AIBU to ask how you go sugar free?

[TheweewitchRoz]

I'm not being deliberately dense but how do you actually go sugar free given sugar is in pretty much everything?

I accept no cake & chocolate but is it also no fruit? So only eating vegetables? What about drinks? No fizzy drinks obviously but what about milk or is it literally only drinking water?

I'd like to give it a go but as far as I can see, sugar is in pretty much everything so not sure where to start & if it's literally just eating veg & drinking water, then doubt I'll last

TIA

I did it last year for 8 months, lost nearly 2 stones. I just gave up processed food and refined sugar. I ate pretty large amounts of fruit and carbs. I also swopped from low fat to regular dairy products. I occasionally had honey. I occasionally had takeaways or nights out off plan. It was a slow but steady weight loss (1lb a week roughly) and no weight came off for three weeks, but the inches fell off - particularly on my face, waist and legs. I fell off the wagon big time in sept, but intend to start again this week.

I found a Facebook page "I quit sugar" useful and Paul McKenna's hypno book useful for a summary of the whys and wherefores.

I have T1 diabetes, I was diagnosed 18 months ago.

My diet is pretty low carb compared to most people, but it isn’t Keto (limited to 20g of carbs per day).

All food which contains carbohydrates requires an insulin response. This is regardless of whether it is “natural” or “refined”. If a food is high in fibre (which means not refined) or you eat it alongside good fat as well then that response can be slowed down, which keeps you full for longer.

So, I drink milk with my coffee, but it’s always full-fat. I do eat fruit, but normally berries, or limit portion size or eat with something like cream or peanut butter.

For me I feel the healthiest when I eat a wide variety of vegetables and fruit. I limit fruit and tend to avoid things like potatoes and sweet potatoes, but everything else I eat.

My hb1ac is in the non-diabetic level. I weigh 57kg.

My advice to anyone contemplating dietary changes is to work out what feeling you want to achieve and how you know when you are going to get there.

Then take it in small steps. So cut down or eliminate sugar in tea and coffee. Switch from white bread to sourdough or dense grainy seeded bread. Buy a really good vegetable cookbook and learn to cook vegetables well. Drink more water!

Well, yes - fruit has fibre in it (as well as vitamins), so it's indisputably a better option than mainlining granulated sugar! But still, the fructose/glucose will work on your body in the same way.

The point is that when the fructose is combined with fibre, it acts differently and therefore it is perfectly fine to consume fruit in a healthy diet whereas it is wise to cut out refined sugar. Unless you want to go into ketosis, you will reap health benefits from cutting refined sugar but continuing to eat fruit. I have yet to hear of anyone who got fat or unhealthy from eating apples and bananas.

Like any diet it's just a device to reduce calories in.

Absolutely not the case.

100 calories from fat will have a totally different impact on your body than will 100 calories from carbohydrate. The latter will spike an insulin release, which is what causes the body to lay down fat. The former won't. It simply isn't the case that 'a calorie is a calorie is a calorie'

Yes but I'm not on a sugar free diet so my diet IS a device to reduce calories.

I am still eating carbs, fructose and lactose so I am just using an arbitrary rule to reduce my calories.

If I chose to go low carb then that would change my body's response but I tried it and felt like I was running through treacle.

Google Sarah Wilson, she's the sugar free queen

Going low carb does affect your body and your ability to exercise, in the short term. Once you're fat-adapted (i.e. your body has switched from burning carbs to burning fat), which can take a couple of weeks at least, then things will be fine. Often better.

The idea is that eating too much sugar pushes insulin resistance - you then crave carbs and more sugar as your body thinks you are starving.

If you cut them out you can lower your insulin levels and so start having a normal appetite again as your body doesn't think it's about to starve to death all the time.

This was definitely my personal experience - the first week I felt dreadful but afterwards I was surprised how I could eat far less calories a day than I usually did and not feel as hungry. A lot of what I'd experienced as hunger and how I'd decided what I wanted to eat, had been based on my high insulin levels. After dropping the sugar I turned into someone who liked salad for the first time ever.

I think the thing to remember is that there is no firm and fast rule about what “low carb” actually means.

Keto refers to eating less than 20g carbs per day, mostly from green vegetables.

Other than that there are many variations. But I do think that at the end cutting out as much overly processed food will result in a diet lower in sugar than you previously ate.

I think it depends what kind of a diet you're coming from too - loads of processed food and sugar to plant based low carb will be more of a shock than someone who already eats lean protein, sweet potato etc instead of pie and chips.

It's totally possible to lose tons of weight and get healthier without going full-on low carb! OP cutting out refined sugars (NOT fruit!) would be an excellent start and you'll no doubt see benefits in the way you look and feel very quickly.

At the early stage even simply cutting out cakes, sweets and juices can make a massive difference, and you can take it from there at your own pace. Good luck with it!

I would also recommend Sarah Wilson, I quit sugar saved me

I did a month of no refined sugar last year. I might do it again. I made my own rules up, I avoided anything with added sugar, or artificial sweeteners. I did 'cheat' and had nak'd bars, and sweet potato brownies (sweetened with banana), and allowed myself to have a little honey and maple syrup.
Sugar is addictive, I need to wean myself off it again.
I did find that my skin was terrible for a week or so when I cut back sugar, but my brain felt less 'foggy'.

You could come up with a threshold, like maximum 5% of calories is from sugars (that happens to be the ceiling for skim milk)

Swapping milk for unsweetened almond milk is really good - cuts out lots of sugar from lactose.
Also highly recommend Alpro soya coconut yoghurt for a treat.

I forgot about Coyo yoghurts! They have no added sugar, and come in chocolate, vanilla and salted caramel flavours. I don't like soy myself, it upsets my digestion.
I also really like plain natural yoghurt.

I don't eat refined sugar or processed foods. Drink only water too. I'm also vegan right now and eat low carb, high protein. I am quite possibly the fittest I've ever been (made the changes 13 months ago). I won't stick with being vegan but cutting out refined sugar, processed food and caffeine was a revelation. I warn you though, the withdrawal was fecking awful.

Thanks all.

I'm following human's way really - Day 3 of no biscuits, cake, chocolate, white bread or alcohol & drinking water. Can't say I feel any different but I feel better simply for having made the decision & therefore saying no to whatever is on offer (work is currently full of cakes & biscuits as I think everyone is emptying their cupboards of 'bad' stuff).

I do seem to be peeing & pooing a lot more (sorry TMI ) but not sure if that's related or just coincidence.

Well done Roz!

Wow Show that sounds like an amazing diet. Can I ask how long you’ve been following it and if you lost weight?

Show That is did you go from eating everything to making all those changes 13 months ago? And how on earth did you do it before Christmas?!