Sweet Things.......

[simmo39]

Why do we all seem to crave them more and more, even strawberries today are bred to be sweeter! Everything I look at seems to have a ton of sugar in it! It is so hard to give up, help.....!!!!

I so understand where you are coming from simmo39. I think maybe the sugar is quite addictive? What do you think? I must admit I didn't know that about the strawberries. You learn something new every day as they say!

There's no need to give up sugar entirely. And strawberries may contain sugar but it's the natural sort - wrapped in nice fibrous fruit, accompanied by useful vitamins and more slowly digested than the highly refined sort in the sugar basin.

If you build your meals around vegetables, wholegrains and other whole foods (including fresh fruit) then you'll end up with a pretty naturally low-sugar diet as your standard fare. Also, if you carry on eating this way, your body won't be producing the massive amounts of insulin that tend to lead to sugar cravings.

Sugar is something you can also become tolerant to if you eat too much of it. Your tastebuds change and you need lots of sugar in a food in order to be able to taste it. So the longer you can go with a more savoury and less sweet diet, the better the chance that your tastebuds will change back again.... Naturally sweet foods taste sweeter but sugary foods taste overpowering and unappetising.

If you eat that way you can include small amounts of sugary foods without it causing problems or weight-gain. And what would life be without the occasional slice of cake or a piece of chocoate?

I think that has been the hardest thing for me on my LC diet, to kick the sugar habit. Now I am more educated in what to eat I am so much more aware of the sugar that is in food. My taste buds have definitely changed or have become more refined. Why is sugar packed into so many low fat foods?

Yes, I found that quite hard at the start too but 4 months in I can definitely say that I am not craving sugary foods anymore. If I can get to that position then anyone can!

Sugar is packed into (engineered) low fat foods because fat = flavour. Lose the fat and you have to add flavour from somewhere else - and that's often sugar.

If you want to eat less fat, just eat regular full-fat foods in smaller amounts.... then you don't get all the wadding, thickeners and other nasty extras that 'diet foods' are stuffed with.