Can we stop saying quiting/cutting out sugar from your diet!

Hi,

I know there have been a lot of threads recently tiled:

Quit, cutting out, weaning myself off - Sugar.

Most of us realise you mean cutting back, reducing your intake, as opposed to cutting out altogether.

However there seems to be a minority of members who seem to believe you mean you are totally taking sugar out of your diets and I think you are causing them too much stress and anxiety (in fact for some I think it has blown their minds).

Perhaps they are merely entertained instead of stressed and anxious. You sound a little anxious actually....

can we say cutting out white sugar?

that would be silly as its >95% the same as brown sugar

Hi!
I'm often dumbfounded when I hear/read people treating food groups as evil, poison, etc.
notice I said food groups and not processed foods (like HFCS)

If we consume a normal amount of added sugar (white, brown, etc) there's NO reason (in my mind) to fear gaining weight or not being able to lose. If I've learned anything this (almost) year of my life is that what's truly harmful is what's created in a laboratory (msg, HFCS,...) I've cut them 100% from my diet! stopped eating ANYWHERE but my house, with the occasional going to my parents' house for lunch. I don't eat ANYTHING from a bag whose ingredients I can pronounced. Discovered I'm celiac, so cut gluten 100%.
I practice intermittent fasting (I'm in a wheelchair so my daily recommended calories have got to be much lower than a walking person) and I've lost 78.8 pounds since around June/July 2013! I started mfp at 178 on 9/1/13. I drink only water or coffee with milk. To my coffees I add plain sugar. I eat one teaspoon of Nutella (YUM!) a few times a week. And I'm CONSISTENTLY losing!
The minute I stopped treating food as an enemy, and feeling angry at food, instead of my real issues surrounding food, I began my healing process. I'm far from "cured" (who knows if I'll ever be!) but seeing ALL the women (and a few men) in my family treating food, sugar, fat, carbs as "enemies" now makes me sad.
How a few of them treat me has changed a bit. Relationships are a bit better. But because their relationship to food, portions and certain food groups is SO distorted, it makes for quite a sour experience seeing them eat and watching them see me eat. They can't understand my new, positive way of looking at the food I eat.
I agree with you, people should ideally stop treating food groups as the enemy, but if my own family members are an indication, I think this might prove to be impossible! We can't change anyone but ourselves and I guess hope that people around us change in their own time?

To give you an idea of how bad it is:
I went to one of their houses and was offered a coffee. To this day, they ask me "how many Splenda?" My answer (EVERY SINGLE TIME) I'll take regular sugar, please. Their reply? I thought you were on a diet? How do you expect to diet and eat that poison?
Me: (147 pounds, with 20-30 more to lose) I'm NOT on a diet. I've never BEEN on a diet. I plan on living like this for LIFE.
They laugh in my face, telling me it won't last.

Or another time, I offered a TIC TAC (2 calorie candy, people!) to another...their answer, I have a better sugar free one. Yours is poison, and until you realize that, you'll never lose the weight (this said to a person who's consistently losing between .5-2.5 pounds a week) they will never change.

"went to one of their houses and was offered a coffee. To this day, they ask me "how many Splenda?" My answer (EVERY SINGLE TIME) I'll take regular sugar, please. Their reply? I thought you were on a diet? How do you expect to diet and eat that poison?
Me: (147 pounds, with 20-30 more to lose) I'm NOT on a diet. I've never BEEN on a diet. I plan on living like this for LIFE.
They laugh in my face, telling me it won't last. "


Well, you could just have unsweetened coffee - no sugar, no Sweeteners.

Anyway, I do not think it is silly to try to cut down on one's sugar intake ( note, I said cut down, not eliminate) and eat less sugary sweet foods and get used to things with less of a sweet taste , ie cut down or eliminate sugar in tea, coffee, limit sugary drinks etc.
Yes I know sugar is not the devil - but cutting down on it does reduce calorie intake significantly.

I just think the people saying they are quitting/cutting sugar sound ridiculous. It's not that I don't understand what they really mean. Words matter, and how can you be taken seriously here if don't even know what it is you are giving up?

It is not that difficult to figure out that they mean they are giving up sugary sodas, cookies, cakes, donuts, candy, etc.
I mean, come on, most of us DO have a brain and know how to use it.

But apparently it is much more fun for some people to jump in and say, "so you are giving up fruit? and carrots? because they have sugar!"

Yeah, I just said it's easy to know what they mean. Does that mean I'm supposed to nod and move on?

It's not "more fun" to ask them if they're giving up fruit and other stuff. I'd just appreciate it if people were honest about what they were cutting out of their diet. And if they legitimately don't know that carbs or sugar consist of much more than baked goods and candy, well, I hope they learn something.

ETA: And I maintain that it sounds ridiculous when someone on here says something like "I haven't eaten any sugar in XX days! I've concentrated on whole foods like fruits and vegetables, and I have a yogurt every once in a while..."

In every dictionary I've checked, which adimittedly is only three, the first definition for sugar is the crystalized product made from cane or beets. Is it really so ridiculous for people to use the primary definition of a word?

I'll throw in my two cents because...well, I can.

I think it's absolutely asinine to say you are cutting out all of any type of food. If you ate sweets, drank gallons of soda, or gorged yourself on pasta for years to get fat, than chances are you like those things..there's a shocker. So, it's nice to say "I'm giving up all sweets and sugar," but reality is that you're surrounded by it and you really need to find some way to deal with it.

Why not just be conscious of what and how much you are eating, drinking, etc? Why not take your time on MFP to learn HOW to eat those items in moderation? If you deprive yourself of sweets to lose weight, then when you finally decide to have that slice of cake at Aunt Mildred's 90th birthday, you'll likely find yourself right back on the train to Chubbville. Calories in, calories out...moderation, not elimination is most often the best way to ensure your lifestyle change is sustainable.

There is no "correct" meaning. It is what works best for each person.

Some people mean reduce sugar intake while others mean completely cut it. Many people successfully eliminate all fruit, sugar, even artificial sugars. Others find success eating some or even lots of sugar-filled foods, both fruit & processed junk.