I get really bad headaches with sugar subs. ALL of them. So products like sugar free jello (which according to the book you eat almost daily) are OUT! Can South Beach be done by subbing the sugar free products and sugar sub in recipes for the regular stuff? I understand it goes against the general philosphy, but over all it seems to be a sensible plan. EVen eating the regular products instead of sugar subs, I'd be comsuming less sugar than usual.

Has anyone else tried this? Does anyone else have this problem? I have been trying WW for YEARS and I can't stick to it but it does not require me to use sugar subs. Maybe I can combine the two, I have seen other people do that.

THANKS!!!!!!!!!

Well, my advice is to wean yourself off sugar if you intend to do South Beach.
There really is no need to follow the recieps in the book that require sugar substitutes. They are just there so folks won't feel deprived. There is "sugar" in the form of lactose in Dairy so your Glucose Levels will not be bottoming out.
I hope this helps. There is a thread in the FAQ Section about doing a WW/SBD Combo which could help.

MistySeptember, are you also allergic to Stevia? I don't know a whole lot about it, but it's supposed to be a natural sweetener that many people use as a sugar substitute.

THANKS!!!!!

I have tried stevia, but then later read (According to DR. Oz...the guy on Oprah all the time) that it has been linked to fertility issues. Plus, I live in a rural area and it is next to impossible to find without going online.

I just saw that according to the book in phase 1 they have you eating things like sugar free jell-o very often. I can't have that, nor could I make the ricotta creme which is dessert every night. I can't have things like light yogurt, low sugar salad dressings if they have artificial sweeteners. Even some low sugar/low carb tomato sauces have artificial sweeteners which I can't have.

I used to be able to use splenda. I lost about 40 pounds in 9 months, but then it gave me headaches too.

Maybe I'll stick with WW and incorporate SBD recipes as they are healthy and well rounded and no matter what the plan is eating healthy is the goal. I printed the meal plan laid out in the WW and South Beach thread from FAQ. I think I'll try to fit that into my plan. I don't want to eat a ton of sugar and would like to eliminate it as much as possible, but it seems like the meal plans laid out in the book rely heavily on artificial sweeteners. I know in order to be healthy and lose weight I can't eat 5 cups of sugar a day I was just wondering if it would totally undermine the plan if I followed the meal plans to a tee except used real sugar where they say use art. sweeteners.

Thanks so much everyone!

I would think- knowing that sometime modifications to diets is a neccessity- that you would need to 1. limit the things that you sweeten. (the first time I did south beach I REFUSED to put splenda in my coffee- so I limited myself to 1 cup a day w/ real sugar) 2. try more organic forms of sugar. sugar in the raw, german rock cane sugar- natural sugar actually has beneficial minerals that will keep your body busy digesting rather than just processing sugars immediately like it does w/ refined sugar. Also a tip that Dr. A said is to drink some metemucil when you are going to eat something with little other nutritional value, the fiber will give your something to process so you don't just get an insulin spike.
just my opinion. I think this can work for you. You are going to have to be choosy, but you can do this.
...t.

The only problem with using the Metamucil is that it also has sugar unless you use the Sugarfree version which she is probably also allergic to.

I am allergic to all artificial sweetners as well, I get migraines and my throat swells up making it hard to breath, it really isn't good. But I do SB!! I don't do sweet things, if I am craving something sweet I have milk steamed with a little cinnamon, or sometimes yogurt also with cinnamon. So it's really doable! I'd like to believe I have my body trained to not like sweet stuff anymore, heh.

-Aimee