I eat low carb and avoid sugar. If I do have something sugary, like a doughnut, not only do I get ravenous for more sweets but I get massive leg cramps and even at times very disconcerting dizziness. I'm not sure what those reactions are, but luckily they are enough to keep me away from such stuff.
Sugar and diet
- Thread starter pugmom
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Montclairbobbyb
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Amen. Just figure out a way to stick to that and it IS pretty simple.
I have been working on losing weight for years. I am doing it VERY slowly. I’ve probably lost a total of 85 pounds I have another 80 to go. The past few years have been quite difficult because work got difficult, then my husband suffered a seizure which turned out to be a terminal illness and then he passed away and then I was in grief and decided to move back east and then coronavirus hit and I got the Covid. My weight has kind of stayed where it was. That’s not the best of things but there you go. What seems to be working now is a more Mediterranean style diet. I’ve discovered that if I eat a protein, and a load of vegetables, I’m still hungry. If I eat that with a slice of buttered bread or a small roll, I’m good. It fits into my diabetic diet to do so, so I do so.
The other thing is life isn’t worth living without chocolate every once in a while, so I decided to allow myself some high quality chocolate once a week.
I have no willpower. I am completely 100% unable to buy a pound of chocolate and parse it out for weeks. Not gonna happen. Luckily one of the places I like to go for groceries is near an excellent chocolate store. And I can go in and choose to not get a pound and get a couple of pieces. And that night after dinner I have chocolate. I can’t beat that.
After losing my husband I made the decision to not drink. So alcohol doesn’t enter into it at all. When my mother lost my father she became a sloppy drunk. I did not want to repeat that.
Oh, yeah, once every couple of months, I hit Krispy Kreme for two chocolate iced cream filled donuts and a cuppa coffee. Last month my a1c was 6.2. I’m doing well.
The other thing is life isn’t worth living without chocolate every once in a while, so I decided to allow myself some high quality chocolate once a week.
I have no willpower. I am completely 100% unable to buy a pound of chocolate and parse it out for weeks. Not gonna happen. Luckily one of the places I like to go for groceries is near an excellent chocolate store. And I can go in and choose to not get a pound and get a couple of pieces. And that night after dinner I have chocolate. I can’t beat that.
After losing my husband I made the decision to not drink. So alcohol doesn’t enter into it at all. When my mother lost my father she became a sloppy drunk. I did not want to repeat that.
Oh, yeah, once every couple of months, I hit Krispy Kreme for two chocolate iced cream filled donuts and a cuppa coffee. Last month my a1c was 6.2. I’m doing well.
ddoorn
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Total agreement.
Sugar rapes the soil, requiring tons of Monsanto to grow.
Sugar requires if not outright slavery, slave-like conditions for harvesting as the process does not lend itself to machinery.
Those who harvest must live nearby and inhale all the toxic fumes that are generated by the processing of the sugar.
And THEN once we ingest this highly addictive and inflammatory substance it wreaks havoc on our bodies in so many ways.
If only the world could forget ever inventing sugar!
Sugar cane has certainly caused much misery in the world but it has been the subsidies and industrialized farming of corn and the biochemical magic that turned the boring corn syrup of our youth to the killer High Fructose Corn Syrup that has really been killing us.
Old Microbiologist
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I can say that it has been nearly 2 years now on the ketogenic diet coupled with intermittent fasting (IF) and One Meal a Day (OMAD) and I look and feel the same as I did when I was in my 30's. I am nearly 70 now and am in great shape, don't crave food, eat simply, and am happy and healthy. Food is no longer a large part of my life and I eat nearly less than 20 grams a day carbs now. It takes discipline and I have to get rough on my wife when she cooks and starts making potatoes etc. She isn't doing the diet at all herself although she should do it as she is pre-diabetic. However, I do all the cooking M-F so she is on a passive diet.
