[BurlyQ of Borg]

I apologize, this is probably answered somewhere, but I was going cross eyed trying to find it.

What exactly does it mean to bust sugar, or remove it from your diet?

Not adding sugar? No high fructose Corn syrups and there ilk? What about "rice syrups?'

Is honey ok? What about sugar substitutes? fruit has sugars



Seriously, my brain has blown a fuse and is leaking out my ear.

I humbly ask for your thoughts....

[missgordon]

I have experience nixing sugar.

The way I see it, processed sugar - white sugar and HFCS - really makes your body go crazy. The more you eat the crazier it gets – it's quite addictive.

It's up to you how you want to approach your sugar busting. Honey has lots of nutrients and doesn't attack your blood sugar level as intensely as processed sugar, but it's still a strong sweetener. Same thing with maple syrup - it's definitely more natural than processed sugar, but it's super strong.

I don't often use sugar substitutes just because they really mess with my taste buds and ruin my appreciation with natural sugar. Most of the time, they make me crave real sugar like mad.

Natural sugars - like the sugar in fruit, has always been okay by me. I think it helps to replace your need for sweet stuff with fruit, and ease your body into a more natural relationship with sugar. Brown Rice Syrup and Date Sugar are both pretty good natural sugars with minimal processing.

Tons of stuff has added sugar. Literally, TONS. It's tough to get used to, but it really puts you on a path headed towards eating mostly whole foods.

Good luck! I hope I was able to help some

[sarahyu]

For me, it's eliminating the added sugars and the HFCS. You'd be surprised what has added sugars that don't need them. Canned beans and tomatoes for example. Neither really needs the sugar added. And I found a brand of frozen veggies that has spices added that also has sugar in the ingredients.

Unfortunately I still use some artificial sugars but working on cuttting down on the amount.

I've recently started using palm sugar-it has a lower GI then white sugar and it tastes pretty good. But again not using a whole lot of it.

[BurlyQ of Borg]

Thank you!!

since almost everything has sugar in it, I wanted to know what was an "ok" sugar and what should be avoided.

I'm glad rice syrup is ok.

[Cassie8236]

Thanks for the info as well. I need to cut out sugar. It's just hard.

[missgordon]

It really IS hard. But it's just like quitting anything addictive, once 3 days go by, everything is much better.

Plus, there's a lot of benefits that make the effort to stop worth your while.

[mommy1028]

I don't know how well I'm doing cutting out the sugar intake but I have cut out soda, cakes, cookies, ice cream, JUNK FOOD! Mostly drink water sometimes an occasional glass of orange juice. I eat lots of fruits, apples, grapes, watermelon, peaches. I eat carrots and broccoli for my veggies. Does this sound like it will help me to lose weight or do I need a different approach?

[Ellen]

The 'Busting Sugar' thread on here, if that is what got you pondering, is for Sugar Busters...a diet that was very popular about ten years ago, and similar to the second phase of South Beach. Basically, you follow a low glycemic diet, and keep sugars to a minimum..no more than 3 grams per serving. Its a very healthy diet, cutting out white sugar, white potatoes, white flour...concentrating on lean protein, fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains.

[sarahyu]

It's amazing how when you cut out a lot of the white sugars from you diet how sweet naturally sweet foods are, like fruits.

and then your taste buds tend to develop a more refined something or other and things that you used to like a lot don't taste as good anymore. For me it was poptarts. I'd eat several boxes a week-breakfast and snacks. Now, I can't figure out why I like them in the first place. That just don't taste that good to me anymore.

[Ellen]

Sarayu, that is my experience too. I used to love sweets...I decorated cakes and could fall face first in a bowl of icing. Not anymore! It makes me just gag! And I used to love fried foods, but I don't like them anymore. Gives me a stomach ache! My dessert of choice now is a piece of fruit. I used to put sugar in my coffee, but I can't stand that anymore. Once you give the sweet taste buds a rest, they seem to 'reset' to a more normal level of sweetness.