What to eat on a sugar "detox"
Leana088
Posts: 581 Member
Ugh I hate that word, but now that I've got your attention, I need some help here. 
See I'm trying to retrain my taste buds to be satisfied with less sweet things. So I'm cutting down a lot on sugar. (I'm not going to eat fruit either.) After a few weeks I will reintroduce sugar in moderation. Hopefully then an apple will taste sweet enough for me and a can of condensed milk will be too sickly sweet. (That's the goal...)
But I'm hitting a blank on what it is I can actually eat. I've narrowed down to meats, non starchy vegetables and fats. Is that about right? Am I missing something? I understand you need to cut down on carbs overall as well?
For the record, I am well aware that sugar has nothing to do with weight gain and that it's not addictive yadda yadda. This is strictly because I'm trying to influence my taste, no other reason.
See I'm trying to retrain my taste buds to be satisfied with less sweet things. So I'm cutting down a lot on sugar. (I'm not going to eat fruit either.) After a few weeks I will reintroduce sugar in moderation. Hopefully then an apple will taste sweet enough for me and a can of condensed milk will be too sickly sweet. (That's the goal...)
But I'm hitting a blank on what it is I can actually eat. I've narrowed down to meats, non starchy vegetables and fats. Is that about right? Am I missing something? I understand you need to cut down on carbs overall as well?
For the record, I am well aware that sugar has nothing to do with weight gain and that it's not addictive yadda yadda. This is strictly because I'm trying to influence my taste, no other reason.
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Replies
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It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If it's about retraining your taste buds, I don't see why starches would be an issue (but I would assume that fake sugar would be). If it's about going low carb, then sure, cut all carbs but non starchy vegetables (and a good place for help would be the low carb folks).0
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lemurcat12 wrote: »It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If it's about retraining your taste buds, I don't see why starches would be an issue (but I would assume that fake sugar would be). If it's about going low carb, then sure, cut all carbs but non starchy vegetables (and a good place for help would be the low carb folks).
I'm not sure why, I suppose that perhaps things like bread and pasta for example would have added sugar? It's just what I've read. There's surprisingly not a lot of info on it.0 -
Hi there,
Be sure you round out your meals with protein. Try to have a protein with every meal. Have good carbs i.e.: brown rice, quinoa...
I too have cut way back on sugar. Just give it some time. Eat plenty of vegetables, and protein along with some good carbs. Make that you norm. Once you stop craving sugar, start with fruit like berries. I am a huge chocolate fan. It's funny but I can honestly say, once I have given it some time...I don't crave it anymore.
I hope I have helped. You will crave it less eventually.0 -
flippy1234 wrote: »Hi there,
Be sure you round out your meals with protein. Try to have a protein with every meal. Have good carbs i.e.: brown rice, quinoa...
I too have cut way back on sugar. Just give it some time. Eat plenty of vegetables, and protein along with some good carbs. Make that you norm. Once you stop craving sugar, start with fruit like berries. I am a huge chocolate fan. It's funny but I can honestly say, once I have given it some time...I don't crave it anymore.
I hope I have helped. You will crave it less eventually.
Hello, I assume by good carbs you mean wholegrain, in which case I already eat a lot of it luckily. I enjoy wholegrain seeded bread, and wild rice (has more flavor than normal).
A bit confused here. I read that you need to cut out all those things as well as fruit and dairy. Or is that only valid for low carb?0 -
flippy1234 wrote: »Hi there,
Be sure you round out your meals with protein. Try to have a protein with every meal. Have good carbs i.e.: brown rice, quinoa...
I too have cut way back on sugar. Just give it some time. Eat plenty of vegetables, and protein along with some good carbs. Make that you norm. Once you stop craving sugar, start with fruit like berries. I am a huge chocolate fan. It's funny but I can honestly say, once I have given it some time...I don't crave it anymore.
I hope I have helped. You will crave it less eventually.
