If you have given up sugar please come this way. I have some questions.

[welliesandsequins]

I am thinking of severely cutting down on sugar intake. I am not trying to lose weight. I just want to be as healthy as I can.
If I give up cakes, biscuits, sweets, fruit juice, (I don't really drink fizzy drinks or alcohol), processed food such as baked beans and chicken nuggets (always have a couple of I am doing them for dds ) but keep eating things like brown bread, fruit, white pasta, berries. Will that be enough to make/feel a difference? Because I will still be having some sugar will I always crave it?
Also I am quite a snacker so any sugar free quick snack ideas would be really welcome.
TIA

Anyone?

Everyone's different, that's probably why no-one's replied.

Anything you do to improve your diet/lifestyle will potentially make you feel better.

Brown pasta tastes just like white but is better for you!
Good luck with the no sugar thing - I keep trying too!

I've completely given up sugar 3 times, usually for a year or more. My motive each time was to lose weight. To be honest it didn't seem to make any difference to my health, I didn't feel any better and I didn't lose any weight.

I'm not eating any sugar or any carbohydrates at all at the moment and I've hardly lost anything in 2 months. I am overweight.

Last time I gave up sugar I seemed to get more colds and had a really horrible flu bug which ended up with a hospital admission. There probably wan't a connection though.

I don't believe that sugar is the enemy the media keep telling us it is. It's just a food, not a poisonous drug.

Have you seen the Davina Macoll (sp) Sugar Free recipe books? I've used it for the last two weeks and have found the recipes delish! BUT they are not sugar free as they are using the natural sugars instead of refined sugars.

Otherwise you could have a look at some recipes for diabetics perhaps.

I now use spelt flour and seeds and nuts and have managed to clean out my store cupboard of things I've bought and hidden!! I've had no ill effects...so far!

I've been doing sugar free February as I wanted to break the sugar habit I was in. Irritatingly I haven't lost ant weight, my skin isn't any clearer and I feel I have the same amount of energy. However I'm hoping I'm healthier because instead of crap I'm eating fruit as snacks. Honestly after the first few days it's been relatively easy

I gave up sugar at the beginning of the year. Stopped cakes, biscuits, sweets, chocolate. Desserts and any other obvious sugar. It has been really positive. I've lost 13ibs and feel great. I've lost the urge to snack and eat between meals which used to be a real problem for me. I still eat fruit, odd bit of ketchup. Good luck, the first week was tough but it got easier and now I really don't miss it.

That sounds quite similar to what I am doing. Nothing extreme. Just the same obvious things. It stopping me wanting to snack so much or crave sweet things would be amazing! Thank you for your reply

I gave up sugar 16 years ago on the advice of an endocrinologist as I had PCOS and was border line diabetic. Best thing I ever did. Because it was an urgent medical need rather than a lifestyle decision I found going cold turkey very easy. I simply cut out all refined sugars from my diet and opted for low GI carbohydrates.

The outcome, I no longer have PCOS and conceived 2 children pretty much first month of trying without any medical interventions. I am no longer at risk of diabetes.

I am not draconian about it, I sometimes eat white bread, white rice, and the occasional biscuit. I used to be a chocolate addict, but now I can eat one square and really not want a second. The thing about giving up sugar is you lose the taste for it. I don't think I could eat a conventional dessert even if I wanted to. It would taste poisonously sweet. I don't even like fruit yogurts, they taste too sweet. I eat plain and add frozen berries for flavour.

I think cutting down on but not completely cutting out sugar is fine. The key things is to avoid massive blood sugar fluctuations so eating low GI is the key. Baked beans may have sugar in, but because it is combined with beans which are low GI it takes the body longer to assimilate. On a similar note if you do want something sweet it is better to eat it as part of a balanced low GI meal than as a single sweet snack.

My go to snack is oatcakes with nut butter. I crave these in the way I used to crave chocolate.