Inspiration for not taking sugar in your coffee and tea

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About three and a half years ago now I was embarrassed having to take six of these slim sugar packets in my six to seven cups of tea a day. I shocked myself when I found out that I was taking 190,000 calories a year through sugar in my tea! For years I had tried various combinations of sugar with sweetener, sweetener only and sugar only, to no avail. So, one day, I decided just to go cold-turkey, with the thinking that, although it would taste horrible to begin with, I would get quite quickly used to drinking tea with no sugar in it.

I had the most shocking DT's for three days as the sugar left my system. I shook, almost uncontrollably, on occasions. It was hellish, as my body came down from a 27 year sugar "high". Almost immediately I started feeling "cleaner" inside. I felt far more healthy. My skin was clearer. I was more awake. More conscious. Within a few weeks, I lost six pounds in weight without doing anything.

I have never had a cup of tea with sugar since. That's a lot of calories saved, a few more years of life, better health whilst alive, smaller waistline, less cost and much, much less embarrassment!

If you have someone in your life, who has sugar in their tea, why don't you share my story with them as inspiration for staying off it?
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Replies

  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,526 Member
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    So you were taking in 520 calories a day extra in sugar? That's 130 grams of sugar a day. Well over consumed.

    Sugar isn't a bad thing. Over consumption of it is.

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

    9285851.png
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,995 Member
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    I know people who have sugar in their tea - 1 or 2 teaspoons.
    However, since they are not overweight, I don't think they need to stay off it - nor would I tell other people what to eat or drink.

    Glad you have found something that works for you - but, no, not inspired to share with others.
  • sylkates
    sylkates Posts: 173 Member
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    Six or seven packets per cup? That's almost as bad as soda. I think that's unusually high.

    Good on you for getting away from your habit.
  • instantmartian
    instantmartian Posts: 335 Member
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    Good for you. Congrats on kicking the habit!
  • Yi5hedr3
    Yi5hedr3 Posts: 2,696 Member
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    GO Stevia!!! ;)
  • brower47
    brower47 Posts: 16,356 Member
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    I'll stick with my sweetened tea. I like it better that way. But I don't go crazy since I want to taste the tea.
  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
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    ninerbuff wrote: »
    So you were taking in 520 calories a day extra in sugar? That's 130 grams of sugar a day. Well over consumed.

    Sugar isn't a bad thing. Over consumption of it is.

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

    9285851.png

    Wow.
    That's like a can of foie gras a day of sugar.
    Every day. Every day of the year.

    130g-BFGO-Groliere-500x500_0.jpg
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
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    26 teaspoons of sugar.

    Every day.

    For a year.

    :neutral:
  • AllonsYtotheTardis
    AllonsYtotheTardis Posts: 16,947 Member
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    I always figured that if I needed to add sugar to my tea, it wasn't the right tea for me. Good for you!
  • Cynsonya
    Cynsonya Posts: 668 Member
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    I like my coffee that way. Very light and sweet. A 16oz cup of coffee for me has 200 calories. So I stopped drinking coffee. I now have maybe one cup a week as opposed to 3-5 a day.
  • PaulaWallaDingDong
    PaulaWallaDingDong Posts: 4,641 Member
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    My inspiration: Drinking black coffee impresses my dad. Grizzled old man status.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    edited March 2016
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    Yep, I used to have 3tsp of sugar in each cup of tea, totaling 20-27 tsps sugar a day plus the added milk in each cup, now I have no sugar.
    Funny thing is, I was skinny as a rail then, but I was probably drinking more tea then I was eating food, so the calories balanced out, but was an extremely unhealthy way of living.
  • amyk0202
    amyk0202 Posts: 667 Member
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    I like my hot tea extremely sweet. I used to like my cold tea extremely sweet as well, but now I've backed off just a little bit. I just switched over to sucralose. For cold sweet tea, I use liquid sucralose drops which are zero calories--3 drops to 32 ounces of tea. For hot tea, I use the granulated sucralose which does have 2 calories for each .5g (even though the nutrition info says it's zero). I use 9g in my 20 oz tea which is a little over 1/4 cup each time. Sweet tea helps me get in my fluids for the day & keeps my sweet tooth under control. I've lost a lot of weight this way. I don't see the need to sacrifice things that I like when I can just account for the calories in my day. For me, that is the road to long term failure.
  • TheJillj
    TheJillj Posts: 1 Member
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    GOOD FOR YOU! Defiantly absolutely inspired me!
    Thank you for sharing! Seems easy... I will start my detox tomorrow!
  • LKArgh
    LKArgh Posts: 5,179 Member
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    roslin_man wrote: »
    About three and a half years ago now I was embarrassed having to take six of these slim sugar packets in my six to seven cups of tea a day. I shocked myself when I found out that I was taking 190,000 calories a year through sugar in my tea! For years I had tried various combinations of sugar with sweetener, sweetener only and sugar only, to no avail. So, one day, I decided just to go cold-turkey, with the thinking that, although it would taste horrible to begin with, I would get quite quickly used to drinking tea with no sugar in it.

