Giving up sugar. Anyone done it?

[Tiberia]

I am thinking of giving up sugar - cold-turkey.

 

Has anyone done this?

What do you use instead?

What about chocolate?:001_huh:

(and Nutella?!:blink:)

 

Background:

I've had this weird eye infection/rash for a month. It won't go away, even with a steroid cream. I didn't eat sugar for the last 48 hours, and the rash is going away. All I can figure is that the sugar is somehow feeding the infection. I had a little sugar this morning, and the rash hurts. So, I'm thinking of getting off sugar for a while.

 

I know I can "just do it," but if any of you have experience in this area, share it with me, please. Thanks!

 

I can't do artificial sweeteners: they make me sick.

[eternalknot]

I did. I did a candida cleanse.

 

It was long and horrible. The first 3-4 days felt like 300.

 

Like you, I had a rash that began to heal once I eliminated sugar.

 

It got worse before it got better, but wow - once it got better, it was great!

 

Mentally it's a hard cleanse to do because it requires a lot of home-cooking and you don't realize how pervasive sugar is. It's in everything. It takes a week or so for your tastes to change accordingly, but when it does - again, wow. Great stuff!

 

Good luck.

 

I won't do artificial sweeteners, either, so it's all or nothing. It's not forever, though! I did a 21-day cleanse, then another 7 days of very slowly re-introducing sugars. Now is a good time, before the winter holidays and social obligations that come with those.

[gardenmom5]

I did for a short time. I gave up EVERY form of sugar - no milk (lactose), no fruit (fructose), no bread - as all leavened breads have sugar to feed the yeast.

 

I went cold turkey. It took me a month to withdraw (mostly changing behavior), but I felt FABULOUS once I did. My allergies didn't bother me, I had TONS of energy I put butter, cinnamon, and ground pecans on my oatmeal, tuna on rice caks, etc. I ate as much as I wanted of anything (as long as there was no sugar), so I was full after a meal. The weight also melted off.

 

I've found my relationship with chocolate is - if I stay away from it I'm fine. If I have ONE bite - I'm doomed. I. can't. stay. away. from it.

[MIch elle]

I have Splenda in my coffee and yogurt = 2 packets/day. That's it. I'm on the Atkins diet so sugar is not allowed.

[Tiberia]

I won't do artificial sweeteners, either, so it's all or nothing. It's not forever, though! I did a 21-day cleanse, then another 7 days of very slowly re-introducing sugars. Now is a good time, before the winter holidays and social obligations that come with those.

 

Thanks. This is encouraging. I'm glad it worked for you!

[Tiberia]

I did for a short time. I gave up EVERY form of sugar - no milk (lactose), no fruit (fructose), no bread - as all leavened breads have sugar to feed the yeast.

 

I went cold turkey. It took me a month to withdraw (mostly changing behavior), but I felt FABULOUS once I did. My allergies didn't bother me, I had TONS of energy I put butter, cinnamon, and ground pecans on my oatmeal, tuna on rice caks, etc. I ate as much as I wanted of anything (as long as there was no sugar), so I was full after a meal. The weight also melted off.

 

I've found my relationship with chocolate is - if I stay away from it I'm fine. If I have ONE bite - I'm doomed. I. can't. stay. away. from it.

 

Wow! I know sugar is all over the place. I'm thinking of cutting out obvious sugars, but I'll have to think about the milk, fruit, bread. Thanks for answering. You give me food for thought (sorry about the pun:001_smile:)

 

(Chocolate calls my name sometimes...)

[butterflymommy]

Yes-- I've been sugar free. I went nearly 2 years but then a pregnancy brought sugar cravings back and I never managed to shake it after that. I'm thinking of trying again.

 

I only gave up processed sugars and sweeteners (including honey and maple syrup). I didn't give up fruit or fruit juice even though those are high in "sugar" too. I did sometimes use small amount of sugar in salad dressing but any kind of baked dessert, and yes chocolate, were out of the picture.

[jplain]

Did you try an over the counter anti-fungal cream like Lotrimin? A rash that doesn't respond to antibiotic ointment or a topical steroid may be fungal. And I'd suspect fungus even more strongly if sugar intake seems to affect it.

