, so on.

One of the reasons W30 annoys me is that the foods it would require me to cut out (legumes, whole grains, and dairy -- mostly I eat whole grains when I have grains, although I do have some white pasta occasionally) are just not foods I overeat, they aren't really triggers for me (baked goods are, but I'm lazy so that prevents them from being an issue). Yet somehow Melissa Hartwig has managed to sell this idea that W30 is the healthiest diet and that the foods it cuts out inherently make a diet less healthy. Also, people seem to think that if they want to have a diet based on cooking from whole foods (which is actually something that works well for me, although I also managed to get fat doing it), W30 is the way to go, like it's not possible to focus on whole foods without doing silly old W30. (I think if you want an elimination diet, sure, why not, although I don't take it seriously for that either; a real elimination diet wouldn't follow the same approach or focus solely on those foods, and my sister fixed her IBS with an elimination diet that identified triggers that are all 100% fine on W30.)

I did my own thing, kind of like W30, in that I cut out added sugar, and similar to you I felt better and lost weight, but that wasn't because I felt worse with sugar -- I felt fine once I added it back in -- but because it was part of an overall program to lose weight, add exercise, eat in a more mindful manner, stop emotional eating, etc. Taking control of how I was eating made me feel better, not eating no added sugar vs. a moderate amount. That said, if it helps someone control themselves, I see nothing wrong with cutting it out, but when trying I'd be open to the idea that for many it can be counterproductive and other solutions might work better (not eating it at home, eating only the highest quality sweets, eating only after a healthy dinner and within calories, whatever), and I'd avoid telling myself I CANNOT control myself, as I think that tends to operate as an excuse when you are in a situation where you do eat something and the mind goes into "must eat everything since this is my last chance and I already screwed up" mode. At least, that was something I had to address. ;-)