Looking for ideas for less Sugar

Hi all,

I'm new here! I know this may seem like a silly question, but the main thing I am addicted to is sugar. I love ice cream, chocolate, cookies, whatever - yet I feel bad after I eat a lot - and I struggle with stopping myself.

How would you go about weaning yourself off of sugar? I feel comfortable with local honey or sometimes maple syrup, but I'd ultimately like to completely exterminate cane sugar from my diet. I avoid to my best knowledge many of the fake sugars out there like corn syrup, aspartame, erythritol, xylitol, agave, and whatever else I can't remember.

I don't drink soda. My main sources of kryptonite are Ice cream, cookies, and chocolate.

Looking forward to hearing what ideas you all might have!

The best way to avoid ice cream, cookies, and chocolate is not to buy them.  Throw away any that you have in the house.

Grayson said " I avoid to my best knowledge many of the fake sugars out there like corn syrup, aspartame, erythritol, xylitol, agave

Why do you feel that agave is a fake sugar?  It is my understanding that it is a plant so it would be better than the others you listed.

When you get a craving for sweets maybe you could find another substitute that does not have sugar in it or is low sugar.

Maybe a gelatin dish would help. Make it with fruit juice instead of sugar and water.

Have some fruit instead of a cookie, etc.

Grab a carrot instead of that cookie.

Edit to say: Tropical Trail Mix would make a great substitute.  Said as I munch on mine!

Hi Grayson, my family went low carb about ten years ago, which meant we cut out sugar at that time.  However, I discovered it was too hard to follow it strictly over the holiday season, so I personally allow myself to indulge at that time with the knowledge that I will get back on the bandwagon once it's over.  

For me, it takes about two weeks of cold turkey before the cravings stop again.  During this time, I load up on plenty of fruits, so that when I "need" sugar, I eat a piece of fruit.  After two weeks I don't need the fruit any more.  Actually I can do it without the fruit but it's harder.

Oh, and having sugary things in the house means I will eat them, so I don't have them in the house.  If someone offers me a treat of this kind, I have to consider that it will take me two unpleasant weeks to recover, and is it worth it?  Almost always the answer is no.  If I cheat, it has to be for something really special (and for me, that means homemade with real butter, cream, etc--and even then, the answer is still often no).

I used to take my coffee with cream and sugar. I ate my corn flakes with sugar. Heck, I'd sprinkle sugar across a piece of bread and eat it.
Then, I joined the Navy. My first ship, an old submarine tender built during WWII, ran out of sugar a few days out on a liberty cruise. It took a while to get a resupply because we had to be at port for the refit.
I started taking my coffee black and my cereal without sugar. Acquired tastes but that's how I take them today.
I'd say start small. Just pick one if the items on your list and give it up. When you're over it, tackle another, until your cravings are under control. Just like any addict, you'll have to pinkie swear with yourself to stay off those items which aren't good for you.
I gave up smoking and took an oath to myself to never let another tobacco product touch my lips. I smoked, dipped and chewed for years so the hook was in deep. When tempted, that oath jumps up and reminds me to be strong.
We are addicts. We have to be careful we don't backslide to the stuff that we're addicted to and the best way to stay off is to not be around it or have it around you. If you can't shop without buying that stuff take someone with you that can tell you no. Help you protect yourself from you.
Good luck! Be strong!

My approach to reducing my sugar intake was to ration it. I put a jar on the shelf and on the first of the month I put pennies in it. Each one stands in for a certain amount of added sugar, and once they are gone, I have to wait for the next ration. It makes it a lot easier to battle a craving if you know you you do not have to fight it forever. My ration is only 40g of sugar per month (about 2 slices of cake). You could set it to whatever you want, and even try tightening it down over time. Some months I dont eat any added sugar anymore, and that just means I can save it up for later. Once you reset your taste buds, it is not as hard to abstain. A piece of fruit tastes a lot more like a treat when its not competing with a candy bar. Also, there are some decent desserts made with Stevia, which is just a super sweet, calorie-free plant extract. I also find that little individual treats make it easier to not let a little backslide turn into a full-on rout.