 

When you get a chance, you may wish to get your hemoglobin A1C measured. Adults with fungal infections oftentimes turn out to be prediabetic or undiagnosed type II diabetics. If you test yourself privately, WalMart sells an inexpensive mail-in test manufactured by the company ReliOn. (Just be careful to choose the right product, as WalMart also sells ReliOn brand glucose meters.)

[kwickimom]

I gave it up cold turkey and don't miss it. I use 2 splenda a day in my coffee. I buy sugar free candy and pudding if I need chocolate. Once in a blue moon I will have a candy bar or brownie or piece of cake and its sooo sweet to my tastebuds I can barely eat it. One square of a Hersheys satisfy's me like an entire candy bar used to. I don't remember withdrawals or anything. I just went to sugar free stuff and it didnt bother me too much.

[Rosie_0801]

Sugar cravings are often a sign of calcium/magnesium deficiency. Remedying that problem means you need less willpower :)

 

Rosie

[kolamum]

I am thinking of giving up sugar - cold-turkey.

 

Has anyone done this?

 

Yes, and it wasn't as bad as you might thing. We do not eat sugar due to sugar sensativities within our home. A few of us merely cannot process it properly and have issues. Yeast related, attitude related, and thus food related.

 

What do you use instead?

 

It's something you have to decide for yourself. In our home we do not permit artificial sugars. Instead we use: Maple Syrup, Honey, Molasses, bran syrup, organic coconut sugar {not to be confused with palm sugar}, agave, stevia, & xylitoll. We do not use them all at one time. Some work better in certain recipes then others. It's been an experiment finding what works best, but I now have a decent repitoure of recipes I can work with {sweets related} as well as products I trust and buy {brand wise}, and thus I blog about it because it was a STRUGGLE to get there. I knew other people might have the same trouble finding recipes and making them work. So I share{d}.

 

What about chocolate?:001_huh:

(and Nutella?!:blink:)

 

Believe it or not there are options! First off, in regards to chocolate you can make things like brownies & chocolate cake and hot cocoa with various sweeteners. We have a tried and true recipe for each one, and brownies was the HARDEST one to come up with, but we did!

 

As for eating bars of chocolate, again there are options!! One company in particular, Loving Earth, sells chocolate sweetened with Agave! It rocks, but then I've been off sugar so long sugar sweetened stuff can gag me and give me a sugar high from just one bite. If you like dark chocolate I think you'd like it. They have a few different flavors too. My dh is a big chocolate man, but he hasn't given up sugar entirely. He doesn't like dark chocolate and isn't a fan of this brand. Bummer for him, good for me. HAHA

 

There's also a place in the states {Squirrel something I think} that sells peppermint patties made with honey. Sooooo wish I could get some of them. I miss mint patties. :lol: Also, SunSpire sells chocolate chips sweetener with a corn and barley based sweetener instead of sugar. While I'm not too sure about eating them alone {I'm torn, but then do cost a bit to have them shipped this far, perhaps that's my problem} My kids, my husband, and I love them in choco chip cookies. I even made them for a very picky niece and she loved them so much each time she's come to visit since she's asked if I've got any. I call that a HUGE success.

 

Background:

I've had this weird eye infection/rash for a month. It won't go away, even with a steroid cream. I didn't eat sugar for the last 48 hours, and the rash is going away. All I can figure is that the sugar is somehow feeding the infection. I had a little sugar this morning, and the rash hurts. So, I'm thinking of getting off sugar for a while.

 

I know I can "just do it," but if any of you have experience in this area, share it with me, please. Thanks!

 

I can't do artificial sweeteners: they make me sick.

 

We had this issue with yeast. As soon as I made the move to remove sugar {several years ago} all the yeast problems my child had been fighting since being an infant were gone. The yeast problems I'd been fighting since I'd gotten pregnant with this child were gone. No more. I tried sugar again after that and got a wicked bad yeast infection. That was it, I needed no more proof.

 

Artificial sweeteners aren't worth the money. Don't buy them. Don't use them. Perhaps on occasion, but in general they aren't worth it. At. All.