    I had the most shocking DT's for three days as the sugar left my system. I shook, almost uncontrollably, on occasions. It was hellish, as my body came down from a 27 year sugar "high". Almost immediately I started feeling "cleaner" inside. I felt far more healthy. My skin was clearer. I was more awake. More conscious. Within a few weeks, I lost six pounds in weight without doing anything.

    I have never had a cup of tea with sugar since. That's a lot of calories saved, a few more years of life, better health whilst alive, smaller waistline, less cost and much, much less embarrassment!

    If you have someone in your life, who has sugar in their tea, why don't you share my story with them as inspiration for staying off it?

    I do not add sugar to coffee or tea because it alters their taste. But this does not mean that sugar in general is bad. You were consuming an insane amount of sugar per day. 36 sugar packets! If someone has e.g. 3 cups of coffee per day with 1 teaspoon of sugar each, the amount is not going to do any harm.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
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    Coffee tastes better without sugar.

    Tea needs sugar.

    Just not THAT much sugar.
  • MommyL2015
    MommyL2015 Posts: 1,411 Member
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    I had a friend like that in high school. I always asked her if she wanted coffee with her sugar. I swear she put in at least 1/2 cup of sugar in each coffee she had, and she drank a lot of coffee. She wasn't drinking coffee, she was drinking coffee-flavored sugar.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    roslin_man wrote: »
    About three and a half years ago now I was embarrassed having to take six of these slim sugar packets in my six to seven cups of tea a day. I shocked myself when I found out that I was taking 190,000 calories a year through sugar in my tea! For years I had tried various combinations of sugar with sweetener, sweetener only and sugar only, to no avail. So, one day, I decided just to go cold-turkey, with the thinking that, although it would taste horrible to begin with, I would get quite quickly used to drinking tea with no sugar in it.

    I had the most shocking DT's for three days as the sugar left my system. I shook, almost uncontrollably, on occasions. It was hellish, as my body came down from a 27 year sugar "high". Almost immediately I started feeling "cleaner" inside. I felt far more healthy. My skin was clearer. I was more awake. More conscious. Within a few weeks, I lost six pounds in weight without doing anything.

    I have never had a cup of tea with sugar since. That's a lot of calories saved, a few more years of life, better health whilst alive, smaller waistline, less cost and much, much less embarrassment!

    If you have someone in your life, who has sugar in their tea, why don't you share my story with them as inspiration for staying off it?

    but you did do something. You reduced the calories you were taking in from sugar. You were way over consuming sugar, but that doesn't mean that something is inherently wrong with sugar or that people who take sugar in their tea in moderate amounts need to take similar steps...

    Curious if you cut out sugar from other foods as well?
  • ahamm002
    ahamm002 Posts: 1,690 Member
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    Great job ditching all that unnecessary sugar and learning to like black coffee! I also switched to black coffee a few years ago and quickly began to love it.

    I don't see why people are so eager to rush to defend sugar. I think we can all agree that adding refined sugar to drinks is purely for taste and serves absolutely no health benefit (outside of starvation prevention). At the very least it is bad for your teeth.
  • DearestWinter
    DearestWinter Posts: 595 Member
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    Orphia wrote: »
    Coffee tastes better without sugar.

    Tea needs sugar.

    Just not THAT much sugar.

    We are hot beverage soul mates.