It's pricy, but monkfruit sweetener is an almost dead-ringer for sugar and doesn't spike blood sugar levels. I like the Lakanto brand, it's zero calories and zero glycemic.  The only difference I've noticed is when making a simple syrup with it I need to add a pinch of xanthan gum or it will crystalize and I have to use less monkfruit to water.

Sugar is an addiction. Sugar goes through the same metabolic pathways as alcohol, but without the "buzz" to tell you when to stop. It does the same liver damage as alcohol. It gives the brain a "fix," without getting drunk.  24 hours after you eat sugar, the brain craves that "fix" again.

Understanding that might help you to understand the withdrawals your body will go through when you quit sugar. Understand that quitting cold turkey will make you feel like total crap for about 2 weeks. After two weeks of absolutely no cheating, you'll start to reset your tastebuds to not crave it so much.

Helpful ideas you might try during the cravings:

1. Eat a baked potato. Your body is craving starches. Eating the potato will help your body feel like it got what it wanted, but you didn't give it sugar.
2. Eat a dill pickle. Giving your body that tangy, sour taste will trick it into thinking that salty foods would be really good instead.
3. Might I suggest NOT giving your body "fake" sugar during the withdrawals. Quitting cold turkey and just embracing the 'suck' of the 2 weeks' withdrawal will be worth it in the end.
4. Research the Whole 30 food plan. It is hard. Really hard. But it teaches your body what real food is, without the sugary additives Americans have come to rely on. But you'll feel cleaned out and detoxified when you're done. It also forces you to realize exactly how much added crap we Americans have put into all our processed food.

(Side note: a friend of mine had three crazy kids...like bouncing off the wall, nobody wanted to be around them, demon children. She and her husband decided to put the whole family on the Whole 30 plan. Within two weeks, those kids were sooooo much better. Calm, polite, clear-eyed, totally a joy. A few weeks after the cleanse, one of her kids accidentally got into a crap food with blue artificial coloring. He broke out in a rash all over his face and was back to his demon ways. Mom was convinced that the change in diet would be permanent after that.)

Best wishes with your desire to cut out sugar. Give yourself grace, and remember how crappy you feel when you eat it, and how much better you feel when you don't.

As someone who loses sugar (except of course when I'm not eating consistent with my goals) by way of avoiding processed foods, my experience has been that food cravings in general don't necessarily go away in two weeks or (sometimes) ever.  The only way I manage is by finding some alternative food that satisfies the craving, or at least that makes me happy.

In the case of sugar, the easiest way I've found is to go with fruit ... but unless it's really fresh, ripe, and good, it won't be sweet enough or will have too much acid or will otherwise be unsatisfying.  One way around this is the humble blended smoothie.  I'm drinking one now made with two bananas, two ice cubes, and about a cup of frozen blueberries, plus unsweetened coconut milk (the beverage kind sold by the half-gallon, not the much-richer canned stuff).  It's not all that sweet but it's got the mouth feel (pretty near) of a decent milkshake, and for me it is enough.  

I agree with others about not keeping sugary snacks/drinks around.  If you want pastry or candy as a special treat, fine but you have to make a special effort to get it/make it.

If you bake your own goodies, you can experiment with lowering the sugar; I personally think the sugar in muffins, sweet breads, and some baked desserts can be halved and it's still plenty sweet (however, reducing sugar can affect the moisture level so experiment).  One trick to making a dessert seem sweeter when using less sugar is to top it with a drizzle or a sprinkle of something sweet.  So for example, reduce the sweetner in a fruit pie by half, but sprinkle a teaspoon of cinnamon sugar on the top crust.

Sugar is sugar, regardless if it is regular store bought white sugar, brown sugar, honey, agave, or the sugar from carrot or the starch from potatoes.  The body sees sugar as sugar.  Whipped cream is a good sweet tooth treat with minimal sugar.  We have a good pudding recipe made from eggs and a non-sugar substitute which helps ease the cravings and it is full of protein.  For starters, I suggest the whipped cream.