I didn't do it for weight although that is a side benefit. I did it because I was clearly developing metabolic syndrome and I am completely convinced based on scientific literature that cardiac disease is caused by inflammation which is in turn caused by metabolic syndrome. The western diet is atrocious and the factory processed foods appear designed to kill us. The added benefit of ketogenic coupled with IF is the autophagy which forces the body in a state of fasting to begin to destroy defective cells and organelles which are replaced by newer healthier copies. This is the main benefit from that aspect of the diet. I am not hungry at all when fasting and live on black coffee until I eat dinner. I eat nothing other than water and coffee after 7 PM until 4 PM the next afternoon. I work out hard every day and if I need a bit of extra boost I add a small amount of MCT oil to my coffee before doing something like hiking 10 km in the hills and forests near us. MCT (medium-chain triglycerides) is not processed normally and goes straight to beta-hydroxybutyrate (ketones) which the body can use directly. If insulin is not spiked at all then you cannot store excess carbs as fat. It only takes a 10-gram dose of sugar to spike insulin so it is easy to get out of ketosis by making a small mistake in the diet. However, because of the IF the following day, I am usually back in ketosis again by morning if I screw up. I use a ketone breath analyzer to check this every day. The negative aspect is if you don't eat enough then you begin to break down protein to generate the necessary glucose for survival. This is why a zero-carb diet is bad for you as you do need a small number of carbs for the brain which derives 20% of its energy from glucose. The body will make glucose from proteins in the diet through the process of gluconeogenesis which is why 20% of the diet must be in the form of protein. It is a pretty simple diet to live on and most ingredients are cheaper than normal food. Salad, green vegetables (boring as I stick to broccoli, cauliflower, or cabbage only) and meat. Lots of butter and I add stuff like fish eggs and hard-boiled eggs. Lots of cheese, butter, nuts, mushrooms, and fats, especially coconut oil or lard. It sounds horrific but is tasty and overall far healthier. I am 70 and look 50 and have zero health problems and take zero medications other than Vitamin D3 supplement to enhance immunity. There is a ton of information available on the keto diet. But, it takes discipline to make it work and change of lifestyle and priorities.
I didn't do it for weight although that is a side benefit. I did it because I was clearly developing metabolic syndrome and I am completely convinced based on scientific literature that cardiac disease is caused by inflammation which is in turn caused by metabolic syndrome. The western diet is atrocious and the factory processed foods appear designed to kill us. The added benefit of ketogenic coupled with IF is the autophagy which forces the body in a state of fasting to begin to destroy defective cells and organelles which are replaced by newer healthier copies. This is the main benefit from that aspect of the diet. I am not hungry at all when fasting and live on black coffee until I eat dinner. I eat nothing other than water and coffee after 7 PM until 4 PM the next afternoon. I work out hard every day and if I need a bit of extra boost I add a small amount of MCT oil to my coffee before doing something like hiking 10 km in the hills and forests near us. MCT (medium-chain triglycerides) is not processed normally and goes straight to beta-hydroxybutyrate (ketones) which the body can use directly. If insulin is not spiked at all then you cannot store excess carbs as fat. It only takes a 10-gram dose of sugar to spike insulin so it is easy to get out of ketosis by making a small mistake in the diet. However, because of the IF the following day, I am usually back in ketosis again by morning if I screw up. I use a ketone breath analyzer to check this every day. The negative aspect is if you don't eat enough then you begin to break down protein to generate the necessary glucose for survival. This is why a zero-carb diet is bad for you as you do need a small number of carbs for the brain which derives 20% of its energy from glucose. The body will make glucose from proteins in the diet through the process of gluconeogenesis which is why 20% of the diet must be in the form of protein. It is a pretty simple diet to live on and most ingredients are cheaper than normal food. Salad, green vegetables (boring as I stick to broccoli, cauliflower, or cabbage only) and meat. Lots of butter and I add stuff like fish eggs and hard-boiled eggs. Lots of cheese, butter, nuts, mushrooms, and fats, especially coconut oil or lard. It sounds horrific but is tasty and overall far healthier. I am 70 and look 50 and have zero health problems and take zero medications other than Vitamin D3 supplement to enhance immunity. There is a ton of information available on the keto diet. But, it takes discipline to make it work and change of lifestyle and priorities.
eytonxav
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Since Covid commenced, I have put on 20 lbs. My problem is some carbs lead to cravings that then add even more non-healthy calories to my daily intake. Really have a tough time breaking this addiction and DWs cookies make it extremely tough. Now I am finding its hurting my pickleball game, so hopefully that will give me the motivation to reset.
audreyh1
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Chemically speaking, HFCS is not very different from cane (table) sugar. One has a 50/50 fructose/glucose ratio, and the other a 55/45 ratio. Both in the large doses common nowadays send large quantities of fructose to the liver to process, and the liver is easily overwhelmed by frequent large amounts of fructose. Same with big fruit juices/drinks - fruit is high in fructose and a piece of fruit itself no big deal, but a large OJ every day (juicing removes most fiber plus a lot of juices are also sweetened) - not good.
