Sugar

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pallot12
pallot12 Posts: 3 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I have a problem with sugar - once I start on biscuits, chocolate, etc., I cannot stop, and end up bingeing for days so I've decided to cut the rubbish out and reduce my intake down to about 3 tsp a day 15g by logging onto MFP. Its day 4 and I'm feeling better, after 3 days of feeling tired and a splitting headache. I've cut out fruit but have noticed that vegetables contain sugar for example I logged on 1/2 pack of M&S chef style vegetables and they contained 6g sugar (over a teaspoon). I would welcome some advice please.

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  • Strokingdiction
    Strokingdiction Posts: 1,164 Member
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    Eat your vegetables and your fruit or suffer from massive constipation. Cut out the processed sugar if you really want to (I'm not personally a fan of cutting foods out entirely) but DO NOT cut out your fruits and ESPECIALLY your veggies.
  • tessi1993
    tessi1993 Posts: 186 Member
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    No way don't cut out fruits or veggies, they are natural sugars. if you want to cut out sugar cut out processed sugar.
  • 143tobe
    143tobe Posts: 620 Member
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    Please don't cut out your fruits and veggies. Out of ALL the foods out there, those are the ones you wanna keep. :wink:

    Edited to add,

    I also had a massive sugar problem. I was completely hooked and eating one thing led to the next and so on. I upped my fruits and veggies, cut out the processed crap, worked out 5 days a week, 30 minutes a day, and my cravings for processed sugars went down almost completely. Plus, I lost weight and felt better. Eat them.
  • farewell_friend
    farewell_friend Posts: 41 Member
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    Sugar is addicting, and since you have a problem with it avoid all ADDED and PROCESSED sugar, not vegetables. I'd avoid fruit for now, but definitely not vegetables; they have too many benefits to avoid just because of negligible natural sugar.

    You *might* want to cut out grains for a while and see how you feel. It might help :)
  • Strokingdiction
    Strokingdiction Posts: 1,164 Member
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    Sugar is addicting, and since you have a problem with it avoid all ADDED and PROCESSED sugar, not vegetables. I'd avoid fruit for now, but definitely not vegetables; they have too many benefits to avoid just because of negligible natural sugar.

    You *might* want to cut out grains for a while and see how you feel. It might help :)

    Not even related to the OPs sugar issue.

    Be careful but your bias is showing.
  • missiontofitness
    missiontofitness Posts: 4,074 Member
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    If you cut back on processed sugar slowly, it may make the withdrawl easier. But don't be afraid of natural sugar, like in fruits and veggies! An orange or an apple is better for you than a spoonful of processed sugar.
  • helizi
    helizi Posts: 30 Member
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    and reduce my intake down to about 3 tsp a day 15g

    This isn't necessary. Your issue is junk food and yes, by all means cut that out. But plenty of healthy foodstuffs contain sugar too, exactly the kinds of foods you now need to be eating. Sugar itself is not the enemy here, it's your junk food habit meaning you're eating too much of it. Deal with the actual problem and don't get hung up the numbers.
  • pallot12
    pallot12 Posts: 3 Member
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    Thanks for all your replies, and will take on all your comments. My goal is to avoid processed food and junk. I haven't cut out vegetables just surprised they contained sugars.
  • Shropshire1959
    Shropshire1959 Posts: 982 Member
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    SO much of our processed and packed foods contain 'The substance that should not be named' :tongue: ... why not try to make your meals from Basic Single Ingredients? .. Why packaged Fruit and Veg anyway?
  • ublanchard
    ublanchard Posts: 47
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    I have a problem with sugar - once I start on biscuits, chocolate, etc., I cannot stop, and end up bingeing for days so I've decided to cut the rubbish out and reduce my intake down to about 3 tsp a day 15g by logging onto MFP.

    Can I ask how you decided on a 15g per day limit? I'm all for limiting added sugar, because I too have a terrible sweet tooth and a tendency to rampage on candies so I know how gross it can make you feel. But 15 g total per day seems so limiting that you'd cut out so many healthy delicious snacks that there should be a solid reason.
  • GertrudeHorse
    GertrudeHorse Posts: 646 Member
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    I haven't cut out vegetables just surprised they contained sugars.

