Breaking the sugar addiction

[Skylace]

One of the most addictive substances in our diet is sugar. It's introduced into our systems at an early age and put into almost everything we consume. From drinks to bread, it's in there. Breaking the sugar habit is hard to do.
More than three years ago I successfully broke myself from drinking all cola drinks. For me it wasn't the caffeine (as that seems to have no effect on me) it was it's sweet goodness that made me it's slave. Now I don't even crave a cola. I'll have one occasionally when I go out to eat but in all honesty I can't even finish an entire can.
Now I am taking on the beast. Refined sugars. I've been an active label reader for some time. But with my change to do mainly "clean eating" during my 8 week detox diet, I have cut out refined sugars as much as possible.
I add sugar to nothing. If something contains sugar I try to find an alternative. I've not had any sweet confection, including the homemade fudge my mother just made, in 17 days. This hasn't been easy.
I have found that if I am wanting something sweet I reach for a piece of fruit instead. Clementine's are in season and I find those satisfying. Sadly, fruit selections this time of year are sparse. The first few times I have grabbed for natures candy, the results were short lived. The sugar craving started back up shortly after I finished. But as the days have gone by this urge has receded and I have found calm in my natural fructose.
Another 42 days lay ahead of me before I can enjoy the tastes of chocolate, ice cream or anything like that again. But I think in the long run I will be all the better for breaking this addiction.

[eefanincan]

Good luck on this one Sky --- that's quite a challenge! However will you cope without a Cadbury's egg this year????? You must be determined!

[Skylace]

Well, by that time the detox will be done. However, I have already decided I will have a very limited amount of them this year. But life is to short to not enjoy some of my favorites.

[faceless]

that really is quite some effort - best of luck!

Does the body actually need sugars though? I remember from biology at school that you need the five food groups, fat, carbohydrate, protein, vitamins and one other. Actually, aren't carbohydrates some kind of sugar?

[Skylace]

You need sugars, yes, but not refined sugars and not the added sugars from food. Natural sugars from fruit and carbs are more than enough for a person to get their necessary intake. It's all the added sugar we get in our foods and what we add to our foods that is bad.

This is what the FDA recommends:
"You technically don't "need" any amount of sugar. The FDA recommends those consuming 2000 calories a day should consume about 300 grams from carbohydrates- but not all of these should be sugars. Fruits supply a large amount of naturally occurring sugar and should be included in ones diet, so a healthy diet with 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables would contain at least the corresponding amount of sugars found in such fruits and vegetables. Limiting processed sugars would be a wise move, as added sugar provides nothing but empty calories. Instead of attempting to consume a certain amount of sugar, focus on consuming sugars from nutritional sources such as fruits and vegetables instead of added sugar, corn syrup, beet sugar or cane juice. "

[Skylace]

The detox went well. And surprisingly I didn't get that many cravings for sugars/chocolates after about three weeks.
Now that I am allowed sugars again, I have also found that some things are now far to sweet for me. I still crave fruit more then other candies.
However, as some may have noticed, I did have my hot fudge sundae fix. That is the one thing I really did crave while I was doing this. I am sucker for those. And yes, I had a cadbury creme egg but I can honestly say I'm not running out to get them like I was just a year ago.
This went very well and I am also glad to say I lost another two inches in the process.

[eefanincan]

Way to go

[faceless]

well done Sky - I could do with a proper detox myself... but my problem is more with highly refined sugar in the form of alcohol! Times in the past when I've been pretty healthy it's always been as a result of being more active and not really thinking about it.

It's my birthday on sunday (the big 4-0) so that seems a good place to start. Well, Monday's probably more sensible... Tuesday maybe... haha

[eefanincan]