Anyone tried/trying to quit sugar?

Slightly exaggerated title, not ‘quit’ so much as ‘vastly reduce’.

My interest was sparked by a back pain thread a few weeks ago when a couple of people mentioned diet and inflammation. I didn’t think I was prepared to change my diet much but reading up on sugar and it’s effects on the body piqued my interest.

I’m less certain that reducing sugar will have/is having any effect on my chronic back pain BUT even on day-by-day basis I notice how much more productive I am if I break the highs and lows of sugary snacks.

I was also intrigued by the reported effects of sugar consumption on serotonin levels, I’ve been on the cusp for a long time of asking GP to put me on to anti-depressants but really really really don’t want to start messing about with drugs if I can help it. Am hoping once my body adapts to not having serotonin levels artificially jacked up then left depleted by sugar consumption I might ‘level out’ a bit…

Anyway, speculative science aside, it’s been two weeks. I’ve faltered a couple of times so it has been more of a sharp taper rather than going cold turkey. Eating more fruit and veg etc. (a LOT of dates which I need to cut back on, they feel like too much of a cheat even though they are a ‘natural’ sugar contained within a fibrous fruit so technically ‘allowed’).

My breakfast routine hasn’t changed much as I was always pretty good with breakfast. Raisin wheats are a godsend (if the ingredients list is to be believed) if I don’t have time to prepare some bircher style overnight oats the evening before.

Lunches are variously expensive (Bar Burrito does a zero carb ‘burrito’ with your choice of toppings on a bed of spinach) or my weakness when I’m lazy and just pick up a baguette somewhere, I think refined white bread is still a bit of no-no regardless of sugar content. I had a baked potato with beans and cheese yesterday but of course baked beans are fairly well loaded with sugar so that was a mistake. Need to learn to prep lunches at home, will save a fortune as well!

Not enjoying the mood swings but I was a moody git before anyway so just have to hope it improves, headaches have been OK, cravings mostly under control. Weight loss has been negligible to non-existant, probably because I’ve stopped counting calories while I deal with the sugar cravings!

Beer and crisps have become whisky + cheese and/or oatcakes which doesn’t feel like much of an improvement really but at least overall quantity of booze has dropped, if not healthiness…

Wife not helping, I noticed she’d bought a big bag of tablet from the wee fish van that does the rounds. It’s especially soft and creamy tablet as I recall, I’ve scarfed an entire bag in one sitting previously and it’s calling to me from the cupboard downstairs as I type! 😂

Anyone care to share their tips or experiences?

Following with interest. I know I need to reduce my sugar and bready intake. I’ll pack a salad and fruit for work. As soon as I get home I’m raiding the cupboards, and the easiest thing to grab is chocolate bars or a quick sandwich before tea!
Maybe I need to force myself to have a bowl of porridge instead.

I think personally you’d probably do better avoiding ultra highly processed food.

Nova groups for food processing (openfoodfacts.org)

I try to limit my sugar intake as much as possible as diabetes runs in the family, I don’t want that as I’ve a penchant for craft beers that I plan on continuing to enjoy too much once a week for as long as possible without worrying about blood sugar levels and eyesight etc, I also really like sour sweets.

I find for me, I notice the effects of the strong highs and lows when eating things with Palm sugar in which tends to be most supermarket available chocolate these days, I find aldi tends to use normal sugars in their own brand chocolate still. Looking at a lot of the research coming out from the US where it’s Palm this and Palm that, is in almost everything as well as high fructose corn syrup, it seems a hell of a lot worse compared to traditional cane sugars.

For me now, I tend to only have a couple of sour sweets and a small chocolate biscuit a day as I’m dieting, most of my sugar intake is from natural stuff like fruit which I ensure I eat the skin with as I read before there’s something to do with the fibres in the skin which changes how our body uses the sugars in the fruits and how they’re digested, which is why an apple is fine for diabetics but not pressed apple juice with no added sugar. Wherever possible as I’ve always had a mega sweet tooth I’ve replaced sugar with either sweeteners or natural sugars like honey, so coffee on a morning is with sweetener like stevia which you get used to the taste of after a while but is a natural sweetener, porridge with honey in etc

I’ve not noticed any other health benefits other than being less tired/more stable due to no ups n downs, less over all lethargy and sleeping better, not waking up in the morning feeling like you’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards but that being said my sugar intake 6 months ago was massive especially on an evening watching telly I wouldn’t think twice about eating a mars bar duo or the better part of a big bar of dairy milk and a bag of tangfastics with a couple of beers

There’s a difference between certain naturally-occurring sugars, and processed shite. I have a terrible sweet tooth, so I know hard it can be.

