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Originally Posted by Krissypants29
Well right now I am at 2 tablespoons a day for sugar! One for my coffee and one for my tea..compared to the loads of sugar I was putting in it before WW!! Is 2 tablespoons still good??
Also I heard that artificial sweeteners is a no no! Thats why I havent used it yet...heard some good things about stevia..I will have to check out the points on that. I was also doing some reading on it and there are some reports that it is bad for you... I would only be using it twice a day...so I dont think I would have to worry.
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There are no absolutes, so try not to think in terms of good or bad. I've done a lot of reading and evaluating the research and the rumors. Luckily I had a significant number of research & methodology classes in college and graduate school while earning my psychology degrees. Since I had no plans to go into research, I didn't think I'd ever use statistics or methodology in "the real world," but at least it has helped me sort through the conflicting weight loss and artificial sweetener issue.
Personally, I am comfortable with my use of artificial sweeteners more than my use of real sugar, though I'm continuing to reduce both. I don't try to be "good" by any definition, I just experiment and see what works for me.
I'm currently giving up undiluted diet soda, and instead drinking Crystal Light with extra water and a splash of diet soda. I'm also cutting off my caffeine use at 2pm rather than my usual 5pm (and my former 9 pm several years ago).
Until eight years ago, I had never gone more than 1.5 years without regaining everything I had lost and then some. From kindergarten on, I dieted my way to nearly 400 lbs, then I decided to only make small changes I could foresee doing forever, even if no weight loss resulted, and I focused first and foremost on not gaining. My losses were slow, but permanent.
I had a health issue setback recently and for a variety of reasons, regained some of my lost weight, but even this is a first for me - getting back on track and losing again BEFORE I regained it all plus extra. I've never before caught myself before I regained more than I lost.
My path isn't the only way, but I do think good/bad thinking tends to do more harm than good, because it leads to thinking of health and weight loss in pass/fail terms, and it's not that simple.
Instead of asking "is 2 tbs of sugar is good" focus on whether it's an improvement (which you've acknowledged that it is) and whether you can and want to do better.
Every body seems to be a little different in regard to the food-health and food-weight connection. You'll have to experiment to see how your body works. Keeping a food and feelings (physical and emotional) will help you find patterns, just expect to repeat an experiment many times before assuming you've found a pattern. Coincidence can make a food seem bad or good when it might be simply Neutral.
Try to be comfortable with not knowing whether your diet is optimal or not, and just focus on making choices you suspect MAY be an improvement, then see how you feel and experiment some more.
As to sweeteners, my favorites are Splenda and xylitol. Xylitol is a processed form of the natural sweetener, birch sugar. It is a fruit sugar, also known as a sugar alcohol. This means it can have a laxative effect which varies from person to person. For me, it reminds me not to go crazy with portions.
I know you'll hear a lot of scary stuff about artificial sweeteners, but much of it is false or greatly exaggerated. It doesn't mean they're healthy, they're just not nearly as dangerous as the worst of the rumors suggest.