Giving up sugar and starchy carbs

[DragonOverTheMoon]

Hi 👋

I've recently given up sugar and starchy carbs and lost 4lb. I aim to keep it up as I'm still 5lb over healthy weight and ideally want to lose a stone.

What I've read so far around giving up sugar seems really positive, more energy, better skin blabla but to get to that point means not eating bread or cakes ever again and I almost bought rhubarb yesterday but realised I wouldn't like it stewed without sugar.

Has anyone managed it long term? How is it only eating green veg and berries for F&V? Once you get over the sugar and carb cravings can you have the odd brie and grape baguette?

@WildCoasts that's great, and perhap explains that it's not the skin colour that causes wrinkles. I've always been hearing 'white skin wrinkles more.....'

@DragonOverTheMoon nice to hear about your grandmother. and broth. not heard about bone broth before being good for wrinkles.....interesting!

I've usually always believed (whenever I have seen a more wrinkled person around 40-50ish) they have had more stress in their life. So, ladies with only girls as children (girls are more harder to raise I read somewhere)

another thing I saw some ladies do, was to start using antiwrinkle creams from age 30ish. they said to me start using it then you wont wrinkle quicker. I haven't listened to their advice and 40 now. ahould I be using these creams? I always believed that healthy diet is more important rather than what we apply on top??

@DragonOverTheMoon you can still eat cakes and biscuits :-D but experiment with your oven for various home made recipes, good ones I found are wih date paste. or just blackish banana. I haven't tried mixing raisins but they could be used. no honey or sweeteners, it's just the same as sugar.

I found sugar free bread in asda.......was okay

[quote Dinoteeth]@Girlintheframe how long did it take you to loose 2.5 st?

@mumznet i am fairly sure white people have less oil in their skin come compared to darker skins. I believe more oil helps protect against sun damage[/quote]
I lost the majority of the weight whilst doing keto in the first 6 months

I've fallen off the wagon over easter sugar wise.

I gave up sugary fruit and will do again today/tomorrow.

No bananas, dates, grapes, mangos. Trying to stick to berries only if I eat fruit (and not strawberries). The body still converts sugar in fruit as sugar so you will still get sugar highs and lows eating fruit.

And carbs/wheat gets converted to sugar in your body. Wholewheat is better but still not great.

I'm not a terrible sugar addict in that I eat loads of sweets/chocolate/sweet food. But bread/toast is a breakfast lunch and snack for me. Probably getting a sugar fix from it. Like people who drink a lot of alcohol and say they don't have a sweet tooth.. when the sugar in alcohol is terrible. If you don't want sugar cravings go cold turkey on all of it for a week.

I am thinking about doing the blue diet instead. www.bluezones.com/2020/07/blue-zones-diet-food-secrets-of-the-worlds-longest-lived-people/ as mine is for health, yes I could do with losing a stone but it would come off when I can exercise again.

The blue zone is the worlds longest living people's diet. No processed food (so no sugar) meat on special occasions and making their stock/bone broth, little fish like Anchovies rather than predator fish a couple times a week and not a lot of dairy but feta and goats cheese is ok.

I 100% agree about stress adding wrinkles. I am mid 30s and was always ID'd for alcohol, until my marriage became abusive and I was under ginormous stress. I now don't get ID'd anymore and can see my wrinkles. I expect they're there now unless I do botox, but I'm definitely cultivating a less stressful life now. Gabor Mates new book when the body says no, the hidden cost of stress is very illuminating.

I am considering trying to cut sugar out but the damn stuff is hidden in so many foods! I need to seriously do some homework.
So do you cut out the obvious sugars (choc, biscuits, alcohol) and carbs such as white bread, rice etc? What other everyday foods am I forgetting?

@DragonOverTheMoon

I've fallen off the wagon over easter sugar wise.

I gave up sugary fruit and will do again today/tomorrow.

No bananas, dates, grapes, mangos. Trying to stick to berries only if I eat fruit (and not strawberries). The body still converts sugar in fruit as sugar so you will still get sugar highs and lows eating fruit.