Like coming off any drug, it will feel rough to break the cycle because you have become dependent on the short-term peaks you get from eating large quantities of sugary foods. You’re going to have to train your body to look to other energy sources rather than just cry out for a bag of Tangfastics.

Sounds like you’re going to need your partner’s help if you have a problem with willpower though.

You can start heading in the right direction with some of the advice above about slow-release carbs etc, or go full turkey with some kind of Keto(ish) effort, after a few days of feeling like shite you might be amazed at how good you feel, and how steady your energy levels are during the day.

If you don’t fancy that, a good starting point is evening discipline, laying off pretty much everything after, say, 7pm, so you get a 12 hour fast.

Yup, I have along with a few other things…
Back at the end of March I cut out Alcohol, Wheat, salt and sugar, and bacon…
I didn’tthink I’d be able to do it but it was no harder than quitting fags.
Quitting sugar meant a change in habit. Gone were the cups of tea I thrived on as tea without half a spoonful is revolting. I swapped to Ginger with lemon or lime juice. So caffeine was out too…
I have since relaxed a little with regard to the other things but sugar is still out and will stay out! I do have half a spoonful of local honey with my porridge (for hayfever reasons, honest!), and plenty of fruit and nuts, but nothing refined.
I feel so much better! Sleeping much better but not having any vivid dreams yet…
10kg lost, 5 to go until I am the same weight I was at 40….
Do it! Bread is harder….
But don’t rule out the effect an enthusiastic partner can have…

Yes, I cut all refined (white) sugar and associated products many years ago now. Best thing I ever did. It completely changed my palette and taste buds and even food I didn’t like previously I started to enjoy.

Best advice is to remove all temptation from the house. Have something to nibble on as replacement – salted nuts or something like that. Don’t give in to temptation ‘as a reward’ – you need to treat it like smoking. After a while you just forget about it really. Once you get to that stage then you’ve done it, there’s no temptation at all – sugary crap tastes like sugary crap, so you don’t even want to eat it. Other foods – real foods – become much more appealing and tasty. I still eat a few sweet things occasionally, but only what I can make with natural (nutritious) sugars e.g. honey, malt extract, maple syrup, molasses etc.

I wouldn’t try and do too much at once. E.g. cutting bread is pointless unless you have a problem with gluten. Just buy (or better make) quality bread. As for cutting bacon, well that’s just insane.

But don’t rule out the effect an enthusiastic partner can have…

This is a massive one, having a partner that wants to achieve the same goal helps hugely, or even if they don’t they don’t do whatever it is you’re trying to quit around you. Like if you wanted to quit mcdonalds but then they take you through the drive through and start scoffing a cheeseburger in front of you is gonna make willpower 10x harder, as all of those who have quit smoking and have partners who also smoked, it’s easier to quit together.

I think personally you’d probably do better avoiding ultra highly processed food.

I think that is the key, but I guess most bread falls under that banner too.

Get rid of processed stuff and you reduce unnecessary sugar and salt.

I’m type 2 diabetic so I have to watch my sugar (and other carb) intake.
Step 1 for me was many years ago, switching from sugar to sucrose or aspartame sweeteners in tea – to the effect that now I don’t like sugar in tea
Step 2 has been harder – do the same for coffee…

The rest is basic diabetes blood sugar management – take the pills the doctor gives me but also ensure I’m not eating standard chocolate in full-size bar sized doses. A little bit now & then doesn’t hurt but one or two Mars Bars a day certainly will.

However, you can go too low – hypoglycaemia – in which case the advice is eat a couple of Jelly Babies and a Rich Tea biscuit. Haven’t gone that low since I started monitoring my blood sugar levels, thankfully

Pseudoscience aside, I think it’s a good idea to cut down generally. We consume vast amounts of the stuff and it’s just not necessary. And I’d quite like to keep my teeth.

I cut out sugar in tea forever ago. I cannot stand sweet tea now, it’s just wrong. I tapered off over time with coffee, I take like half a spoon these days, I haven’t quite made the jump completely but probably should / could. I switched to diet fizzy drinks a few years back, that was initially unpleasant but after about a fortnight I’d acclimatised and it was normal. That was probably the big one, the amount of sugar in stuff like Coke is scary and I drink a fair amount of it.