    Basically everything except meat contains sugar, which is why it's so silly when people talk about doing a "sugar detox". If you find some foods triggering then cut them out by all means, but arbitrarily limiting all sugar-containing food is unnecessarily restrictive. Sugar is not the enemy.
  • _Zardoz_
    _Zardoz_ Posts: 3,987 Member
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    I have a problem with sugar - once I start on biscuits, chocolate, etc., I cannot stop, and end up bingeing for days so I've decided to cut the rubbish out and reduce my intake down to about 3 tsp a day 15g by logging onto MFP. Its day 4 and I'm feeling better, after 3 days of feeling tired and a splitting headache. I've cut out fruit but have noticed that vegetables contain sugar for example I logged on 1/2 pack of M&S chef style vegetables and they contained 6g sugar (over a teaspoon). I would welcome some advice please.
    Why are you assuming sugar is the problem? There are many other elements that are in all those foods? All the scaremongering bad press methinks. In reality as others have said everything contains sugar. It sounds to me that the main problem is your self control around certain foods and your will to actually do something about it. If you find foods a problem don't have them in the house. Try and teach yourself to have them in moderation. This cut all sugar lark will do nothing to help. If you have real psychological issues around food and binging maybe you need to consider help from a professional or some form of counseling. Avoiding the problem which are trying to do wont work on the long term
  • tennisdude2004
    tennisdude2004 Posts: 5,609 Member
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    If you are intent on cutting back on sugar then I would suggest (if you must) cut back on the fruit and focus on eating the veggies.

    You can get all of the micro nutrients you would get from fruit by eating veggies. Also make sure you are getting enough veg that has fermentable, soluble fibre (this should help keep you regular and your gut flora - ewwwww - will thank you for it).

    Good luck.
  • mynamealex
    mynamealex Posts: 26
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    practice yourself to eat natural sugar -> fruits
    get rid of processed food
    avoid food additives and preservatives
  • ProfessorCurlz
    ProfessorCurlz Posts: 72
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    Im only going to respond to veggies, be sure that the veggie recipe/mixture you are using are fresh! If they are fresh, non canned, etc, you can control how much additive sugar is in your overall recipe. Nature sugar is okay, just monitor for those "other" sugar culprits.
  • kgeyser
    kgeyser Posts: 22,505 Member
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    I'm going to make a few suggestions here. First, stop referring to any type of food as crap or junk. It's fuel for your body. Some types of food are nutritionally better than others, but even the "crap" and "junk" has a place in our lives. If your mother made you a birthday cake, would you say to her "your cake is utter crap"? Probably not. Just because you have an issue controlling your intake of a certain food does not make that food inherently bad. You may decide to incorporate those foods back into your daily life someday when you can manage in moderation, and they are not suddenly going to change in nutritional value or become "ok" just because you are thinner. It's just food.

    Next, rather than taking the "cutting things out" approach, why not focus on adding things in? Make your goal to add more fresh fruits and veggies, and leave it at that. You'll end up eating less of the processed stuff simply by virtue of trying to hit your fruit and veggie goals, but without the frustration of feeling like you've failed or are a hypocrite if you do have sweets. Plus you won't run the risk of alienating everyone around you by getting all preachy about sugar. If you decide you want something sweet one day, that's fine, and it doesn't undo all the awesome whole food you've been eating all day. If you decide you're not in the mood for sweets, that's fine too. That's the cool thing about moderation.

    If you really need to get sweets out of the house, then do it, but keep in mind you are only removing a symptom of the problem. You still need to figure out how to get the bingeing behavior under control. This is a great time to figure out the reasons why you binge and start developing ways to cope with whatever is triggering the binges without turning to food. If you have access to a therapist or counselor, they can help you work through it. If not, I'm sure the internet can provide some ideas you could try.

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