 

As I mentioned above I did blog a lot of my sweet recipes. I have quite a few cookbooks I can share names and links for, etc if you're interested. If you need any help giving up sugar you might enjoy reading Little Sugar Addicts. It's not a MUST read, and she even shuns, to some degree, natural sweeteners. I'm not into ridding us of even natural ones, but we do not use cane sugar in anything. :D

 

Feel free to pm me if you need links or info I'm happy to share there or here. ;)

 

ETA: I even have a recipe {somewhere} for homemade Nutella! ;)

[Tiberia]

Thanks for all the information everyone! I really appreciate it. Your responses have given me a great starting point.

[justamouse]

I did it, cold turkey. It wasn't pretty at first, but once the cravings got out of mys system, it really didn't matter.

 

I didn't loose any weight, I didn't feel any better, so after 3 months, I started eating it again. *shrug* I guess I don't each much to begin with? I dunno.

 

I hope it works better for you!

[Greta]

I don't eat sugar, or most of the things that quickly turn into sugar once they're digested (grains, potatoes, etc.). I do eat fruit, but always with some fat to slow the absorption of the sugars and increase the bio-availability of the vitamins (and I tend to chose the less sugary fruits, like berries instead of bananas).

 

It's not that hard for me, because I've learned how badly my body reacts to those foods. And once you've suffered through that a few times, you're pretty motivated to avoid something that makes you feel so horrible!

 

I personally recommend cold turkey without any substitutes. Try that for a couple of weeks, and you will find that your tastebuds have readjusted, that you taste the natural sweetness in foods more profoundly, and that most things that people call "sweets" are actually sickly sweet. At least, that has been my experience.

[Heidi]

Yes, and it wasn't as bad as you might thing. We do not eat sugar due to sugar sensativities within our home. A few of us merely cannot process it properly and have issues. Yeast related, attitude related, and thus food related.

 

 

 

It's something you have to decide for yourself. In our home we do not permit artificial sugars. Instead we use: Maple Syrup, Honey, Molasses, bran syrup, organic coconut sugar {not to be confused with palm sugar}, agave, stevia, & xylitoll. We do not use them all at one time. Some work better in certain recipes then others. It's been an experiment finding what works best, but I now have a decent repitoure of recipes I can work with {sweets related} as well as products I trust and buy {brand wise}, and thus I blog about it because it was a STRUGGLE to get there. I knew other people might have the same trouble finding recipes and making them work. So I share{d}.

 

 

 

Believe it or not there are options! First off, in regards to chocolate you can make things like brownies & chocolate cake and hot cocoa with various sweeteners. We have a tried and true recipe for each one, and brownies was the HARDEST one to come up with, but we did!

 

As for eating bars of chocolate, again there are options!! One company in particular, Loving Earth, sells chocolate sweetened with Agave! It rocks, but then I've been off sugar so long sugar sweetened stuff can gag me and give me a sugar high from just one bite. If you like dark chocolate I think you'd like it. They have a few different flavors too. My dh is a big chocolate man, but he hasn't given up sugar entirely. He doesn't like dark chocolate and isn't a fan of this brand. Bummer for him, good for me. HAHA

 

There's also a place in the states {Squirrel something I think} that sells peppermint patties made with honey. Sooooo wish I could get some of them. I miss mint patties. :lol: Also, SunSpire sells chocolate chips sweetener with a corn and barley based sweetener instead of sugar. While I'm not too sure about eating them alone {I'm torn, but then do cost a bit to have them shipped this far, perhaps that's my problem} My kids, my husband, and I love them in choco chip cookies. I even made them for a very picky niece and she loved them so much each time she's come to visit since she's asked if I've got any. I call that a HUGE success.

 

 

 

We had this issue with yeast. As soon as I made the move to remove sugar {several years ago} all the yeast problems my child had been fighting since being an infant were gone. The yeast problems I'd been fighting since I'd gotten pregnant with this child were gone. No more. I tried sugar again after that and got a wicked bad yeast infection. That was it, I needed no more proof.

 

Artificial sweeteners aren't worth the money. Don't buy them. Don't use them. Perhaps on occasion, but in general they aren't worth it. At. All.

