I'm thinking that a sugar free diet isn't that unusual?

[Twartyvajitus]

NC for this as its quite outing (not that I'm that interesting to be 'outed')

I've just had an operation via the NHS, but at a private hospital, I'd done the usual fasting before and was starving a few hours after coming to.

I asked for something to eat and was given a fruit corner, I queried if there was alternative, explaining that I don't eat sugar or sweeteners (a dietary choice made 18mths ago resulting in me dropping my BMI from 49 to 34) and was made to feel like an absolute pain in the arse - and told there was nothing else!

I was reluctantly given a latte - but one of those sachet sweetened ones.

Was I being really princessy? I've never struggled with not being able to eat anything offered to me before, I'll eat anything savoury. Has anyone else given up all things sweet?

Gosh the typos! 🤯

I wouldn't have wanted that yoghurt either. I eat homemade plain yoghurt with nuts, fruit and nothing added to sweeten it. There are lots of things which are over sweetened.

Well good, because tinned tomatoes definitely have sugar in them. Things that don’t taste sweet can still have a lot of sugar. A sweet taste isn’t what you should be going by if you want to be sugar free. So i’m sure they’d have something that wouldn’t make a difference to your ‘diet.’ You do eat sugar! Yanbu to want low sugar things though. I’d check packaging and avoid anything processed or packaged, again they may be savoury but with high sugar content. Well done on the bmi op!

I went cold turkey on sugar and sweetener when diagnosed as T2 diabetic. I also watch my carb intake carefully, and am vegetarian. Needless to say, being an inpatient recently wasn't an enjoyable experience. It's quite scary to see the processed crap disguised as food.... we just don't eat like that at home, and it made me feel really low in mood for a few days. Once you get used to the change, you can spot sugar a mile off, it makes my tongue tingle now. As for the "sugar free" or "no added sugar" labels, most manufacturers should be shot they are so very misleading. And the sleb cooks selling their recipe books........ HONEY AND MEDJOOL DATES ARE STILL FUCKING SUGAR.

I wouldn't have a clue what you meant by sugar free, other than the obvious sweet foods.
I think you should probably have got your friends/family to bring you in something

Tinned tomatoes with sugar in ? You mean like chopped tomatoes? I’ll check a can tomorrow but I’m pretty sure they don’t. Beans, ketchup, tomato soup etc all do. Even low sugar beans are full of added sweetener crap.

IABU then for using the term 'sugar free'

I think my actual words were 'I don't eat sweet stuff' .. but I was smacked off my tits on morphine 🤣

It's not something I have to verbalise very often, as I just say 'no thanks' to desserts etc or biscuits when going for coffee.

I eat a sugar free diet and when I tell people this some look at me like I’ve got two heads. It’s also insanely difficult to find sugar free alternatives to some things. Congrats on the weight loss BTW. I am sugar free for a variety of reasons and it’s certainly helped me manage my weight too.

I'd have assumed in a hospital of all places this wouldn't have been such a big deal!! Very timely post, after a few days of eating a lot of sugar my skin is very red (was told before was rosacea, tried everything on the market and just as was giving up I upped water intake and hugely cut sugar intake) Well done you and not princessy. I would love to learn how to do buns etc for kids with minimal sugar but equivalent taste!

reformed meat eater wouldn't eat a one off slice of ham or an ex smoker wouldn't have just one fag.

I do both those things [santa]

No such thing as “sugar free” diet. Unless you survive exclusively on single protein sources, which would be very unhealthy.

Not eating sweet foods or food with processed sugar is more accurate.

Nhs hospitals are stuck with outside caterers. Not a lot they can do. As pp said, plain yog is ok, without the fruit puree. I don’t like fruit corner so haven’t checked if the yoghurt as well as the fruit is sweetened.

Tinned tomatoes with sugar in hmm? You mean like chopped tomatoes? I’ll check a can tomorrow but I’m pretty sure they don’t

They don’t have added sugar, but they do contain naturally occuring sugar.

Label from ocado own brand tinned toms...

It was a private hospital - with a posh housekeeper button on the nurse call bell!!

I've already conceded to my incorrect label 😊

I think if you are restricting any particular food, then it just makes life easier to carry something you can have as an alternative with you at all times - whether it is a savory snack in your case, or decaff teabags, or a pack of sweeteners, or a vegan snack or whatever it is that might not always just be available when people aren't expecting you.

That said, considering what your operation was, you'd have thought there might have been a bit more consideration around what might be offered for a frst 'snack' once you came round

They don’t have added sugar, but they do contain naturally occuring sugar.

Which are two completely and utterly different things and you'd have to be some sort of numpty to try and conflate them as one! Apart from animal flesh all foods contain naturally occurring sugars.

No not unusual OP. I'm refined sugar free so still use honey in baking. I don't eat fruit though. Not because I don't want to, it makes me feel sick (except bananas).

On the odd occasion I have something sugary it actually makes me feel dizzy so I don't think you were being unreasonable at all to ask for an alternative.

Hospitals do cater for specialist diets including extremely complex ones but they can't be expected to cater for every patients individual preferences. A yoghurt after an op would be a very standard offering and I'd say you were fairing pretty well being offered a mueller corner. Often yoghurts and the like are stocked as higher kcal snacks for people needing the extra nourishment so it is actually quite unlikely that you would find a sugar free one. Following a low sugar diet to the extent you do is a choice (a good one by the sounds of it) so I do think you are a bit unreasonable expecting an alternative.

Well fundamentally there are all those diabetics out there who are supposed to be sugar free.

I think it's pretty crap to offer fruit corners to patients having gastric band operations. What sort of message does that give?

I'm sure it wouldn't happen in an NHS hospital, they usually offer sandwiches.

she’s having her band taken out though. If it were being put in you wouldn’t be capable of eating anything like a yogurt.

well i think you were being a bit princessy. you could have eaten it, or some of it.?

although there should have been some understand in that you had had a gastric band removal, what would you have preferred op? toast?

I've genuinely not touched anything sweet (cake, choc, pop, ice cream etc) since last year

I think that is probably quite unusual. Fair play to you though because I couldn't do it for a week!

I agree with a pp who said about 'sugar free' baking though, a shed load of honey/agave/stevia isn't any better IMO and it doesn't taste as good. My dc have been invited to a few parties where it was sugar free food and it was crap and possibly not any better than the usual stuff. My dentist always warns about dry fruit given as snacks, particularly raisins as they are really bad for the teeth.

Band taken out doesn't matter. If someone is in hospital for a weight related problem surely it's common sense not to give them fruit corners, if only because when the NHS or other healthcare org is dishing those out it sends a poor message to patients about healthy eating.

The NHS has guidelines about this sort of thing now. But private hosps are a law onto themselves.

Yes! littlebookofcalm I asked for a piece of toast. This would have been fine with the operation I'd had. I think the reason they insisted on making me have something sloppy was because according to my discharge info I had been given a gastric balloon! I've no idea where that came from, it wasn't my smoothest hospital stay! My yearning for private healthcare has dissipated somewhat.

Maybe the grass isn't always a greener 😉