giving up artificial sweeteners, tips

PAV8888

Both excess weight and lack of exercise have a much more clear correlation to type 2 than artificial sweeteners.

Personally I would first take care of starting to lose any excess weight (this assumes that there exists excess weight to lose: not every pre-diabetic has excess weight).

Then I would make sure that I am, at the very least, exercising at moderate level and for a sufficient duration.

A brisk walk, for example, rises to the level of moderate exercise. Minimum WHO recommendation is 30 minutes a day of moderate exercise plus 2 strength training sessions a week.

300 minutes of moderate exercise a week, or more, yield even better results, and would be a minimum I would aim for if I were fighting off a disease that responds to exercise.

Only then would I concentrate on less clearly associated "healthy food" optimisations.

And let's face it, excess added sugar would probably come before sucralose on my own hit list, which means that artificial sweeteners are quite a few grams per day down my list!

ninerbuff

If artificial sweeteners were an issue with diabetes, the the American Diabetes Association wouldn't recommend them as an alternative. Currently they do.


A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Aaron_K123

Although I don't think there is a reason for you to avoid artificial sweeteners if you want to for whatever reason then you should probably just slowly reduce your intake overtime by using less or using less frequently. That isn't specific to artificial sweeteners, it is how you quit pretty much anything.

Christine_72

I quit sugar by slowly tapering down. I was adding 3tsp of sugar to each cup of tea, times that by 7-8 cups a day and it was a ridiculous amount!
I never, ever thought i could drink tea or coffee without sweetener, but i got there in the end reducing by 1/2 tsp at a time, then 1/4 at the end until i was down to none. Now any sugar in my tea tastes too sweet, so you do eventually get used to it. Just take your time and don't try and do it too quickly.

thelettermegan

The less sugar you consume, the better other food will taste. I went cold turkey one day and discovered that I actually do like beets . . . if I haven't been eating cookies.

jgnatca

The premier turn-off for sugar was measuring the effect two hours later (glucometer). All of a sudden fruity punch and cake didn’t look so good any more.

Aaron_K123

thelettermegan wrote: »

The less sugar you consume, the better other food will taste. I went cold turkey one day and discovered that I actually do like beets . . . if I haven't been eating cookies.

I bet cookies would taste amazing then.

elisa123gal

all i can tell you, is i gave them up in all forms.. diet coke and drinks too. and it is amazing how i don't have any cravings. i think it is the artificial sweeteners that make dieting tough. go cold turkey..get sparkling water.. you won't miss it.. i will say i never used sugar in my coffee...so maybe that will be tough for you.

positivepowers

Tiny_Dancer_in_Pink wrote: »

I like Splenda better than Stevia. Stevia tastes vile to me!

Me too! That horrible bitter taste of Stevia makes me gag!

positivepowers

Steff46 wrote: »

I didn't like the taste of artificial sugar in my coffee so I used real sugar with some half n' half. Then I slowly stopped putting sugar in my coffee. It took me a few months but now I'm only using a splash of half n' half. Hope to eventually get to where I can drink it black. I did that method with sweet tea and now I can't handle sweet tea. Wishing you luck!

Coffee has a lot of acid which the half n half alleviates. Since black coffee makes my stomach burn, I use either unsweetened soy or almond milk in my coffee. Regular milk would work too if you prefer dairy. Milk (of any kind) would also give some nice vitamin and mineral benefits.

Caralarma

Have a chocolate with your coffee and you won't notice