Everything in moderation though, including moderation. I’m still partial to the occasional chocolate bar or handful of sweets. Anything that come from a “sharing” bag (ho ho!) I’ll decant into a bowl rather than sit there troughing the entire bag; this was actually a happy accident because I started doing it to avoid disturbing others with sitting there rustling whilst watching TV, but as it turns out it’s an effective means of portion control. If I want more I’ll go and get more, but I actually have to get up and get it and often I can’t be arsed.

Have I noticed a health difference? Honestly, not especially. But my innards probably thank me and when I saw the dentist last month for the first time in about five years he wasn’t having at me with an ice pick.

Sounds like you’re going to need your partner’s help if you have a problem with willpower though.

Yeah, I’m trying to lead by example rather than insist she cuts back on the stuff she enjoys, she doesn’t really need to anyway, she seems to have found the perfect balance of exercise (little, often, not cycling 🙄) and lifestyle where she can control her weight/mood/no back pain and still enjoy nice stuff.

As soon as I get home I’m raiding the cupboards, and the easiest thing to grab is chocolate bars or a quick sandwich before tea!

Pretty much this for me, but helpfully I started to really notice the binge effect that sugary stuff had on me, e.g. I couldn’t possibly eat just one cookie/one Gregg’s millionaire shortbread slice etc. I had to eat the entire pack at probably a billion calories and a weeks intake of sugar in one sitting. I’d then feel like crap for the rest of the day. Acknowledging this is gradually making it easier for me to resist the first cookie. It’s not really willpower but just having faith in how much I’ll regret giving in after that initial, glorious 30 minute binge 😎

I’ve mentioned on here before, I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes linked to my second bout of COVID, between that and a Type 1 diabetic teenage daughter I have become a bit of an expert on carb consumption and reading packets.

I am lucky in that i take no medication and have placed myself back into remission purely with diet exercise.

Things I have learnt along the way…

– Carbs themselves are not bad, whatever an american flogging the keto diet tells you, it is about the type of carbs, when they are consumed and what they are consumed with.

– As my body is rubbish at dealing with carbs, I periodise my carbs around when they are needed, so if i know i am riding my bike as 6pm, I have overnight oats or similar about 3.30-4pm, so that i know i am going to be using them as fuel.

– There is a very big difference between low GI an high GI carbs, I can consume steel cut oats, quality granary bread, as much veg as I like, i can eat fruit but tend to couple with a fat/protein, eg an apple with peanut butter.

– The most important thing is to couple carbs with quality fats and protein, as they slow the absorption of the carbs into the bloodstream, stopping the peaks in blood glucose. So “food pairing” is important, so if i eat potatoes, they have to be eaten with a quality protein at the same time etc.

– Hydration is very important, if you are dehydrated, it is difficult to regulate blood glucose levels.

– How you prepare things makes a difference, weirdly if you allow potatoes to cool and then reheat them, it lowers GI significantly

I cut out all refined sugar a while back and switched only to locally-sourced raw honey.

Problem is now I keep raiding the honey jar like some sort of literal Whinnie the Pooh.

I’m with Cougar and pretty much cut out sugar in drinks and full fat coke a lifetime ago and am pragmatic about my diet.

I also avoid biscuits but have as a treat, I think the problem is when treats become habit and you’re consuming sugary processed stuff daily, loading up every drink with when you go thru a lot of cuppas is very easy.

Full fat cokes good on a long hard ride thou but meh the taste.

“– Carbs themselves are not bad, whatever an american flogging the keto diet tells you, it is about the type of carbs, when they are consumed and what they are consumed with.”

Not forgetting the bleedin’ obvious…
How Many?

I went for a month or two avoiding added or processed sugar. Still had fruit and booze but tried to stick to slimline G&T but that was about it.

The main things I cut down on were jam, biscuits and chocolate although I didn’t eat loads of that in the first place. Don’t generally eat cereals or have sugar in tea/coffee so maybe not loads to remove in the first place.

I’ll be honest I didn’t notice any real difference.

but I guess most bread falls under that banner too.

Pretty much any bread that lasts more than a couple of days and hasn’t gone stale, yep. But that’s true of all these sorts of UPF. There’s no reason that a chocolate bar like say; a Twix should be able to sit on an un-refrigerated shelf for up to a year, unless it’s not really food.