Michael Fundaro wrote:Sugar is sugar, regardless if it is regular store bought white sugar, brown sugar, honey, agave, or the sugar from carrot or the starch from potatoes.  The body sees sugar as sugar.  

This has not been my experience nor is it reflected in some of the research that I've seen.  For instance, my body's reaction to sugar in whole foods (such as fruit) is very different from my body's reaction to processed refined sugars.  A whole bunch of fresh fruit doesn't spike my blood sugar anywhere near as much as an equivalent dose of granulated cane sugar.  Apparently its consumption with dietary fiber (whole foods) makes a large difference. This goes even moreso with starches, which are converted to sugar in the body at varying rates depending on their degree of refinement, the type of starch, and what else is eaten.  I can eat boiled white potatoes all day without ever getting the blood sugar spikes or elevation that sugar causes.

In general I believe we make a mistake when we treat the body as a furnace and try to view different carbs, proteins, and fats as identical/interchangeable fuel units. I have not found it to be that simple.

Welcome to Permies Grayson!

Grayson Roth wrote:

I don't drink soda. My main sources of kryptonite are Ice cream, cookies, and chocolate.

One suggestion to cut down is to take your money budget for your treats and spend it on the best quality that is available.  Instead of buying 4 pints of icecream for $1 buy the 1 pint pot of gourmet icecream, buy fairtrade, organic, local, high cocoa chocolate and home made, or farmers market biscuits (cookies).  This way you can still enjoy a treat but at the same time cut down your sugar (and fat/calorie) content and help the balance of trade at the same time.

I think it would be easier, or maybe not necessary to go cold turkey if you have already reduced the amount eaten.

My problem us that I'm a peddlar of the poison.  I have loose sweeties (candy) behind the shop counter which is far too handy at the end of the day when I'm doing the admin before going home.  I know this is not good for me at all!

Good luck.

I have to be a food racist.  No sugar, no corn syrup, no white flour, no white potatoes, no white rice, no milk, no bananas.

Withdrawals are hard. Not only is it a drug for you, but for the millions/billions of critters that make up your microbiome. They don't die without a fight.

It took a long time, but I did reset my sweet tooth  I found all the "healthy" treats just made it harder to reset my taste buds.  Now I can enjoy the occasional sugar free chocolate or cookie, but that was after at least six months of being strict the first time.

I found I had to find savoury snacks-jerky, cheese, nuts, etc.

Welcome, Grayson.

Back about twenty years ago, when I was working in my family's print shop and bindery, we all went on one of those diets that focuses on separating carbs and sugars from proteins and fats, the idea being to lessen the impact of insulin-spiking eating on nutrition.

It seemed to work. We all lost weight. We also ended up going off the deep end, barely eating any carbs at all.

The after-effects of cutting so many starches included sweet things tasting sweeter. It literally took a fraction of the added sugar in my coffee for me to say, "Ew, too sweet." This would lead me to suggest that if you want to do more with less sugar, cut out more starches from your diet.

Seriously, things like subbing cauliflower or sweet potato or squash in where you'd have giant honking chunks of more refined starches will go a long way. Likewise, changing your eating up so you're eating around 80% of your intake as vegetables, and consciously avoiding starchy ones most times, will also make everything taste sweeter.

Addressing the questions about why agave might be considered a "fake" sugar, I would consider that a misnomer. It is environmentally problematic, as well as still a refined sugar as much as that refined from sugar cane. And worst, it uses up precious tequila production resources.

