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14-09-2016, 11:51 PM
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Sugar free diet

Can anyone recommend a good book for cutting down on sugar. After trying to lose weight with other diets I am now going to try cutting down on the sugar and hope it can help.
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15-09-2016, 08:44 PM
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Re: Sugar free diet

I think its just a case of looking at what you buy and reading up on stuff ,

I cut down on my sugar in Tea for a start , I think you could Google what foods are low in sugar .
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16-09-2016, 06:16 AM
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Re: Sugar free diet

Lin, you could always look at a Diabetic book which cuts out sugar.
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16-09-2016, 12:27 PM
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Re: Sugar free diet

Hi Lin

Top marks to you for realising that any diet is a waste of time if you don't first understand the role of sugar and cut it out of your life. Diets never work simply because by definition, they are a temporary style of eating which at some point has to cease and then you change to another eating habit, usually old habits that result in the weight piling back on. Yo-yo dieting. Doesn't matter what diet you do imo, cabbage soup, Atkins, Slimming World, Weight Watchers, all temporary eating regimes that, once you stop, will see you revert back to the norm.

People who are overweight need to make a conscious choice to understand why they are fat and make a permanent lifestyle change of eating healthy foods and eating them the right way. If you do this the weight WILL drop off but will do so slowly, but it will be permanent weight loss, not temporary yo-yo diet weight loss. Common sense tells you that if it took many months or years to put on many stones, then it will take a similar time for your body to get rid of it again.

The sugar issue is one I am passionate about as others here will tell you. Sugar is essentially a Class A drug, highly addictive, hard to come off of, messes with your bodily functions and messes with the reward senses in your brain.

When you eat sugary foods, you get a short term pleasure reward and then the sugar fools your brain in thinking that you are hungry when you are not. As a result you start snacking or eating when in fact your body isn't the least bit hungry. The result is quick weight gain.

It is not simply a case of cutting sugar out though. We need to understand how it is metabolised and thus how to eat foods which contain sugar.

For sure, don't ever buy bags of white refined sugar again, treat it as pure poison. If you take sugar in tea coffee, then wean yourself of it. I used to have it in tea. Couldn't drink tea without it. I switched to green teas and herbal teas which were ok for a couple of weeks, then my body was craving the caffeine more than sugar. When I switched back to regular tea-bag tea, I was then able to drink it without sugar no problem. My body was so grateful for the caffeine (caffeine addiction is something I will need to address later on !!).

Something else to note is the myths regarding "natural sugars" and "non-natural sugars". There is no such thing. Sugar is sugar, it has the same chemical compositions in all its forms whether that be the sugar in that white bag or the sugar in an apple.

What is important is to consume sugar with fibre. There are approx 5 teaspoons of sugar in one large apple. That's a lot ! But the apple also contains lots of fibre in the flesh and pulp. So when you eat an apple you eat lots of fibre with it. That fibre slows down the metabolism of the sugar in your body meaning the energy from the sugar is released slowly and as a result is burned up by your everyday activities, walking, talking, breathing etc. If you eat sugary foods without fibre, like cream cakes, then the sugar is metabolised quickly, your body gets a surge of energy to use and has no immediate use for it, so it stores it away as fat for later.

To help you on your worthy journey I rcommend you read these forum threads on the sugar issue, then come back if you have any questions.

GL

http://www.over50sforum.com/showthre...ighlight=sugar

http://www.over50sforum.com/showthre...ighlight=sugar

http://www.over50sforum.com/showthre...ighlight=sugar

Finally . . . it goes without saying I hope, that you should not substitute a sugar addiction with artifical sweeteners !
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16-09-2016, 12:45 PM
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Re: Sugar free diet

Originally Posted by Lin ->
Can anyone recommend a good book for cutting down on sugar. After trying to lose weight with other diets I am now going to try cutting down on the sugar and hope it can help.
Lin, the only nutrition you get from sugar is calories, for energy, but it contains no essential minerals or vitamins so cutting it down is a good decision.
I have been diabetic for 30 years, so always check ingredients on any ready made foods that I buy, to avoid sugar. If you enjoy cooking with fresh ingredients, treat yourself to a diabetic cook book, as Susie suggested. If you reduce the amount of sugar you take and continue normal activities the weight will come off, but slowly, and that is how to keep it off!
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16-09-2016, 07:40 PM
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Re: Sugar free diet

It is almost impossible to cut out sugars completely--so many foods have hidden sugars--on sugar freefarm they were not even alloed fruit ! i could not cope without food in my diet...
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16-09-2016, 08:08 PM
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Re: Sugar free diet

Originally Posted by mariana ->
It is almost impossible to cut out sugars completely--so many foods have hidden sugars--on sugar freefarm they were not even alloed fruit ! i could not cope without food in my diet...
I think the sugars you are thinking about come under carbohydrates, as in the Atkins diet, and that can cause kidney problems if you remove all of them from your diet. The sugar that has no nutritional value , apart from calories, is that which comes from sugar cane...... and we could all live very healthily without that.
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16-09-2016, 09:08 PM
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Re: Sugar free diet

I put myself on a low carb (especially, low starch) diet around a year ago which is the best you can do for reducing sugar. I did it because my type 2 diabetes was getting out of control and my job forbade me having insulin, plus I was rather large and getting larger. I have lost well over a stone in weight and my blood sugar is more or less normal, my medication has been reduced accordingly.
Most importantly, it doesn't really feel like a diet - I eat well and don't really miss the things I used to enjoy. The aim is to find substitutes that are as enjoyable.
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17-09-2016, 04:18 PM
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Re: Sugar free diet

I did the lowest sugar carb diet I could for two years lost a lot of weight but I caution my hair went with it and I did damage to my body and digestion of vitamins in ways I haven't realised I was doing. GP is not best place to get diet information but there are nutritionists that can help I believe.
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17-09-2016, 05:22 PM
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Re: Sugar free diet

Thank you all for your helpful replies. I've never had sugar in tea or coffee but am still overweight! Have gone over to fruit and green tea with zero sugar. Will look at diabetic cookbooks I see it is going to be quite a challenge but am determined so looking at the sugar content in foods.
 
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