In modern society we’ve been increasing all three - more and more sweets whether sugar of HFCS, more and bigger sweet drinks, ubiquitous juices often Ed sweetened, and increasing amounts of highly processed food which tends to add a lot of sugar/HFCS while removing the fiber that slows the digestion.
athena53
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I miss my husband, who died 5 years ago, but it really is easier when you live alone to keep temptations out of the house. Like you, I buy "indulgent" foods on rare occasions and in small quantities. I figure I'd rather exercise moderation and enjoy some of those things than have to swear off of them completely because I get to the point where they can cause severe damage.
Crewer
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Thanks for the Peter Attia podcast info. I hadn't listened to him for awhile and that one was particularly interesting.
I agree the standard diet is terrible and I don't understand why people think you are a little crazy for going a different route. In my case DH won't eat bread or sweets so anything I make or buy in that department is eaten by just me. So I no longer bake and I keep a loaf of bread in the freezer and go through it in a few months, mostly when my kids visit for a weekend. DH is highly motivated because his knees really gave him problems before he lost weight and now he walks all over. I get the benefit of eating better, though I was pretty much there before he was.
I agree the standard diet is terrible and I don't understand why people think you are a little crazy for going a different route. In my case DH won't eat bread or sweets so anything I make or buy in that department is eaten by just me. So I no longer bake and I keep a loaf of bread in the freezer and go through it in a few months, mostly when my kids visit for a weekend. DH is highly motivated because his knees really gave him problems before he lost weight and now he walks all over. I get the benefit of eating better, though I was pretty much there before he was.
Yes, well aware but the fact that corn is a major North American crop that is very heavily subsidized allowed us to increase our 'sugar' consumption dramatically at very low cost and brought even more lobbying power to the sugar industry. As was pointed out, the cultivation, harvest and processing of cane sugar is very labour intensive and also offshore.
Also taking the fibre out of fruit is definitely bad but one shouldn't think that eating a ton of fruit every day in it's natural state is necessarily going to be great for them.
There is a great documentary called "King Corn" that documents the rise of corn subsidies and the inclusion into our diets.
https://smile.amazon.com/King-Corn-...eo&sprefix=king+corn,instant-video,277&sr=1-2
Tuirc
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Over the last year, my DW and I have each lost >30 lbs. Not by a diet plan, but by a fundamental change in the way we approach meals. First, we stopped breakfast a la intermittent fasting. We consume all our calories between 12 and 8 PM (usually 7). The meals themselves have undergone the most change. We've changed to bowl meals (think Cava Grill). We use ancient whole grains as the base with a little lentil/onions/etc. Then sauteed veg, some fresh uncooked veg., a handful of beans (black, pinto, white etc), some fermented food (like kimchee, sour kraut, carrots etc), and 2-4 oz of some kind of high-quality protein.
We've also changed the way we dine out. We now order 2 apps or small plates, one of a salad nature and the other some healthy looking veg based dish. Then we split an entree.
Alcohol is mostly cut out when we're losing weight but can be added back when maintaining weight.
Bottom line, we've cut out processed foods, sugar, and anything that isn't high-quality. While a lot of it is more expensive, we've discovered we need less volume when we eat this way. Since we've reduced the amount of protein and increased the amount of veg, the price has some sort of equilibrium. We've come to really enjoy this way of eating and when we've tried to eat the old way, like for holiday meals" it's been really difficult. We don't like the result either. It's been a great change for us with really great results.
We've also changed the way we dine out. We now order 2 apps or small plates, one of a salad nature and the other some healthy looking veg based dish. Then we split an entree.
Alcohol is mostly cut out when we're losing weight but can be added back when maintaining weight.
Bottom line, we've cut out processed foods, sugar, and anything that isn't high-quality. While a lot of it is more expensive, we've discovered we need less volume when we eat this way. Since we've reduced the amount of protein and increased the amount of veg, the price has some sort of equilibrium. We've come to really enjoy this way of eating and when we've tried to eat the old way, like for holiday meals" it's been really difficult. We don't like the result either. It's been a great change for us with really great results.
athena53
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This is pretty much how I eat 99% of the time. Even though I live alone I go through Costco-sized quantities of fresh vegetables with no waste and I have a good supply of spices and spice mixes (being careful about the salt content). I do "suspend" some of it when I'm traveling or visiting family but then I get right back to it when I'm home again. Fortunately, other than one DB and DSIL, who are into good old comfort food and have pretzels and other goodies lying around, my family is into healthy cooking/eating, too.
