Going Sugar Free

Hi Everyone! I'm trying to cut out sugar to aid me in my weight loss. I Just started a sugar free group: Living a Sugar Free Sweet Life. For people who have or want to eliminate sugar from their diet join the group for a place to share stories, encouragement, and tips.

Group URL:

I've been sugar free for almost 9 years now! It's easy once you get used to it... and just as long as you enjoy the foods you are allowing yourself to eat!

Sugar free??  Does that include artificial sweetners?  Probably does.  I've heard once you cut out the sugars in your diet you don't crave it anymore.  Is that true?  What do you do for desserts?  What are the benefits of doing this? 

I couldn't live without fruit...

I have been sugar free for a few weeks now and the sugar cravings have gone away. I had a crazy issue with sugar- one piece of chocolate led to me eating the whole bar, I couldn't stop at small portions of desserts and sugar I wanted the whole tub of ice cream and couldn't stop at one slice of cake so I decided to try cutting it out. It makes me feel healthier, I have more energy and things like fruit no satisfy the need for a dessert because they seem sweeter to me. I've started by cutting out things like raw sugar in my oatmeal and sugary desserts and breads. The other day I had yogurt that I didn't realize had lots of sugar in it and that set me off again so now I'm looking to cut out the hidden sugars in many food items and go with things like plain yogurt instead

Original Post by foreverme24:

Sugar free??  Does that include artificial sweetners?  Probably does.  I've heard once you cut out the sugars in your diet you don't crave it anymore.  Is that true?  What do you do for desserts?  What are the benefits of doing this? 

It's best to exclude artificial sweetners if you're trying to kick a sweet tooth.  Sweetners are the dietary 'methodone' to sugar's 'heroin' if you wanted to be melodramatic!  The idea is to get your palate used to less sweet foods all round.... so out go the sweetners as well as the sugar.

You simply don't eat desserts for a while.  Instead you'd eat more at a main meal, maybe follow up with some fruit if you need a sweet flavour.

However.... the good news is that after about 8 weeks your palate becomes hugely less 'sugar tolerant'.  This means that you need a lot less sugar in order to taste it.  People often find when they reintroduce their old sugary favourites they taste not sweet but 'sickly sweet'... unappealing.

That's my experience... I kicked sugar in tea and coffee when I was about 18. That led on to me losing my sweet tooth for other things.  I'm now 44 years old and, quite honestly, don't find sweet foods at all appealing unless I'm really, really low on energy.  I've had Easter Eggs go past their sell-by date, it's that bad....

If you are talking about white sugar, I kicked that habit years ago.  It took me two years to completely cut it out of my coffee.

The only reason I have white sugar in my house is for my bread.  Yeast needs sugar to activate it.

Original Post by gi-jane:

Original Post by foreverme24:

Sugar free??  Does that include artificial sweetners?  Probably does.  I've heard once you cut out the sugars in your diet you don't crave it anymore.  Is that true?  What do you do for desserts?  What are the benefits of doing this? 

It's best to exclude artificial sweetners if you're trying to kick a sweet tooth.  Sweetners are the dietary 'methodone' to sugar's 'heroin' if you wanted to be melodramatic!  The idea is to get your palate used to less sweet foods all round.... so out go the sweetners as well as the sugar.

You simply don't eat desserts for a while.  Instead you'd eat more at a main meal, maybe follow up with some fruit if you need a sweet flavour.

However.... the good news is that after about 8 weeks your palate becomes hugely less 'sugar tolerant'.  This means that you need a lot less sugar in order to taste it.  People often find when they reintroduce their old sugary favourites they taste not sweet but 'sickly sweet'... unappealing.

That's my experience... I kicked sugar in tea and coffee when I was about 18. That led on to me losing my sweet tooth for other things.  I'm now 44 years old and, quite honestly, don't find sweet foods at all appealing unless I'm really, really low on energy.  I've had Easter Eggs go past their sell-by date, it's that bad....

 

Great Comment. It is a good idea to cut out artificial sweeteners as well. I also believe that artificial sweeteners are bad for you in general. I cut out sugar in my coffee a long time ago as well (I used to put 4 packs of sweetener in one latte) but now I can't image putting sugar in coffee. Cutting out sugar can be hard at first but I've substitutes fruit in place of sugary desserts often after a meal if I'm feeling like I need something. One of my favorite things to do right now is let bananas get to that slightly too ripe to eat plain point and then putting them in the freezer. I then blend a frozen banana with milk and a little vanilla to make a shake. The ripened bananas are naturally sweet and good for you and it's a great treat at the end of the day when I'm feeling like I deserve something yummy. I like having them on hand in the freezer and then I don't have to add ice to the shake either.