I am giving up most refined sugars.

[Metalhead]

I actually did this several years ago for a few months until both my mother and grandmother hammered into me that I was really hurting their feelings by turning down foods they wanted to serve to me that was loaded with refined sugars.

This time, I will stick to it for the long haul. I felt healthier those several months I stuck with it and I was weak enough to let those narcissists guilt trip me into acting against my own best interests.

No more refined sugar, no more HFCS for me.

 

[FilterFreq]

Good news -- once you break the addiction, bananas and apples basically become your candy and the really wretched stuff starts tasting like chemicals. You've got this!

 

[Judge]

A good plan, but a tough one too. So many foods with sugar these days, whether it needs it or not. Another big consideration in eliminating or lessening your gout too. Sugar can really exacerbate gout and whatever trigger foods may go with it.

 

[Metalhead]

My mother unironically tried to convince me that HFCS made many foods healthier for me, and that she read articles about people who gave it up and ended up with severe health conditions because they were following a fad diet.

 

[FilterFreq]

My mother unironically tried to convince me that HFCS made many foods healthier for me, and that she read articles about people who gave it up and ended up with severe health conditions because they were following a fad diet.

If my mom told me that, I'd have to remind her that eating healthy has never been a fad .

It takes a lot of work to eat healthily, but going to great lengths to reclaim our health isn't a wasted effort. Even if it's just getting those small changes to stick, they have a ripple effect and create more positive change

 

[Jonn]

This time, I will stick to it for the long haul. I felt healthier those several months I stuck with it

Good luck.
Sugar is extremely addictive.

 

[Suzanne]

Well done! My husband also is finally listening to me and he is losing weight around his tum.

When we shop now, we look at the content of refined sugars together.

I gave up several year's ago, when I got a health scare. I first swapped sugar for honey, in my coffee and for the first couple of days, it was disgusting; very syrupy and then, it changed to just being sweet.

Our "toilet" smells bad thanks to refined sugar.

I have to have a container of sugar and I put: poison.

 

[vergil96]

Good news -- once you break the addiction, bananas and apples basically become your candy and the really wretched stuff starts tasting like chemicals. You've got this!

Can confirm. I haven't been eating sweets for half of my life now. Even vegetables turn out to be sweet if you don't desensitise your taste buds constantly with added sugar. Additives make normal food taste bland when it's not bland at all in reality. I eat sweets occasionaly, of course, but maybe once a week or so, not everyday.

 

[Jonn]

Even vegetables turn out to be sweet

I find capsicum surprisingly sweet.

 

[oregano]

I have the same struggle, and even though my intake is nowhere near what it once was when I would inhale a dozen large candy bars at one sitting, it is still there. Refined sugar is chemically analogous to cocaine on the molecular level, and breaking the addiction is a similar journey to breaking free of plant based hard drugs. (Synthetic drugs such as meth and fentanyl are a completely different thing.) HFCS can be considered more of a synthetic drug, and it is literal poison that has to have other chemicals added to it so it doesn't kill people outright. I too need to get back on the bandwagon, and I think I will also simply throw every sugar/HFCS food out and do so.

 

[Boogs]

It isn't the same as addictive drugs like opiates and opioids and other classes, and synthetic or natural does not necessarily make a difference other than arbitrarily. In fact, some synthetic analogues can be less harmful than their natural counterparts (e.g. opium addiction/withdrawal can be worse than morphine or diamorphine)! If you suffer real physical withdrawals then you are addicted, if not you're habituated. But that doesn't diminish the power of habituation, indeed sometimes the lack of physical withdrawal symptoms may make habituation harder to control.

Sugar and fructose et al are not healthy things to consume, but they are only a part of the big picture regards Ultra Processed Foods. The food (UPF) industry is somewhat analogous to the tobacco industry and alcohol industry in their misanthropic business practices. But UPF's are so prevalent is hard to totally avoid them.

And worse, some of the most contentious products are aimed quite deliberately at children and teens - e.g. breakfast cereals and tinned and bottled flavoured drinks.

When a UPF is labelled as "Part of a healthy diet" or some such nonsense, it doesn't mean it's healthy itself, just that there's nothing to stop you eating it on top of an otherwise healthy diet (other than your health)!

Caveat - my own diet is atrocious! It's seems knowledge isn't always power!
(This has been a Hypocrites Forever™ posting from Troll's 'R Us® )

P.S. I could wax lyrical much more on some of the other harmful aspects of UPF's, but you'd get too bored to read it!

 

[FayetheAspie]

Bananas, apples, and others fruits (except tomatoes-tomatoes make me sick) are really delicious. When I would get sick as a child fruit was one of the few things that I could eat without feeling nauseated.

 

[Xinyta]

My mother unironically tried to convince me that HFCS made many foods healthier for me, and that she read articles about people who gave it up and ended up with severe health conditions because they were following a fad diet.

Either she is pulling that out of her butt, or she needs to stop reading, listening to, "expert" opinions that have no bearing in true science. People have been looking at health for a long time. And everyone has an opinion on what is healthy, comparatively to what's not.

It's honestly going the route of 'everything causes cancer'.

But I do agree. Focus on what you know works. Especially for your lifestyle.

Cutting artificial sugars, is one of the best things you can do for proper regulation of the body.

 

[Boogs]

But I do agree. Focus on what you know works. Especially for your lifestyle.

Absolutely, there almost no avoiding it completely, but minimising the worse of it can be a big win (and a message to the manufacturers and distributors).

 

[Jonn]

If you suffer real physical withdrawals then you are addicted, if not you're habituated.

It works this way:
Sugar (carbs) spikes blood sugar.
The pancreas responds by pumping in insulin.
This reduces the blood sugar.
The body responds through craving more carbs to re-establish a higher blood sugar level.

P.S. I could wax lyrical much more on some of the other harmful aspects of UPF's, but you'd get too bored to read it!

That never stops me.

 

[Jonn]

Bananas, apples, and others fruits (except tomatoes-tomatoes make me sick) are really delicious. When I would get sick as a child fruit was one of the few things that I could eat without feeling nauseated.

I have virtually given up fructose fruit entirely.
Fructose is is worse than sugar.

 

[FayetheAspie]

Fructose is a type of sugar as is sucrose. Either way I like fruit and when I'm sick it is sometimes about the only thing that I can get down and keep down.

 

[Jonn]

Fructose is a type of sugar as is sucrose.

Fructose is much more harmful that sugar, though.

 

[Boogs]

There are many different types of sugar with quite different properties, some types even acutely and fatally toxic, but their context makes a big difference.

Fructose as an additive can be harmful when eaten to excess (particularly in high calorie food), and it's in so many things that's rather easy to do.

But in fruit it's pretty safe for most people - not high enough concentration, and fruit is low calories and high fibre. It would be difficult to eat enough fruit to create a fructose related issue.

 

[Jonn]

Fructose as an additive can be harmful when eaten to excess (particularly in high calorie food), and it's in so many things that's rather easy to do.

But in fruit it's pretty safe for most people - not high enough concentration, and fruit is low calories and high fibre. It would be difficult to eat enough fruit to create a fructose related issue.

One word:

Spoiler

Fatty Liver...
OK, two words...

Also, my MD recommended to stay off fruit such as grapes if you are diabetic.