giving up artificial sweeteners, tips
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Glucose intolerance is apparently a condition in which blood sugar is high but not high enough for a diagnosis of diabetes. Studies were evaluated to find out if artificial sweeteners might affect glucose intolerance but due to the contradiction of the various studies it's not possible to make a definitive conclusion yet.
They actually state that adiposity is a confounder frequently found in the observational studies so it's possible that it's the primary cause of the glucose intolerance and not the artificial sweeteners themselves.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4990242/
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I avoid or limit artificial sweetners because it is a migraine trigger for me.
Maybe just get used to unsweetened drinks or a small amount of regular sugar.
I drink water or unsweetened teas. There are a lot of tea flavors. I like apple cinnamon. If you don't like unsweetened coffee maybe experiment with tea.
Eat less packaged foods. Buy regular versions of products. If a product says sugar free or diet it probably has an artificial sweetener. Look at labels.
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I used the step-down approach with iced tea. I don't eliminate all sugar, but after a time I found my tea just doesn't need it.1
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Tiny_Dancer_in_Pink wrote: »Glucose impairment?
prediabetes; when I have to take steriods for various conditions, my glucose goes into diabetic ranges so I have to just be careful with sugars.1 -
paperpudding wrote: »Glucose impairment sounds another way of wording impaired glucose tolerance to me, ie pre diabetic or borderline diabetic - these patients are at risk of developing type 2 diabestes so are advised to lose weight and reduce sugar intake to delay or prevent this happening.
No need to avoid artificial sweeteners though, any more than diabetics need to.
thanks. I think the jury is out on this one or at best questionable. I wanted to know how people tapered off as that is what I intend to do.7 -
thanks all. Have some good ideas here.2
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paperpudding wrote: »Glucose impairment sounds another way of wording impaired glucose tolerance to me, ie pre diabetic or borderline diabetic - these patients are at risk of developing type 2 diabestes so are advised to lose weight and reduce sugar intake to delay or prevent this happening.
No need to avoid artificial sweeteners though, any more than diabetics need to.
thanks. I think the jury is out on this one or at best questionable. I wanted to know how people tapered off as that is what I intend to do.
No, the jury isn't out. It's clear. Artificial sweeteners are appropriate and GRAS for both type 1 and type 2 diabetics as well as those in "pre-diabetic" conditions.19 -
thanks all for your input.5
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stanmann571 wrote: »paperpudding wrote: »Glucose impairment sounds another way of wording impaired glucose tolerance to me, ie pre diabetic or borderline diabetic - these patients are at risk of developing type 2 diabestes so are advised to lose weight and reduce sugar intake to delay or prevent this happening.
No need to avoid artificial sweeteners though, any more than diabetics need to.
thanks. I think the jury is out on this one or at best questionable. I wanted to know how people tapered off as that is what I intend to do.
No, the jury isn't out. It's clear. Artificial sweeteners are appropriate and GRAS for both type 1 and type 2 diabetics as well as those in "pre-diabetic" conditions.
Let's just say that the jury is still deliberating, sorting out correlations vs. causation and attempting to ascertain with further research whether the data found with animal research is applicable at all to humans. It's an interesting topic, and as most of us know, "scientific findings" get up-ended as new data emerge. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=research+artificial+sweeteners+and+insulin+resistance&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiFo-75vtjZAhUF2oMKHTJpB2IQgQMIJTAA15 -
https://www.amazon.com/SweetLeaf-Liquid-Stevia-Sweetener-Vanilla/dp/B000E8WIAS
This stuff is amazing even though I didn't like stevia before!!1 -
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!
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If artificial sweeteners were an issue with diabetes, the the American Diabetes Association wouldn't recommend them as an alternative. Currently they do.
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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.4
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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.3 -
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.5
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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.2
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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.4 -
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.6
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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!4 -
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.1
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