If you have a raw-ish, unprocessed and, where possible, organic diet you will feel repulsed by highly processed, refined and sugary food and drinks. I throw together in a container oats, oat bran, mixed seeds, dried fruit and on the day add blueberries, grapes, apricots whatever and that gives a nice rush into the day without the highs and lows and blubber.

I cut out all refined sugar a while back and switched only to locally-sourced raw honey.

I think it’s also easy to drop into the substitution trap whereby you think you are exchanging bad for good but in reality it’s more nuanced.

A healthy food item isn’t necessarily healthy at all doses 🙂

I couldn’t possibly eat just one cookie/one Gregg’s millionaire shortbread slice etc. I had to eat the entire pack

I’m more than capable of the same. I’d routinely buy two packs, one for me and one for everyone else to share.

As I said above though, the trick (which worked for me, YMMV) is to take one slice or whatever, put the pack back in the cupboard and go and sit down. Get a plate, savour it, make it a bit of an event rather than ramming it straight in your face. You get the same ‘reward’ and if you want more you actively have to get up and get it, and that (again, for me) was surprisingly persuasive. Putting a minor barrier in the way meant I could have a treat without automatically caning through a catering pack of Maltesers, if you’re sat there distracted by the telly with an open box on your knee it’s all too easy to go into autopilot and you then suddenly realise you’re fishing around for more in an empty box.

Yeah, I gave up sugar in my tea/coffee. Went from about 2.5 sugars to one, then just stopped. Took bloody ages to get used to it.

Don’t habitually eat sweets/pop/chocolate/biscuits so I’m doing ok there.

The writing’s on the wall with bread too. Been suffering from chronic heartburn/bloating/inflammation for years, tried everything looking for the cure/cause. But if I don’t eat bread it all goes away… shame cos bread is lovely.

You just have to be on it when organising your meals. Taking a packed lunch is most important for work otherwise you have to go to the supermarket. Try finding something in the shop to have for lunch that isn’t sugar/wheat.

I cut out all refined sugar a while back and switched only to locally-sourced raw honey.

Didn’t some experiment recently reveal that most UK honey is so adulterated that is more or less entirely sugar syrup anyway?

All UK honey tested in EU fraud investigation fails authenticity test | Food | The Guardian

I also avoid biscuits but have as a treat, I think the problem is when treats become habit

Precisely. I’ve had more than one girlfriend over the years with the attitude “well, I’ve broken my diet today, so I might as well go all-in.” Eating two squares of Dairy Milk isn’t going to make a difference in the grand scheme of things, polishing off the rest of a half kilo bar and washing it down with six cans of lager probably is.

There’s no reason that a chocolate bar like say; a Twix should be able to sit on an un-refrigerated shelf for up to a year, unless it’s not really food.

Chocolate doesn’t go off, at all. It may ‘bloom’ and discolour but it’s still good. (source: a chocolatier in Belgium)

Lots of things don’t go off, in fact. Is honey not really food?

Step 2 has been harder – do the same for coffee…

Just stop drinking shite coffee. Honestly good quality coffee does not need sugar in it.

Didn’t some experiment recently reveal that most UK honey is so adulterated that is more or less entirely sugar syrup anyway?

not if you buy it straight from the bee 🙂

Chocolate doesn’t go off

I’ll take you word for it, but the biscuit in Twix sure as shit should after just a couple of days, given that’s is supposed to be shortbread. And it’s not just chocolate, there’s all sorts of stuff that is shelf stable at room temperature for years that really shouldn’t be.

… and?

We learned how preservatives work. You seem to think this is inherently bad for as yet undisclosed reasons. I assume you don’t have a freezer? Those unnatural bad boys can keep fresh food for years.

The biscuit in a Twix is wholly enclosed in chocolate which is wholly enclosed in a foil wrapper, presumably made and packaged in a sterile environment. Of course it’s going to have a long shelf life, that doesn’t make it “not really food”.

weirdly if you allow potatoes to cool and then reheat them, it lowers GI significantly

that combined with your comment about combining with protein & fat, makes me feel a lot better about stuffing every last crispy roast potato down my throat. Can’t resist them! They really are the highlight of a Sunday roast / Christmas dinner / etc.

I’m salivating just thinking about them.

I’ll second the coffee thing as well – a good espresso made with relatively lightly (and recently) roasted beans is almost sweet in itself. Nothing wrong with the standard supermarket italian style coffees but they do seem to be aimed at those who like the kind of bitterness hit you can get with coffee and/or to cut through milkiness. That’s a whole ‘nother debate though and has been discussed ad nauseam on here.