And carbs/wheat gets converted to sugar in your body. Wholewheat is better but still not great.

I'm not a terrible sugar addict in that I eat loads of sweets/chocolate/sweet food. But bread/toast is a breakfast lunch and snack for me. Probably getting a sugar fix from it. Like people who drink a lot of alcohol and say they don't have a sweet tooth.. when the sugar in alcohol is terrible. If you don't want sugar cravings go cold turkey on all of it for a week.

I am thinking about doing the blue diet instead. www.bluezones.com/2020/07/blue-zones-diet-food-secrets-of-the-worlds-longest-lived-people/ as mine is for health, yes I could do with losing a stone but it would come off when I can exercise again.

The blue zone is the worlds longest living people's diet. No processed food (so no sugar) meat on special occasions and making their stock/bone broth, little fish like Anchovies rather than predator fish a couple times a week and not a lot of dairy but feta and goats cheese is ok.

I 100% agree about stress adding wrinkles. I am mid 30s and was always ID'd for alcohol, until my marriage became abusive and I was under ginormous stress. I now don't get ID'd anymore and can see my wrinkles. I expect they're there now unless I do botox, but I'm definitely cultivating a less stressful life now. Gabor Mates new book when the body says no, the hidden cost of stress is very illuminating.

@DragonOverTheMoon I understand there is sugar in fruit, however bananas and dates are still healthy. I mean no one eats mangos everyday hopefully. but I viewed strawberries as fine. grapes I did understand early on that are not good when on a diet. So when you are saying that you're not eating fruits, are you also not eating apple, pineapple oranges etc? I understand that is because they may be giving you a sugar hit, but is this strictly for people who are diabetic? or should we all be limiting fruit intake due to its sugar?

I just cut cut white/brown sugar and all sugar substitutes sweeteners. but was still fine with manuka honey (active umf/mgo --umf15) because it can protect from flu colds bla bla...

If I need to also cut fruit, then I am wondering what would I eat. should I just eat more veggies?

talking about wrinkles, if we lose weight will more wrinkles appear I am wondering? do overweight people have less wrinkles? I seemed to believe that I don't know if I am right or wrong?

I meant that when we lose the weight the wrinkles that were hidden due to being overweight may then start 'showing' more once we have lost weight?

So fruit isn't as good for you as veggies, the darker the fruit (apart from grapes) the better it is for you and the less sugar it has. If you were to do a strict no sugar diet you would give up all fruits bar blackcurrents/redcurrant. Obviously an apple is better than a chocolate bar and I'm writing this down having made a manho, pineapple and papaya smoothie but the sugar in fruit is still sugar and it still does to the body what actual sugar does. You just get a dose of fibre and vits alongside it.

If I eat sugary fruits like Bananas and dates I then crave sugar from other sources. Your body just wants that sugar hit.

why are blackcurrants/redcurrants different? thanks

They haven't got a lot of sugar so your blood sugars stay stabalised, green veg keeps your blood sugars in your body stable, but starchy veg like carrots and parsnips are as bad as fruit like bananas.

okay thanks helpful to know that. I hope you enjoyed the smoothie :-) and were you having it after a meal and not as a snack? manho, pineapple and papaya smoothie.

there is something that I heard that if you eat anything sweet then eat it after a protein meal, so protein and veg dinner lunch etc, then eat some fruit. then the blood sugar spike wouldn't be high. so snacks should be a complete no. i have 3 meals and only water in between. any fruit I eat is after a meal, so far it is okay, I weigh at the end of every month.

so instead of BMI I am hearing we should do a waist measurement and it should be half our height. has anyone tried this? I will measure my waist today

who actually first found out about sugar? the white brown one? it's such a addicted thing and tastes so nice, I have been off it for 2.5 months. but how can I stop my under 5 from eating so much sugar??

all the foods are high, yoghurts kids ones, juices, pizzas from asda bla blah biscuits etc.