Cutting Out Sugar?

I've started cutting out sugar today. My parameters are--no foods with sugar in the first three ingredients, not white pasta, white rice, or white bread products, no foods with high fructose corn syrup at all. I'm keeping grain or starch servings to one serving per meal (if that), but other than that not getting to crazy about portions other than only eating until satisfied. I am still eating fruit and drinking milk.

Any thoughts or advice? I'm hoping this will improve my general health and more specifically help with weight control and joint inflammation.

All I can say is good luck, you must have far better willpower than I!

Due to health issues, my sister had to cut out most all sugar, including fruit. It was really hard for her.

Almost made it through the first day with less sugar. This gonna suck I think!

I found it easier to find substitutes and start SLOWLY.
I changed up my diet coke to water.
Found a nice whole grain pasta I liked (but kept the pasta sauce I enjoyed until later)
Found a whole wheat bread (but waited til later to change my sugary peanut butter)

I'm still a work in progress! I still eat more carbs than I should for dinner, I still dip into the occasional ice cream

For me, the small changes and easing in over time worked better for long term change.
BIG changes all of a sudden led to a crash and burn..for me personally.

Good luck it's a great move for your health!

I'm supposed to be giving up caffeine according to my doctor, but i think that doing that in combination with added sugar might lead bad things--lol. my biggest downfall is convincing myself that I'm not a total failure if I screw up one meal. I tend to then just say "Screw it!" and eat like crap the rest of the day.

I also have found that cutting down on sugar increases my anxiety level, which is weird.

If you still eat many processed or packaged foods, this will probably be your most difficult challenge. HFCS is in EVERYTHING! I wanted to buy some cranberries at Thanksgiving and could NOT find any that weren't canned in HFCS. Finally I managed to find fresh ones at a single store in town. I just couldn't believe it.

If you're still eating fruit you probably won't have many issues with getting the shakes and stuff.

Honestly from everybody I know who has done sugar detoxes and stuff, if you can just make it through the first three days, you will suddenly start feeling a LOT better! But you go through some rough withdrawal stuff those first few days.

Just be sure you're not replacing sugar with artificial sweeteners!!

this.
I thought diet coke would be a good stepping stone to get off of regular coke.

Big mistake.
Getting myself weaned off diet coke was harder than anything else (even bread, even pasta!)

The artificial sweeteners are even harder habits to kick!!

I agree that giving up everything at once it's asking too much. Go slow.

If you drink coffee, start adding some decaf so you're not getting so much caffeine.

Good for you!!!!!!! take it slow, sometimes a support buddy is what helps the most. I cut it out cold turkey and I felt sick for the two weeks I think... But it was WORTH IT
You will feel SO much better!! I did! and the best thing about it is, if your like me and have a relapse a year later with birthday cake and ice cream, it will give you a headache and bad stomach cramps that will turn you off of it all over again :rofl1:

Everybody works differently. For some people giving things up all at once is the best way to do it. It's like quitting smoking - some people do great just throwing away their remaining cigarettes and never looking back, some people wean themselves off. Do what works best for you!

Also I agree with Brattina, when you do cheat after getting rid of this stuff, OMG you feel so sick! I used to be a sugar FIEND, I love candy. It didn't really affect me. Now if I eat any substantial amount of sugar I get REALLY hyper and my stomach hurts all at once and it's equal parts horrible and hilarious.

Unfortunately I'm a diet pop junky, so I figure I'll wait to tackle that. I guess sugar is supposed to raise your dopamine, so I'm trying to find dopamine raising activities.

I had to cut out sugars among other things due to allergy issues. (not towards sugars, just really bad hay fever which lead to really bad cross allergies towards foods.)

I read a few of Max O. Burker's books which were really interesting and helped in understanding WHY I was doing what I was doing. lol If you take his books with a grain of salt, they're pretty good advice IMO. (though they are a bit outdated - hence the grain of salt)


Anywho, it wasn't really THAT hard for me, mostly because I was used a pretty balanced diet from home. No white bread/pasta, soda, artificial colorings etc.... (Yeah, I was the kid with the gross organic fruit leather things)
I switched up all my pasta to whole grain pasta (I don't taste the difference), buy whole wheat bread (REAL whole wheat bread, read the ingrediants... alot of WWBs are loaded with sugar and artificial color, so it looks like Whole Wheat)
What really helped me was substituting with honey. If I made a cake, I would use honey, instead of sugar, for example. I don't really have a huge sweet tooth though =/ I allowed myself the occasional chocolate though

I actually found an awesome wheat bread from Whole Foods without any sugar. Honestly I was shocked when I started reading the labels of wheat bread--so much sugar!

Me too. -.- Esp. the packaged kind =/

Though when I make bread, a lot of recipes all for sugar as well. I replace with honey and it tastes just as good.

Well, no headaches today but I was tired! We went for a hike with Sally and I was totally wiped out afterward, I dozed a good part of the afternoon.

What are people's experiences with baking with honey? I know it's still a sugar, but it is a bit better than refined and I do like to bake occasionally.

I bake with honey sometimes! I have also used maple syrup depending on what it is. But as I get further and further from when I used to eat sweets I find I don't need it as much and don't miss it. I just finish baking a loaf of banana bread with no sweeteners besides the bananas themselves and it's delicious. I have banana mug cakes I make for breakfast sometimes and the original recipe calls for honey, and over time I just kinda forgot to add it in. After I realized I wasn't adding it in I was like "Oh! ...oh. Welp." No need to add it back in since I don't miss it.

You might also look into palm sugars or coconut sugars, both of which sometimes pop up in primal or paleo baking. Coconut sugar is the big one I see and I believe even comes in a powdered variety?

No added sugar doesn't need to destroy the baking bug! Though honestly, I made a gluten free cake for a friend's party, and didn't think it was necessarily fair to insist they have a cake that fits into all of MY dietary parameters - so I used a gluten free cake mix with sugar in it. I could definitely tell I had eaten sugar, but really, I don't object to it as opposed to, say, a bajillion artificial sweeteners instead. I would SO MUCH rather put actual cane sugar into my body than something that was generated in a lab. For me personally, as long as I recognize that this is a Treat and is firmly in the Treat box, not something I eat often, it's okay. I'm not going to beat myself up over eating a slice of gluten-free cake for my friend's 25th wedding anniversary! But I think you will find in many cases there are ways to use something more natural in your baking, like honey or even applesauce.

Beanie, I'd love to have the recipe for your banana bread.

Yes! Please post!!!

It's this one:
http://civilizedcavemancooking.com/grain-free-goodies/paleo-banana-bread/

I actually made it specifically so I could make his French Toast this morning (which I am currently shoveling in my face.)
http://civilizedcavemancooking.com/breakfast/paleo-french-toast/

Mug cake recipe, please!