The "don't buy crap" messaging I'm hearing resonates with me; that's the only thing that ever works for me. But I extend that idea to the mentality behind the suggestion above that you buy one pint of the really good stuff rather than four gallons of the cheap crap. Plus, I find that some of the premium ice cream brands, while not without some problems, do a fine job of ingredients selection. I would rather buy grass-fed organic local ice cream, but Ben and Jerry's does already produce palm-free products. Haagen Dazs, or however it's spelled, uses some in their brownie flavours, but also uses all-Canadian dairy, which is also important to us. I will give up brownie bits in my ice cream if it means that I can enjoy it completely.

So apart from "don't buy crap," make as much as you can at home, from scratch. I'm still buying grocery store naan bread to go with my from-scratch homemade indian cuisine, but it's progress, nonetheless.

Honestly, if you cut your all-sugar and starch intake, you'll gradually decrease the amount you intake when you allow yourself a cheat day.

Which I would advise. Maybe not "cheat days" per se. I don't like the mentality that it's wrong, and that you're doing something bad. But I would definitely build in some wiggle room for satiation of that specific craving. Just make sure you're making it at home, if possible, and that you can pronounce all of the ingredients on a relatively short list. Compare the pint-sized premium ice creams' ingredients lists with those of the cheap stuff. It can be very informative.

Oh, and one thing I do that works for me is to have oatmeal for breakfast. I don't even sweeten it. I used to have it with salt and pepper, and then I started adding turmeric, cinnamon, and ginger. Try things like that. Replace sweet with other spice, other flavour.

Breaktime. Second breakfast, to be precise. The aforementioned "golden oatmeal." *drools*

-CK

I don't think all carbs are bad or that all sugar is processed the same. I like carbs and they make me function well. The healthiest, mentally and physically, I've ever been in my life was the ten years or so when I ate a primarily raw vegan, mostly fruit and veg diet. Before that, I definitely had a sweet tooth and ate all the stuff you like, too.

When I get cravings for sugar, I find it's because I haven't eaten enough. My body has learned to associate sweet things with a big dose of calories. Cake, cookies, etc. are all high in fat and sugar so lots of energy. If I was craving pie, I'd give myself permission to eat all the pie I wanted AFTER I ate a kilo of bananas. These days, trying to eat what I grow, it's more likely to be a kilo of potatoes. You get the idea. Give yourself some healthy carbs and the cravings usually go away.

Once I started paying attention to when the cravings happened, I found it was pretty predictable. When I was ovulating, the day after a mentally intense day at work, or the day after a physically intense day of work at home were almost guaranteed to come with cravings for sweets. So I got in the habit of eating a few hundred calories more when I was ovulating or working hard. I almost never get cravings anymore, and when I do, I can look back and see I haven't been eating enough.

Hi all!

Wow so many positive people here, this is really nice. Thank you for all the supportive ideas and encouragement!! Today is day 1. I cut out everything and told my girlfriend to hide the chocolate. No honey, no maple syrup, no cane sugar, no dates. I am inspired because of all of you! I will start with two weeks and see how that goes.

It's funny, I don't have a problem buying sweets, I just have a problem with eating them when they're in my house or free at some event. I think for me substituting fruit or other veg where I would normally eat sugar is the answer - I love eating and I love sweets..

My main reason for cutting it out is that I've been fighting some sort of enviornmental allergies for many years - My eyes tear up and i just sneeze non stop all day. My nose clogs up and I just can't function. I've tried over the counter drugs - claratin or whatever the others are - they clear it away but it doesnt make my body feel good. I tried different homeopathy medicines, acupuncture, and the only thing that seemed to make a difference was stopping to eat peanut butter and beans (Lectin heavy food).

Getting to Agave sweetener - from what I understand, it is made the same way as high fructose corn syrup and the health benefits of agave are all removed. I also heard that with this process, they use mercury in it? Either way, I steer clear. Also I agree with Chris Knott on the valuable tequila resources.

For making my own baked goods, Yes I do always put less sugar in than what the recipe calls for - I love making cookies and they always turn out a little bready because of the lack of sugar.

As for carb eating, I eat a lot of my homemade sourdough bread which is obviously sugar for the body, so I will be slowing down on my intake for a while. Rice, corn tortillas, sourdough pancakes and crepes are my only staples. I do pretty good for carb intake I think.

