Sugar, hoping my post will be encouraging

My mom made me sugar sandwiches too. A piece of Wonder bread with butter and a few tablespoons of sugar and some cinnamon, then put it in the toaster oven. I just can’t.

Congratulations Mandy on finding your way to making yourself feel better. It is your journey and you have to find your own way.

My own experience...I do well cutting back on sweets. I can go a long time and not want any. However...if I indulge in certain things (such as Peanut Butter M&Ms) I seem to crave them. It is all that I can do to pass them up at the store...especially if they are having a 2 for 1 sale. I just can't pass up that bargain...I am weak!

I was brought up without a lot of sugar and I still became overweight. Over a decade type 2 diabetic so I cut all refined sugar from my diet, and I prefer carby/fatty/salty snacks.

I lost significant weight with a lot of help, and the diabetes is now in remission.

I don’t blame sugar.

Annie_01 wrote: »

Congratulations Mandy on finding your way to making yourself feel better. It is your journey and you have to find your own way.

My own experience...I do well cutting back on sweets. I can go a long time and not want any. However...if I indulge in certain things (such as Peanut Butter M&Ms) I seem to crave them. It is all that I can do to pass them up at the store...especially if they are having a 2 for 1 sale. I just can't pass up that bargain...I am weak!

Yeah, I think this is common, but of course it's standard habit stuff, and nothing to do with the weird claims about withdrawal symptoms (which I know wasn't what you were saying).

If I start ordering Indian for dinner a lot that's my first thought, cooking seems a hassle. If I'm routinely cooking, it seems not a hassle and I my mind doesn't immediately go to ordering.

Similarly, if I have dessert after every meal, I want it. If I get out of that habit, I don't, or at least it's no more than a passing thought.

The biggest thing for me: if I eat between meals I will want to eat (pretty much whenever food is around). If I get back into what for me is a good habit of eating only at meals (and the food I eat at meals is normally pretty healthy), then I don't think about eating at other times.

The peanut M&M one is a funny choice since I have an issue with those too. My office has them out. If I decide, eh, I'll grab a handful, all day I'll want to go get more and I can end up eating LOTS of calories of them (especially if not logging). If I resist the first thought to get some, I don't really think about it. If I generally don't have them, I basically forget they are there and never think about them.

I don't think that's anything like addiction, but it's a real thing and understanding this (if your mind works like mine) can make it easier to avoid temptation/struggle.

Physically, however, sugar is sugar (and indeed carbs are basically sugar), so the idea that one can have withdrawal symptoms from cutting out added sugar is odd. Not saying someone might not do better cutting it out (especially if they ate absurd amounts and struggle with moderation or it affected their taste), but you cannot have physical withdrawal from cutting out added sugar while continuing to eat foods that to your body are the same.

mandy_godfree wrote: »

I was brought up on sugar. Not fizzy drinks and sweets, but my Mum made us sugar sandwiches when there was nothing else in the house, we always had puddings in the evening, and at least a dessert spoon of sugar on our cereal in the morning. My Dad even puts sugar in his peas when he cooks them.

This seems pretty extreme, and I congratulate you on deciding to improve your diet and address what may have been an over-reliance on things being sweet for taste.

I don't actually think this kind of thing is that common -- it's quite unlike my experience, as we certainly had some desserts and snacks and so on when I was growing up, but a sugar sandwich wouldn't have been appealing and main meals weren't sweet/did not involve added sugar except rarely (BBQ, maybe a honey-based sauce here and there). Dessert wasn't an always thing, and that I enjoyed sweet didn't mean I didn't love (and taste as very sweet) fruit or appreciate savory (indeed, my biggest calorie issue has always been savory things).

So I think it's good to recognize your particular problems, not great if the idea is that this is evidence that SUGAR is the issue, is uniquely addictive, or that the average person is eating so much sugar they can't appreciate foods without it.

