cutting out sugar for health reasons

[braceybracegirl]

i dont need to lose weight but i have been told i have low iron low vit b12 and most worryingly am borderline diabetic. I am a secret sugar eater, chocolate bars. donuts, cakes, etc so I know I need to knock all that on the head. Doctor said fine to have natural sugars (but cut out refined sugar) so I can have fruit, but can I have dried fruit? like nakd bars? can i have sweetener? im not doing this to lose the taste for sugar, i have braces so sometimes things like weetabix are great and that needs sugar or sweetener!!

[braceybracegirl]

anyone?!

[Viviene]

Hi. Do you have PCOS diagnosed as well? (some symptoms you describe would match that). How about eating sweet fruits instead of chocolate things? I don't like sweeteners but aim to eat lots of grapes and bananas (but I do give in to an odd craving). Try to cut out sugar gradually - stop sweetening your tea first, than change mid- afternoon snack for a fruit, never skip breakfast and aim to eat at the same time every day if you can (will help with sugar highs). Doctors in the UK are rubbish about giving advice pre- diabetes (well, my GP was so I had to learn a lot myself). Walk 30 mins a day at the beginning and increase later on - exercise will help with insulin levels. Swap chocolate bars for the ones made from fruits (Nakd makes them I think). After a while (maybe two weeks) your taste will change and you won't like artificially sweetened things (I know I didn't).

[Viviene]

Dried fruit is ok if you it's without added sugar (I.e. Cranberries are) and in moderation.

[braceybracegirl]

fantastic advice thank you. no not got PCOS. Dont have sugar in my tea and am cutting down on tea anyway as it affects the absorption of iron. thats interesting about eat same time everyday i hadn't thought of that.

[SesameSparkle]

Hi I wasn't pre-diabetes, but I did cut out most sugar from my diet. I did it gradually, first with every day substitutions, and then reducing the number of sugar containing things I was consuming. So now I generally don't eat refined sugar, sugar in my coffee (weaned off), sweetened breakfast cereal (no cornflakes etc), no fruit juice or smoothies, no dried fruit (just some odd raisins in my no added sugar muesli), avoiding high sugar fresh fruit (pineapple, grapes....) and limiting fruit like apples/oranges to just a couple of portions a day (berries and low carb options are all ok). The other thing I cut out completely are sweeteners/diet drinks. Sweeteners do 2 bad things - they maintain your sweet tooth and sugar cravings and there are some studies that suggest they contribute to insulin resistance. I lost about 4 stone by cutting out sugar alone, without any dieting. These days I will have the odd treat, but not every day, and I choose them very carefully (nice piece of cake as a weekend treat in a cafe as opposed to some biscuits lying about the office).

If I was threatened with diabetes I would probably consider going even further than this and probably consider low carb or reducing sugar intake even further, eg cutting back on milk sugar (swapping for full fat etc.) If pushed I might even consider fasting. There are great threads on all these things.