 

As I mentioned above I did blog a lot of my sweet recipes. I have quite a few cookbooks I can share names and links for, etc if you're interested. If you need any help giving up sugar you might enjoy reading Little Sugar Addicts. It's not a MUST read, and she even shuns, to some degree, natural sweeteners. I'm not into ridding us of even natural ones, but we do not use cane sugar in anything. :D

 

Feel free to pm me if you need links or info I'm happy to share there or here. ;)

 

ETA: I even have a recipe {somewhere} for homemade Nutella! ;)

YES PLEASE!!!!! Whatever you would like to share/link would be greatly appreciated. Your blog of recipes & recommended cookbooks; I would love it. I'm sure others would too. Thanks! :D

[happi duck]

Yes-- I've been sugar free. I went nearly 2 years but then a pregnancy brought sugar cravings back and I never managed to shake it after that. I'm thinking of trying again.

 

It wasn't pregnancy, but I too went sugar free and then back and haven't been able to shake it either.

 

Sugar cravings are often a sign of calcium/magnesium deficiency. Remedying that problem means you need less willpower :)

 

Rosie

 

Wow, this is really interesting. Off to look up the rec. dose of calc/mag. thanks for posting

[Guest submarines]

We do it for periods of time--months sugar free, and then months of very low intake. Not as elaborately as Kolamom, though!

 

I bake with honey or maple syrup (usually 1/3 to 1/4 of what's recommended), I hardly ever sweaten tea or coffee, but if I do, then I use stevia or xylitol. Even when I'm not completely sugar free, I find most of the commercially available sweats cloying, and can't eat them. I also get a reaction of flushed face almost instantenously if I eat something sweatend with sugar.

 

I adore the 98% dark chocolate!

 

Go for it! I feel so much better when I'm sugar free!

[cuckoomamma]

Almost no sugar :-) I use a teaspoon in my coffee in the morning. Sometimes I put honey on puffed rice in the morning as breakfast. Other than that, no sugar. I do eat fruit, though.

 

We have a very limited diet because of food allergies, so I'm already cooking everything from scratch. We don't eat chocolate anyway, so I'm no help there, lol!

 

My rule is that I can eat as many apples or as much watermelon as I want because I'm not eating sugar or chips. The quantity helps to make up for the lack of something sweet to eat.

 

If I cheat and eat some sugar I'm ransacking the house looking for more until the craving goes away. It's absolutely crazy! Even things like using the toothpaste that my girls' dentist gave them that they dont' use (bubblegum) made me start craving sugar.

 

We're allergic to cane sugar and corn, so it's maple sugar or honey. Maple sugar is too expensive and they're both soooo sweet.

 

If you can get through the first week, you're home free unless you cheat again!

[mom2l&j]

I did it for a time period. (I still allowed up to 16 grams a day) I felt great and didn't miss it. I'm back on sugar now just because I'm too lazy.

 

I used Truvia as a sweetener. I loved having Grape Nuts in the morning with just 1 packet of sweetener. I might have used 1 packet in my coffee, but I don't remember.

 

I would eat Dark, Dark Chocolate. It would allow 1 square a day. It really filled my need for chocolate and a sweet (even though it is not sweet).

 

We found Cheez-its (?) to be a good low sugar snack that was still "easy".

[ThreeBlessings]

I'm currently on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet for health reasons. The book is Breaking the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall. It allows no sugar, lactose (you can have store bought butter and hard cheeses like cheddar-no lactose there), grains, potatoes, canned veggies (only frozen or fresh are allowed), and certain fruits and veggies aren't allowed. At first beans and nuts are not allowed, but you get to add those back in about 3-6 months into the diet. You are allowed honey, Welch's grape juice, orange juice not from concentrate, and 'sweet' fruits like bananas, although at first you're to peel and cook all fruits. The certain sugar yeast and some bad bacteria feed off is what is restricted by the diet. You are to include homemade 24 hour yogurt in the diet and can make homemade 24 hour sour cream, cultured butter and french cream. Sorry no chocolate on this diet. It honestly hasn't been that bad for me at all regarding sugar. Not having beans and needing to cook fruits and veggies so much in the beginning instead of raw food has been harder. I'm not used to eating so much meat and eggs. I've never been much of a sweet tooth, though I do enjoy good chocolate!