I think going forward I will stick to fruit smoothies and exercise if I have a craving! Gonna try my best.

Good luck, Grayson!
You've got a whole boatload of cheerleaders here.

My solution was to replace white sugar with stevia.     I tried several kinds of stevia before I found one that was not bitter.    It works great for me.

Welcome and good luck Grayson. My husband was prediabetic and so we went on a mission in my house- we all decided to stop putting sugar in coffee, stop eating cake/cookies/etc, and actively try to cut sugar (and simple carbs) wherever possible. It takes a few weeks to change your tastes, but as others have mentioned it works!
We also don`t keep the stuff in the house, if we are going to eat cake or similar silliness it needs to be made by us, and as such we tend to eat less and less of it. We went from buying 5k of sugar a month to maybe 1 every 3 months (and most of it ends up in the hummingbird feeder!). Just remind yourself of your reasons for wanting to change when you feel tempted, and if you do slip up, it's not the end of the world, get back on that horse. We're here if you need moral support!

Nice Grayson! We're all rooting for you!

Sincerely,
The girlfriend who hid the chocolate, as per request

I'm struggling with the same, but I've found a few things that help.  Coconut sugar, made from the sap of the coconut flower, has a lower glycemic index than regular sugar, and contains minerals.  It also contains much less fructose than other sweeteners.  I like to make my own low-sugar chocolate with about a teaspoon of coconut sugar, a tablespoon (or more) of cacao powder, cacao butter, coconut milk (liquid or powder), vanilla extract, and a sprinkle of salt.  Depending on how I want to use it, I adjust the ingredients to make it firm like a chocolate bar, or runny like a syrup.  I've found that if I start the day with too much sugar, it sends my blood sugar on a roller coaster ride, so I'm chasing the lows all day.  Best to keep consumption low and make sure it's in a form that also contains fat and fiber, and maybe even protein to slow sugar absorption.

Stevia hasn't been a good option for me because, even though it doesn't raise blood sugar, it causes an insulin release.  With no sugar present when this happens, I get hypoglycemia.

I made a rule for myself once upon a time: I can eat whatever pastries I want, as long as they came from my own oven. That cut down a lot on the "must have sugar RIGHT NOW" cravings, and when I needed to let the craving win, I could bake and decide what went into my sweets. It also meant I didn't have to give up baking or turn down my husband's delicious baked foods.

Be sure the stevia you have has no other ingredients other than "stevia"     many of them mix sugar with the stevia...... ( which really bummed me out )

The only thing that workS for me to not crave Sugar iS to completely eliminate (almoSt all) carbS.  I am in the "if it'S in the houSe, I will eat it" club, unfortunately.  Fake Sugar makeS me crave Sugar too.  I will go on a harm reduction path for a while, with the monkfruit, erythritol, or honey and maple Syrup only plan....I alwayS end up eating the worSt cheap aSS ice cream right out of the tub!!

There iS much Type 2 DiabeteS in my family, along with obeSity, and I'm pretty Sure I'm juSt prediSpoSed to go that way if I don't continue to be very, very careful with the Sugar demon!

I totally agree. Substituting one sweet for another does not solve the real problem, which is cravings.
Fasting and having a clean diet helped me rid the cravings. It took many weeks and a super strong will.
It all became easier when my ex-wife died of complication with type 2 diabetes and I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes.
It was life or death for me and in that case, I was fortunate.
Every day I am crave it a lot less. I am very motivated to not relapse because I know how difficult it has been to get to where I am.

I started to reduce my sugar intake by baking cakes (instead of buying store-bought treats).

I go with slightly less and less sugar and choose recipes accordingly. Since I use much less sugar, I still could have a big dessert, without having as much sugar in my system. If you're addicted, either step par step or all in, but either way will require willpower.

