Re: Is Sugar the bad boy it's made out to be?
Originally Posted by
ruthio
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Realist, if like me you (one) enjoy tea and coffee with a spoonful of sugar added, what do you recommend as a substitute?
Please don't say sweeteners, yuk!
How about Stevia?
Hi Ruthio
Like you I used to put sugar in my hot drinks, both tea and coffee. I did this from a young age where like most kids we were addicted to sugar before we were old enough to understand what it was and what foods were good and bad.
When I first realised that raw refined sugar was a terribly unhealthy thing, I switched to sweeteners, sadly again, in total ignorance. Then I learned how bad sweeteners were !
What to do !
Trust me when I say that I could not ever have envisioned at that stage drinking any tea or coffee without sugar, the idea was just out of the question.
Then something happened.
About 10-15 years ago, I decided to try switching to the various fruit teas and herbal teas available. Some I found awful, others more palatable. I liked the idea of healthy green teas but without sugar they seemed quite bitter but I found that Japanese rice tea was more naturally sweet and much easier to drink. I also found Chai tea to be very nice as I have a love for cinnamon and anything with that blend of "Christmassy" spices. Overall though the switch from regular teabag tea and coffee to these other offerings was fairly unsatisfying because it was so different. Nevertheless for 2-3 weeks I persevered with it.
After the 3rd week I really had had enough and so I made myself my first regular cup of Yorkshire tea with milk for 3 weeks. However crucially I left out the sugar. I was resolved to see how it now tasted.
Herein was the shock ! It was actually very much ok. My body was so thankful for that good old taste of regular tea bag tea that it wasn't concerned one iota about having no sugar.
A few more cups of sugarless tea later and wow I was a new man. Coffee, esp cappuccinos and lattes were equally fine to drink without sugar.
Therefore as you might expect, I don't recommend that you look for any sugar substitute at all.
Understand that due to the nature of sugar and its neuro action on your brain, that you have been and are being totally fooled by it. Its properties mean you THINK that you want and need it. There are scientific reasons for those cravings and dependencies.
Doing a cold turkey switch, trying to suddenly drink the same tea/coffee without sugar will never work. No more than a junkie suddenly coming off drugs.
You have to switch to something else first. What I think then happens is you detox without realising it. The new tastes of fruit and herbal teas are a relatively new/different experience so your body and mind don't associate the flavours with having to be supplemented with sugar. The switch lets you come down from your sugar dependency and once that happens what you actually crave is the old familiar taste of your regular tea and coffee and presumably the associated caffeine.
I can but suggest you try. Putting spoonful's of refined sugar in drinks is not a good thing and just like drinking sugary fizzy drinks, it will screw with your body and make you hungry when you needn't be which leads to overeating and getting fat.
Good luck if you give it a try.