For what it's worth I also cut out added sugar for a while when I started (mostly because I thought it would help me resist snacking when food is available at my office and because I have a tendency to use sugar when emotional eating, which I wanted to work on), and I found it both easy (like I said, it wasn't in my savory meals, so it was really just cutting snacks and desserts) and helpful. My initial reaction -- since I felt happy and less moody -- was that sugar had been the problem, but I later realized the positive reaction was more about getting control of my diet finally and eating less. When I added sugar back in I did in extreme moderation -- I don't snack, but I don't worry if a condiment (like sriracha) has a bit of sugar, and I have occasional desserts (but make sure they are special). I find it's easy to moderate desserts if they are after a full dinner and nutrient-dense day and I'm not eating for emotional reasons. I also find that some of my preferred "sweets" aren't that sweet -- I recommend the 88% Chocolove, which is pretty low sugar -- but this has always been the case for me so maybe won't apply. (I HATED cold cereal as a kid and thought the sugar in milk thing was icky.)

Nonetheless, I would say I have a sweet tooth and enjoy plenty of desserts. (Oddly, my sister who was a sugar fiend as a kid no longer enjoys sweet foods at all.)

I’ve noted my macros are far more balanced and I can eat more savoury food to make up for missing out on the calories, meaning I feel full for longer.

Lots of people include sugar in their diet and yet still have a balanced set of macros, whatever that means. Watching macros is separate from cutting sugar -- you could have been strict about your macros before. (I personally ignore macros and do limit added sugar, so not saying one is a better approach, I just find the idea that one must cut sugar to control macros to be odd.)

Everything tastes different which means water is far more palatable than it was before and I now eat a low sugar breakfast cereal with no more than 7grams of sugar in it.

This was NOT my experience, cutting sugar made no effect on my tastes, and I can't even understand how one could find water not palatable.

If you still have 7 g of sugar in your breakfast cereal, isn't that added sugar? Just confused since I thought you said you cut it out.

Today it took me 20 minutes to find where the local supermarket had hidden the dried fruit.

Dried fruit is super easy to find in every supermarket I've been to, although you need to read the labels, some may have added sugar (I just finally found some dried cranberries without it, although I use them in ingredients as they are TART on their own).

Anyway, for me the goal was cutting out snacking -- finding snacks without added sugar was always pretty easy (favorite snacks of mine include fruit, baba ganoush and veg, a pickle, plain greek yogurt, maybe with some fruit, cottage cheese, and good real cheese, as well as, of course, nuts, but I control calories better just eating at meals).

Anyway, it sounds like FOR YOU cutting back on sugar was an important thing to do and maybe cutting out added sugar is a goal that will be helpful if you decide it is. I don't think that has anything to do with addiction, but if you think people are saying "keep eating crazy amounts of sugar" or even "eat added sugar even if you feel better not doing so," I think you are misunderstanding. I personally do better saving sweets for special occasions.

Good work Mandy! I love hearing stories like this, they are so encouraging. And since our brain's see sugar as a reward, I can imagine it would be awful trying to break that cycle.

Congratulations on your success sticking to your goals! While I do not believe "sugar is the enemy" it does sound like you were largely forgoing other nutrients in order to fit the sugar into your calories for the day. I'm all for saving a couple hundred calories for a daily snack, but not to the point that you lose track of general health. I hope this experiment helps you further improve on balance within your diet to make the healthiest version of yourself while still enjoying your meals.

Addiction, or compulsion to overeat certain foods? I am certainly not qualified to judge anyone else.
My mother made us sandwiches with sugar and butter also. We called them sugar babies. Especially good on homemade bread. Cinnamon sugar toast was also a pretty frequent breakfast for us, good dipped in hot chocolate. Also the sugar on cold, and hot, cereal. Not to mention Kool Aid, seriously, 2 cups of sugar per half gallon! I do love sweets, but would not consider them any more of an addiction than any other food I love. Cutting back on all calories and allowing moderation of all foods is what works for me. I guess I am "addicted" to all foods, cuz I sure love to eat. I understand the concept, and am willing to give those that think they are addicted the benefit of the doubt, as I can only truly speak for myself.

BTW, as others here have stated, dried fruits often have added sugar, so watch labels. In our grocery stores around here, they are in the baking sections. I can't say that I have ever noticed dried fruits in convenience stores, but most have fresh fruit choices such as, bananas, apples, oranges and often pears.

Good luck to all that give up sugar! For me, what I am hoping will work for the long term is, all foods in moderation, and portion control. I could never give up cookies, cake, pies, pastry, candy, or any other food for the long term. Sugary drinks and juice I gave up with no problem at all. Chewing my calories is my thing.