Abstaining from sugar

Buying a pavlova stack and a bottle of freeway cola is the sugar equivalent of shooting up with a bag of heroin after going cold turkey for six months. Why would you even do that?

Moderation is key.

I was once a four heaped tea spoons of sugar in tea type of guy. Decided not to have sugar in drinks and have been drinking tea and coffee without sugar for years now. Occasionally cups will get mixed up and I'll get my sons tea with 3 spoons of tea in it and I can smell the sugar even without tasting it. Taste wise tea with sugar is now totally foul as far as I'm concerned.

Saw this video ages ago about the effect of giving up refined sugar and switching to fruit sugars

Basically your sense of taste adapts to stop craving refined sugar. Apparently after about a month food and drink with a lot of refined sugar stops tasting good and starts to have a bitter taste

I've no idea how much truth there is to it and frankly it sounds like pseudo science. Human perception is a tricky thing, all yours senses are jumbled up together and if you're not interested in a particular food then it'll probably be unappetising

From your experience it sounds like you're experiencing at least some of it. You're probably experiencing the "true" taste of the cola because your body isn't noticing the sugar as much or something

Just don't eat cereals, chocolate, biscuits, cake etc or the sugar free alternatives. Its not difficult.

I just wish it was as easy to ween myself of salt.

I try to eat as little processed food as possible and I've been trying to lose weight, so I've also been trying to avoid homemade high sugar or fat foods (like cakes, biscuits, pastries, etc).

I've found I taste the natural sugars in foods more, so for e.g. I have porridge with sultanas for breakfast and it's plenty sweet enough.

Personally, I think I'd be setting myself up for failure if I tried to convince myself I was going to cut out something like sugar completely - the aforementioned sultanas have plenty sugar in them and I use ingredients like honey, maple syrup, malt extract in my cooking, so I know I'm still using 'sugar'. There's a world of difference though between making your own honey mustard glaze for your ham and scarfing down a whole sleeve of Oreos!

As I've got older I've noticed that the times I've been at my healthiest weight was when I was poorest. I've rarely had to go without, but when money was short my meals were very simple. The food shopping was done to an exact plan, no extras, and if there were leftovers they were always used up. I'm doing just about ok financially at the moment, but I'm trying to recapture that shopping and eating like a pauper to drop my current excess baggage!

The food industry spends a lot of effort and money in trying to convince us all to pay more for our food. They push the idea of convenience in many ways, not just whole ready meals, but also prepared meat and veg. Why charge 50c a kilo for spuds when you can wash them and charge €1 a kilo? Or even, peel them as well, and charge €4 a kilo! Tesco Oyster Chicken Thighs are €3.32/kg, they put a bit of sage and onion stuffing in them and the price goes up to €9.26/kg. This is the 'Value Added' principle. That by simply doing something, anything, they can charge more for it and persuade you that you're worth it because you have far better things to do than slave away in the kitchen peeling spuds. But this is perhaps a discussion for a different thread.

Back to sugar - it comes in many forms (fructose, glucose, lactose, maltose etc) and is a natural component of many foods - be not afraid! Added sugar is the thing to try to avoid.

Some people just don't have a clue and are shocked when its spelled out to them. I have a true story about a checkout operator who when she picked up a kilo tub of muesli I was buying said its nice. In the ensuing conversation it transpired that she had eaten a whole 1kg tub of it the night before while watching tele. She was shocked when I checked the label and explained she had eaten around 4000kCal as a snack. Her comment was I thought it was supposed to be good for you :-0

Personally I find the snacks are the killer. It's relatively easy to make healthy meals but then going down for a cup of tea it's easy enough to dip into the cupboard for a snack or two

Ah to be fair with that amount of fibre intake she probably only absorbed 5% of the calories before the rest was... expelled

My experience is that once you give up sugar, your senses adapt and you will really start tasting what's naturally sweet.

I didn't know regular milk is sweet until I gave up sugar. Even rice has a sweetness to it.

Everyone has their dietary kryptonite, mine is just opening the packet, no point putting it back in the cupboard, might as well eat it all.

Your body is ultimately fueled by sugar, the process of digestion breaks down proteins and carbohydrates in sugars as well as other nutrients for your body to function

The problem with eating foods with added sugar is that it's effectively free energy for your body, so any additional fuel will be stored for later as fat

Refined sugar also doesn't help you feel full, despite giving you a reward sensation for eating something you enjoy. That's how you can eat 4000 calories worth of chocolates and still feel hungry a short while later.

Meanwhile your body is going mental from all the free energy it just got, has nothing to do with the excess so it's just floating around your system and has gotten barely any nutrition, so your overall health will be getting worse

When people say "sugar" they generally mean refined sugar - sucrose. There are lots of other "sugars" around, but sucrose seems to be the worst of them. Or at leastthe worst of the commonly available ones!

I did for 6 months. Best time if my life. Sharp thinking, memory 100 %, weight back to normal.

Spot on. Looking for proofreading job? : )

You can be fat adapted without being in ketosis

Deep sea divers and mountain climbers prefer to use ketones as prime fuel for obvious reasons as well : )