Cutting out sugar from my diet. Has anyone else done this (or IQS)?

WantToBeSE

I bought some books written about sugar and its effect on health. Then I picked up some of Sarah Wilsons 'I Quit Sugar' books and read through those.


The more I read about it, the more I believe that cutting out sugar is the way forward for me. While I am looking forward to any weight loss that happens, that's not my primary goal.


I want to feel more energetic and balance my moods out, and hopefully sleep better! As well as that, I don't want to feel like an addict, which I do at the moment. I literally struggle to go 1 day without sugar in some form.


If I cant have chocolate, I will eat 5-6 pieces of fruit to get that sugar hit, or anything else that is sweet tasting.


HAs anyone here done the IQS 8 week programme? I am not actually doing that, but the idea sounds good.


Basically the idea is to replace sugar with fat. Sound like madness, I know, but I started trying it before Christmas and lost 4lbs in a week and felt great! So I know it works, and now I don't have the temptations of Christmas


Anyone else doing/done this? Or anyone want to join me in doing it?

Nick_C

Its one of the principles of the Atkins diet. I've been on a low carb diet for 3 years. I've lost weight, and my bp and cholesterol have both dropped, despite enjoying fry ups for breakfast most mornings.

WantToBeSE

Nick_C wrote: »

Its one of the principles of the Atkins diet. I've been on a low carb diet for 3 years. I've lost weight, and my bp and cholesterol have both dropped, despite enjoying fry ups for breakfast most mornings.

I didn't realise that. Doesn't the Atkins diet suggest lots of meat? The IQS suggests a vegetable based diet, with some meat and other full fat dairy as well.


I am getting back on it as from yesterday. I am just going to eat my normal diet and cut out the sweet foods. I have already stopped having sugar in my coffee and tea, stopped eating jam, honey and lemon curd.


I have tried a few of the savoury recipes from the book and they have all been nice. But I don't want to try the sweet ones, as I want to get rid of the sweet taste altogether at the moment.

thehappybutterfly

I'm sort of following IQS and have tried quite a few of the recipes - bacon and egg cupcakes are my favourite! Tbh, the sweet recipes aren't actually very sweet at all. She uses raw cacao powder which is very bitter and quite savoury.

ciderwithrosie_2

No, this is the long held myth about Atkins and the low-carb way of eating that it's all meat. Lots of vegetables (just not very starchy or sweet ones) and dairy, eggs, fish, nuts and some small amounts of fruits like berries.


I think I read once that you only need 1 teaspoon of sugar/glucose in your blood stream to maintain normal function. Most of us intake many times that in a day.


People are often under the misapprehension that fruit contains natural sugar therefore is better for you or doesn't count - fructose is still broken down in the body for the same result as processed sugar. So I wouldn't eat 5 - 6 pieces of fruit a day or you may as well have a can of coke.

margaretclare

Try looking at any food items with added sugar. Difficult, because over the past few decades it has been sneakily added to a whole lot of processed foods.

One answer can be to eat more 'natural' i.e. unprocessed, and less processed with a long list of ingredients.

Jimmy Doherty's TV exploration into different countries' diets showed up Iceland as the healthiest country in the world regarding what they eat, and the point was made very strongly - eat food as near to its natural state as possible. The Icelanders eat a lot of fish, but they don't chop it up, coat it in batter and deep-fry it. Why do we do that? What's wrong with eating a potato that you can recognise as a potato, rather than cutting it into bits and deep-frying it?

It's a bit simplistic just to replace chocolate with several fruit items. True, if you eat one orange it's better for you than drinking a glass of orange juice, which would result in you getting the sugar from several oranges in one go. Fructose is sugar. Some is OK, but not in excess.

The LCHF diet is now being talked about quite a lot rather than Atkins.

WantToBeSE

I am hoping that a low sugar diet will help with mood stabilisation and eliminate (or at least help) my candida problems.


If anyone follows a low sugar diet, what differences in health and wellbeing have you noticed?

Gloomendoom

WantToBeSE wrote: »

If I cant have chocolate, I will eat 5-6 pieces of fruit to get that sugar hit, or anything else that is sweet tasting.

I'm confused. I thought that you wanted to cut sugar from your diet.

thehappybutterfly

I agree with margaretclare. That programme was a real eye opener wasn't it? It's processed food I want cut out and, by extension, processed sugar. I'm not sure I stand by cutting out ALL sugar - just the nasty stuff that's added to food. And that includes artificial sweeteners. Keep food as simple as possible.

margaretclare

Talking about 'needing that sugar hit' means you have a sugar addiction. Don't replace one kind of sugar with another. Cut down your sugar intake overall. We don't need processed sugar at all.

WantToBeSE

Gloomendoom wrote: »

I'm confused. I thought that you wanted to cut sugar from your diet.

I mean that that's what I USED to do, not what I currently do. I have eliminated all fruit (apart from 1 apple a day) from my diet.