[Tiberia]

Koala Mum sent me this information and said I could post it here. Lots of great information. Thanks Koala Mum, and thanks everyone else who responded!

 

 

From Koala Mum:

 

For my family we had no issues with the natural sweeteners. We did find that we reacted differently to certain ones, but overall we had no adverse effects from them. I’ve never had them cause yeast infections.

 

Agave is a questionable substance these days. There’s just so much controversy over it, but personally I do not write it off. I do not use it on a regular basis, rather only for a few recipes. My reason being that I do find it can cause us to crave more sweet stuff.

 

One of the reasons we had to write off cane sugar here was that undying need to have more each time we had anything with cane sugar in it. Worse, we were always snarling and grumping. I’m talking being downright mean with no remorse yet we knew it was wrong. My youngest child has this issue like you wouldn’t believe, and I’m not far behind him. Oddly enough both of us were suspected as having sugar issues when we were born. We’ve also been warned that we need to keep a close eye on it, thus removing them has really helped!

 

You can find a Nutella recipe here which uses Agave, I confess I’ve never made it because I have to be careful with nuts due to migraine. http://www.elanaspantry.com/chocolate-hazelnut-spread/

 

So my blog is: http://www.aussiepumpkinpatch.com There’s a nifty recipe tab at the top of the page, but I don’t know that I’ve put all our recipes there. There’s a wonderful chocolate cake recipe in there that’s our go-to recipe for chocolate cake.

 

I don’t know that I’ve posted it yet, but our go-to brownie recipe is one that’s floating around the web and believe it or not is made with black beans. My family had no idea until I fessed up:

 

Black Bean Brownies

 

1 can black beans, well rinsed and drained

3 eggs

1 c coconut sugar {I prefer the loving earth brand}

1/3 c melted butter, melted

1/4 c cocoa powder

2 t vanilla extract

 

But everything in a bowl and whiz with a stick blender until smooth.

 

Another way I make them is:

 

1 tin of black beans

4 eggs

1/4 t salt

1 t baking powder

1/4 c honey

1/4 c maple syrup

 

Put it all in a blender and whiz until smooth.

 

The first recipe is MUCH more brownie like and you can even put nuts in them {1/3 c} and choco chips {1/2 c} but it’s hard to get the grain sweetened choco chips here as I mentioned on the thread.

 

The second recipe can be eaten hot or cold or anywhere in between and be fine. We prefer the first recipe either piping hot OR stone cold but the “in between stage†seems a bit lacking to me.

 

Cookbooks:

 

The Rodale Whole Foods Cookbook is an awesome cookbook and most of the deserts use natural sweeteners. You can easy sub Maple, Date, or Coconut sugar for any recipe that calls for sugar.

 

Stevia: Naturally Sweet Recipes for Desserts, Drinks & More is another one I own. I don’t use it as much these days because with it’s help I’ve figured out how to convert most of our old recipes to sugar free ones!

 

I Can’t Believe This Has No Sugar Cookbook is another really good one, all though I think some recipes lack enough sweetener in them. When that happens I merely do 1/2 t of stevia and 2 T of honey. I think their banana bread recipe is one, and I think I revamped it and shared it on my blog.

 

Sweet & Sugar Free An All Natural Cookbook is another one I own, but I find this one really close to the previous book I mentioned. However, this cookbook uses no sweetener aside from fruit juice, and even for our family that isn’t use to sweet stuff it was a shock. Again I remedied this by 1/2 t stevia {extract powder} 2 T honey.

 

The Naturally Sweet Baker is an AMAZING book. I do not own it but I borrow it from the library far too much. I’ve put off purchasing it because many recipes call for date sugar or maple sugar. Two supposedly very amazing natural sweeteners that I can’t obtain in Australia.

 

Hmm, it seems I have a few other blogs, but I’m struggling to find the links! I’ll hunt them down and send them when i find them.

__________________

Koala Mum

married to Tassie Devil

homeschooling Wombat & Platypus.

End of Koala Mum's post