has anyone ever managed to kick the sugar habit?

lindens

heuchera wrote: »

I have sugar mid morning (usually a slice of cake with a coffee) and after lunch, to get my energy levels back up.

But if I have chocolate biscuits in the house I tend to just scoff them as and when, throughout the afternoon.



Yes I do bake, I'm not bad at cake-making . I use good quality unbleached flour. I just need to look for some less sugary recipes.

I don't mean this to come across in anyway rude, but you need to educate yourself.
Now I have understood about sugar in my body, peaks and troughs and changed my diet, my energy levels are now constant across the day.


if you have something sugary for breakfast there is a peak and mid morning there is a trough, so you feel the need for cake , then you peak again, then there is a trough, you do the same thing, etc.


look at low GI diet and which foods and change over to these.

izzybella16

Eating sugar to raise energy levels or to correct 'low blood sugar' is nonsense. The body keeps blood glucose in an extremely narrow range and even if you eat nothing for a week it wouldn't go out of this range because the body will make it own glucose and switch over most of the bodies cells to burning fat instead.

The energy boost from sugar does not come from blood sugar, it comes from a boost in pleasure chemicals in the brain.

[Deleted User]

GwylimT wrote: »

Type 2 most definitely can be hereditary.

It can be but I m afraid that the biggest drain on the NHS ( and getting bigger ) is type 2 diabetes. None in my family ( Im type 2 ) and I was fit slim, extremely active, no symtoms etc but over my lifetime I suppose I d treated my pancreas with contempt and now paying for it.. I was weaned in the 1950 s meaning I had a "milky way " a week as a treat. I shudder to think how the kids of today are going to cope when they are already classified as obese at age 11. Diabetes is predicted to maybe bring down the NHS..lets start with a huge sugar tax for a start and some education. Replacing sugar with stuff such as dates, raisins, honey etc is just simply plain stupid.
First thing they tell you when you re classified as diabetic is avoid all dried fruit.You might just as well be spoonfeeding yourself from a bag of Tate and Lyle

lindens

It's all about educating people, and now as a country we are paying for it through never teaching it in schools in the past. we need to change that.
Luckily my county council puts on free courses and I have been on one for pre-diabetes and one called Foodwise.

[Deleted User]

izzybella16 wrote: »

Eating sugar to raise energy levels or to correct 'low blood sugar' is nonsense. The body keeps blood glucose in an extremely narrow range and even if you eat nothing for a week it wouldn't go out of this range because the body will make it own glucose and switch over most of the bodies cells to burning fat instead.

The energy boost from sugar does not come from blood sugar, it comes from a boost in pleasure chemicals in the brain.

Good advice, but type 1 diabetes sufferers, which is an auto immune system illness, have to manage their sugar levels throughout the day constantly monitoring it to watch it does nt drop too low. Thats why they go into a coma if they dont watch it. I m type 2 and don t have to keep taking blood samples thankfully.

heuchera

Just to add (if it's relevant): I am not overweight at all. I tend to avoid fruit because it often gives me a tummy ache! bananas are ok, I eat them most days, and sometimes apples, depending on which ones. I think it's the acid in the fruit.

The person who commented on keeping your blood sugar a a constant rather than lulls and energy rushes, - yes that is what I am aiming for. To keep it more constant.

I really lack energy in the morning. Probably after not having eaten since the night before. I'm ok again by late morning/afternoon.

[Deleted User]

Your pancreas will start to produce insulin to bring down any high blood sugar quickly to a safe level . I think its around 5.0 to 5.8. So a sugar rush say up into the 12 level or so is no problem with a normal pancreas it will produce insulin to reduce it quickly..keep doing that all your life and you will wear your pancreas out like me and become a diabetic.Thats a simple view of mine why our modern diet is great for producing diabetics, we re forever spiking the levels making the pancreas work overtime. To keep your blood sugars at a more even level is easy..Eat complex carbs, slow to digest rather than the simple unrefined sugars.
My breakfast for the last 4 years is nearly always porridge (no honey/raisins etc ) made with water or 50/50 almond milk..almond milk has about a quarter of the calories of cows milk.
If I don t keep to my diet I may well go blind or have limbs amputated or have a stroke and that fear has quickly weaned me off the sweet stuff.After all its just those few inches of taste buds in your mouth you re satisfying with your cravings for sugar, once its down the pipe then your body has to process all the junk. Someone I think has already said, just dont have the stuff in your house tempting you but this would only work if you lived alone.

FBaby

The key question is whether you want to give sugar because of what sugar/fructose etc... does to you, or whether you want to give up sugar because most things you eat that are high in sugar are also high in fat.

Like everything, it's about moderation and as stated, fruits are good for you, so if you have only 2 or 3 portions and that is all the sugar you absorb in one day, it won't be bad for you.

I will never give up fresh fruits, that would be a step too far in what I believe should be a balanced diet.

heuchera

I don't think that completely giving up all kinds of sugar is advisable or even do-able, because it's in fruit and almost every food except possibly cheese.. and plain porridge. Even white rice is glutinous and carbs like potatoes would count as sugar if you were being really strict about it.

What I do want to give up is the highly processed really sugary snacks etc.

[Deleted User]

heuchera wrote: »

I don't think that completely giving up all kinds of sugar is advisable or even do-able, because it's in fruit and almost every food except possibly cheese.. and plain porridge. Even white rice is glutinous and carbs like potatoes would count as sugar if you were being really strict about it.

What I do want to give up is the highly processed really sugary snacks etc.

Yes, no reason for you to pack in simple white processed sugars. You re not diabetic ( but may eventually become one ). white sugar is a natural product from sugar cane and beet, as natural as fruit, just heavily processed like fruit juices are We are banned white rice especially. because it quickly raises blood sugars while brown wholegrain rice does nt. It digests slower, makes you feel less hungry for longer. If you are too strict you wont last in any diet. The diabetic diet is a great diet to lose weight and get off the junk food trail. It rules by fear ! maybe as many as 50 % of the posters will end up, if they live long enough, with diabetes the way the UK diet is going. We are the fatman of Europe, so maybe a healthy fear of it will frighten people into dumping junk food in the same way we now don t smoke because of fear of lung cancer and nicotine is even more addictive than sweeties.