Good luck to you

Rene Javier wrote:I totally agree. Substituting one sweet for another does not solve the real problem, which is cravings.
Fasting and having a clean diet helped me rid the cravings. It took many weeks and a super strong will.
It all became easier when my ex-wife died of complication with type 2 diabetes and I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes.
It was life or death for me and in that case, I was fortunate.
Every day I am crave it a lot less. I am very motivated to not relapse because I know how difficult it has been to get to where I am.

I don't want to "like" this post but I do appreciate it.

I'm sorry for your loss (ex or not, still a loss) and very impressed with your willpower and success.

Just a quick note here re: agave syrup.

Agave syrup used to be a slightly better option, because the processing still kept some of the original fiber content and so it wasn't just straight up sugar syrup and nothing else.

However, a few years back, the processing methods changed in every company I can find, and now it's like corn syrup - both syrups are from plants, but both processed so much that it's not so great any longer.

We actually had an old bottle that got misplaced before the processing changed, and you could see where it still had fiber listed as being present, and how none of the modern agave syrup labels show any fiber remaining in the product.

Hi, Welcome.

I found that going to a group like Overeaters Anonymous was a great help to go on a no sugar no flower diet.  (I'm not accusing you of anything this is just generalization.) Having someone else to be accountable spurs some people to action instead of just thinking and wishing they would do it.  

Good luck and let us all know how you are doing.

I think there is something in my primitive brain that makes me crave the things that are in previous generations were so hard to find in nature, fat, sugar and salt.
I guess just a few hundred years ago fruits we're so highly prized because of the sweetness they contain.
if you really want to cut out sugar, one way to do it is cold turkey, there are lots of substitutes but they won't cure the problem they are just substitutes.

The non-caloric, zero-glycemic-index, naturally occurring sweeteners, with no (or minimal) processing, that most help me, are monkfruit and stevia. The non-synthetic sweeteners with minor processing, low calorie, and low or no glycemic effect, that I find usable are erythritol, allulose, and xylitol. Yes. They are from naturally occurring sugars in plants. I don't keep xylitol, because it's lethal to dogs, but of the last 3, it is the most palatable, is actually beneficial for the teeth, and has been in use for roughly a century or so. Erythritol (the one of these I use for baking) does have a cooling sensation that takes some getting used to, and allulose doesn't play nice with my gut, but many find it a good sub for sugar, though it's only 70% as sweet.

I use honey and maple syrup very minimally, because, while they're incredibly good for you in many ways, I'm trying not only to improve my health, but lose weight, and they're both very high in calories and glycemic impact. I'll very occasionally use them in a recipe, or as a cheat/treat, for their distinct flavor. I will occasionally crave one or the other, and once the addiction is broken, I've found that when I crave something, it works best for me, if I just have a little bit of what I crave, otherwise, I end up eating a ton of other stuff, while unsuccessfully trying to satisfy it. I'm not a fan of agave, but it is no more man-made-chemical than honey or maple syrup.

I don't use man-created chemical sweeteners, at all, any more. If (for example, I'm in need of my *real* morning addiction; sweet, light coffee) my only choices are those or sugar, I'll go with the sugar, and use as little as possible, just enough to take the eye off the bitterness. One of the most effective means I've personally found, in breaking the sugar addiction, was going keto, and simply eliminating, at least temporarily, all simple carbs. Complex carbs (primarily fiber) are needed, but can be found in low/non-caloric, low/non-simple carb items, like psyllium husk, senna, oat bran, etc. If you can just not ingest things like grains, potatoes, fruits, and other high-carb items for 4 weeks, it will likely go a long way toward breaking your addiction. Once you get past that, berries are a very low sugar way to reintroduce fruits, to see how your body responds. After that, if you add one item back to your diet at a time, in small amounts, you'll be able to figure out which things are things that trigger your body to crave sugar. Those things are the only ones you would then need to eliminate.

Doing that is how I figured out which foods - including sugar and wheat (in any form) cause me to get ridiculously sick, and cause massive inflammation, for me - and broke my sugar addiction.