Hello, I assume by good carbs you mean wholegrain, in which case I already eat a lot of it luckily. I enjoy wholegrain seeded bread, and wild rice (has more flavor than normal).
A bit confused here. I read that you need to cut out all those things as well as fruit and dairy. Or is that only valid for low carb?
If you're just trying to retrain your taste buds, no.
I cut out all added sugars for a week, but still ate a little fruit each day (maybe two pieces per day). By the end of a week, grapefruit tasted like candy to me.
A couple of days later, I grabbed a couple of Peanut M&M's from a bag I had laying around, and I was like "Ugh, these are too sweet!"
So it didn't take long, and it didn't take drastic changes for me.0 -
The thing about "retraining" your taste buds is that it's really all too easy to convince yourself that the foods you're attempting to avoid taste good again. If you know that sugar doesn't cause weight gain and all that yada, then what's the point of attempting to "fool" your body?0
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PeachyPlum wrote: »flippy1234 wrote: »Hi there,
Be sure you round out your meals with protein. Try to have a protein with every meal. Have good carbs i.e.: brown rice, quinoa...
I too have cut way back on sugar. Just give it some time. Eat plenty of vegetables, and protein along with some good carbs. Make that you norm. Once you stop craving sugar, start with fruit like berries. I am a huge chocolate fan. It's funny but I can honestly say, once I have given it some time...I don't crave it anymore.
I hope I have helped. You will crave it less eventually.
Hello, I assume by good carbs you mean wholegrain, in which case I already eat a lot of it luckily. I enjoy wholegrain seeded bread, and wild rice (has more flavor than normal).
A bit confused here. I read that you need to cut out all those things as well as fruit and dairy. Or is that only valid for low carb?
If you're just trying to retrain your taste buds, no.
I cut out all added sugars for a week, but still ate a little fruit each day (maybe two pieces per day). By the end of a week, grapefruit tasted like candy to me.
A couple of days later, I grabbed a couple of Peanut M&M's from a bag I had laying around, and I was like "Ugh, these are too sweet!"
So it didn't take long, and it didn't take drastic changes for me.
For me I think I'll go easy on the fruit too. (I do anyway, I don't eat a lot of fruit.)
But then, seems like I don't have to cut out dairy and reduce wholegrains.
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LoupGarouTFTs wrote: »The thing about "retraining" your taste buds is that it's really all too easy to convince yourself that the foods you're attempting to avoid taste good again. If you know that sugar doesn't cause weight gain and all that yada, then what's the point of attempting to "fool" your body?
Uhm. I'm not fooling anything. The point of retraining your tastes is, well, retraining your tastes. Of course those foods will taste good. I'm even going to re introduce them in my diet again. I'm just teaching myself to be satisfied with less of them.0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If it's about retraining your taste buds, I don't see why starches would be an issue (but I would assume that fake sugar would be). If it's about going low carb, then sure, cut all carbs but non starchy vegetables (and a good place for help would be the low carb folks).
I'm not sure why, I suppose that perhaps things like bread and pasta for example would have added sugar? It's just what I've read. There's surprisingly not a lot of info on it.
Bread does usually have added sugar, but I don't think I've ever seen a pasta that did. You can buy sugar free bread though.
I would agree that cutting starchy vegetables is probably unnecessary. With few exceptions they don't really taste sweet, at least not to me. Same for whole grains. Brown rice, kasha, quinoa, etc. don't really taste sweet so if it's taste you are trying to change I don't see why they would matter.0 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If it's about retraining your taste buds, I don't see why starches would be an issue (but I would assume that fake sugar would be). If it's about going low carb, then sure, cut all carbs but non starchy vegetables (and a good place for help would be the low carb folks).
I'm not sure why, I suppose that perhaps things like bread and pasta for example would have added sugar? It's just what I've read. There's surprisingly not a lot of info on it.
Bread does usually have added sugar, but I don't think I've ever seen a pasta that did. You can buy sugar free bread though.
I would agree that cutting starchy vegetables is probably unnecessary. With few exceptions they don't really taste sweet, at least not to me. Same for whole grains. Brown rice, kasha, quinoa, etc. don't really taste sweet so if it's taste you are trying to change I don't see why they would matter.
What about Dairy?
I usually only use milk and cheese. Don't eat yoghurt too often.0 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If it's about retraining your taste buds, I don't see why starches would be an issue (but I would assume that fake sugar would be). If it's about going low carb, then sure, cut all carbs but non starchy vegetables (and a good place for help would be the low carb folks).
I'm not sure why, I suppose that perhaps things like bread and pasta for example would have added sugar? It's just what I've read. There's surprisingly not a lot of info on it.
Bread does usually have added sugar, but I don't think I've ever seen a pasta that did. You can buy sugar free bread though.
I would agree that cutting starchy vegetables is probably unnecessary. With few exceptions they don't really taste sweet, at least not to me. Same for whole grains. Brown rice, kasha, quinoa, etc. don't really taste sweet so if it's taste you are trying to change I don't see why they would matter.
What about Dairy?
I usually only use milk and cheese. Don't eat yoghurt too often.
Cheese doesn't taste at all sweet to me nor does unsweetened yogurt. I'd avoid the sweetened stuff though. I don't remember milk tasting sweet but it's been so long since I drank it I'm not a good judge.0 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If it's about retraining your taste buds, I don't see why starches would be an issue (but I would assume that fake sugar would be). If it's about going low carb, then sure, cut all carbs but non starchy vegetables (and a good place for help would be the low carb folks).
I'm not sure why, I suppose that perhaps things like bread and pasta for example would have added sugar? It's just what I've read. There's surprisingly not a lot of info on it.
Bread does usually have added sugar, but I don't think I've ever seen a pasta that did. You can buy sugar free bread though.
I would agree that cutting starchy vegetables is probably unnecessary. With few exceptions they don't really taste sweet, at least not to me. Same for whole grains. Brown rice, kasha, quinoa, etc. don't really taste sweet so if it's taste you are trying to change I don't see why they would matter.
What about Dairy?
I usually only use milk and cheese. Don't eat yoghurt too often.
Do you perceive it as sweet? Milk has lactose, but isn't sweet in that same way to my taste (and neither is plain yogurt). When I've cut out add sugar/sweets to break the habit, I actually would intentionally eat cheese in its place sometimes, as for me it both satisfies and has a really different taste that tends to counteract me wanting sweets.
Well, unless it's cheddar and apple pie, I suppose. ;-)0 -
Thanks for the replies , it's been very helpful.
I'll keep my dairy and potatoes. 0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »
Well, unless it's cheddar and apple pie, I suppose. ;-)Need2Exerc1se wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If it's about retraining your taste buds, I don't see why starches would be an issue (but I would assume that fake sugar would be). If it's about going low carb, then sure, cut all carbs but non starchy vegetables (and a good place for help would be the low carb folks).
I'm not sure why, I suppose that perhaps things like bread and pasta for example would have added sugar? It's just what I've read. There's surprisingly not a lot of info on it.
Bread does usually have added sugar, but I don't think I've ever seen a pasta that did. You can buy sugar free bread though.
I would agree that cutting starchy vegetables is probably unnecessary. With few exceptions they don't really taste sweet, at least not to me. Same for whole grains. Brown rice, kasha, quinoa, etc. don't really taste sweet so if it's taste you are trying to change I don't see why they would matter.
What about Dairy?
I usually only use milk and cheese. Don't eat yoghurt too often.
Is that a real thing??? Sounds a bit funky... hahaha
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lemurcat12 wrote: »
Interesting...0 -
LoupGarouTFTs wrote: »The thing about "retraining" your taste buds is that it's really all too easy to convince yourself that the foods you're attempting to avoid taste good again. If you know that sugar doesn't cause weight gain and all that yada, then what's the point of attempting to "fool" your body?
I do agree with this. I didn't intentionally try to retrain my taste buds, it just happened that I cut out a lot of sweets while I was trying to get my bearings with logging again and sweets seemed like a lot of calories for not a lot of food.
As soon as I ate the M&M's I thought they were too sweet. But then a few days later I had a piece of dark chocolate and it was on. I was right back to wanting sweets again.
I just work them into my calorie goals now, and I don't buy anything I'll be tempted to overeat.0 -
Technically, there are only four ingredients needed for bread: flour, water, salt and yeast -- in fact, I have a blob of dough developing right now that is just those four ingredients, no sugar, no oil, etc.
Look at the ingredient list on some of the "artisan" breads in the deli section of your supermarket and you may find bread with only these four ingredients. Some of the "artisan" baguettes, ciabattas, etc. fall into this category.
As it turns out, bread is remarkably simple to make and fool-proof if you adopt the "no-knead" method or the "stretch-and-fold" method. I started with the former and moved on to the latter.
For example, the current batch (which will have a blob of dough removed from it for tonight's pizza crust, will be a light and chewy Italian loaf like a ciabatta. It's 600g flour, 12g instant yeast, 18g salt, and 600g water.
To make a loaf of bread: Put the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix with a spoon until combined. Cover and ignore for 50 minutes. Since it's a very sticky dough, stir it a bit more with the spoon. Cover and ignore for 50 minutes. Flop onto a counter, stretch it out and fold it back on itself. Cover and ignore for 30-50 minutes. Flop the dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet and use wet hands to kind of shape it -- it's awfully floppy so don't worry about being too strict with it. Let it rest while the oven preheats to 375-425F (depending on how dark you like your crust). Bake 1 hour and take its internal temperature. Somewhere between 200F and 210F is done. Cool on a rack. Try not to eat the whole thing while still warm.
If you want to make pizza with a blob of the dough, put it in the fridge for a bit to slow the yeast down while you bake the loaf of bread. Bring the dough back to room temperature before assembling the pizza.
For pizza, preheat the oven to 550F (or as high as it will go). On a cookie sheet lined with parchment, stretch a blob of the dough into a crust. Top it with whatever strikes your fancy. Bake 10 minutes in the very hot oven.0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »
Well, unless it's cheddar and apple pie, I suppose. ;-)Need2Exerc1se wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If it's about retraining your taste buds, I don't see why starches would be an issue (but I would assume that fake sugar would be). If it's about going low carb, then sure, cut all carbs but non starchy vegetables (and a good place for help would be the low carb folks).
I'm not sure why, I suppose that perhaps things like bread and pasta for example would have added sugar? It's just what I've read. There's surprisingly not a lot of info on it.
Bread does usually have added sugar, but I don't think I've ever seen a pasta that did. You can buy sugar free bread though.
I would agree that cutting starchy vegetables is probably unnecessary. With few exceptions they don't really taste sweet, at least not to me. Same for whole grains. Brown rice, kasha, quinoa, etc. don't really taste sweet so if it's taste you are trying to change I don't see why they would matter.
What about Dairy?
I usually only use milk and cheese. Don't eat yoghurt too often.
Is that a real thing??? Sounds a bit funky... hahaha
It really is a thing. It's especially awesome if the pie is warm and a la mode. 0 -
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Thank you Yorkshire England. Oh the cheddar reference. . . . .yum yum yum0
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Sourdough and Rye breads don't contain sugar and they are delicious! Let us know if your trials work. I feel like I've desensitized my sugar tastebuds as well and I'm to the point where I like (sweet) foods really sweet. I'd like to do some retraining of MY tastebuds as well.0
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Never, ever seen pasta that has added sugar. Flour and water. Fresh pasta can have added eggs.0
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If it's about taste, I'd recommend just cutting out things that taste sweet, rather than things containing sugar.0
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I didn't take out carbs and dairy. Just things that taste sweet like you said, doesn't seem to have any effect on me. 0
This discussion has been closed.
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