Carbs and bread (basic man science) turn into sugar (effectively)

Lower them too, except before/during/after endurance exercise

Good job! Sounds like you’re doing well. On the expensive part, just embrace that for now – while you are fighting addictions (it is an addiction) it’s worth spending money to fight the cravings. eg, at the MOMENT, sinking £10 on Nando’s chicken + veg is significantly better than eating a jacket potato and sandwich despite being 2x the cost. Once you’ve started changing your body and kicking the addiction to the effects of sugar/carbs, you can then find much cheaper ways. But for now, keep throwing everything you have at it. If that’s an expensive lunch – the money is worth it for what you’re doing for yourself 🙂

Good job! All sounds positive

If you have a raw-ish, unprocessed and, where possible, organic diet you will feel repulsed by highly processed, refined and sugary food and drinks.

This. This WILL happen for you. It’s worth what you’re doing, for this. And the ultimate health/life benefits this will lead to.

Most Honey probably is adulterated, but local raw honey is a world apart from the shit you buy at Tesco..

that doesn’t make it “not really food”.

This is nutritional label of a Twix, see if you can spot the actual food things.

Used to have two teaspoons in tea/coffee, cut down to none, now back to one very heaped of soft dark in each of my hourly coffees that get consumed until ~1700.

After eating up to ~5 bags of chocolate raisins and two 6-packs of hot cross buns most weeks got rather out of hand from around 2019, I now have one bag of liquorice allsorts per week; a bag of chocolate limes every fortnight and a 6-pack of hot cross buns every four weeks or so.

Often guilty of a jam sandwich in the evening since ditching the weekly choc raisins and x buns around Feb.

Biscuits are a very rare treat, we can have packs in the house unopened for months.

Very rarely buy my own chocolate, if I open a bar I can’t stop, while my better half has a huge stash and can happily eat a square or two and then put the rest of the bar down.

Typically drink 6/8 litres of coke a week, but it’s sugar-free.

Quadruple strength squash has no added sugar.

Baked beans often have sugar in these days, as the low sugar tins are almost twice the price.

Don’t add sugar to cereal, might add some raisins or sultanas.

I was super ruthless with snacking in June ’16 to August ’17, dropped from ~95Kg to ~73Kg, now back at ~90Kg having put on 10+ since covid eight months ago.

… And that’s all I can think of right now.

But don’t rule out the effect an enthusiastic partner can have…

and the need for a mid-session refueling?

The only thing I sweeten is coffee but I switched years ago to xylitol which apparently is suitable for diabetics (I am not diabetic).

Xylitol is ridiculously expensive compared to ordinary sugar but it is as “natural” as sucrose, tastes exactly the same to me, kills the bacteria that causes dental decay, has few calories, and has one tenth the GI of sucrose.

Worth remembering that xylitol is dangerously poisonous to cats and dogs though.

I started using a fibre supplement called Inulin. It has a bonus in that it’s a natural sweetener, so a spoon of that in my coffee does the trick.

As I said above though, the trick (which worked for me, YMMV) is to take one slice or whatever, put the pack back in the cupboard and go and sit down.

Doesn’t work for me. I’m happy to get off my arse if there’s some sugar involved.

I need some kind of timelock on the cupboard. If I press a button I’m not allowed to open it again for five hours!

Typically drink 6/8 litres of coke a week, but it’s sugar-free.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/10/07/1044010141/diet-soda-may-prompt-food-cravings-especially-in-women-and-people-with-obesity

I love my Diet Coke, but I’m increasingly aware that it really doesn’t help you diet!

xylitol is also a laxative in large quantities!

I’ve had T1D for 25 odd years and had always ignored low carb up until 2-3 years ago. As well as T1D, it was inflammatory bowel disease that helped steer me into it and the desire to avoid drugs with lots of side effects. I had a very traditional healthy diet at the time, minimally processed, lots of “good” carbs, along with lots of fresh vegetables which all equalled a very unpleasant life. I did an extensive exclusion diet with a registered dietitian, in conjunction with my consultant, and ended up in low carb land. It’s worked really well for me, diabetes (and bowel) can still be a challenge, but my life is a lot more pleasant and just liveable really. I’m 51 on Sunday and feeling as fit and strong as I was in my 20s and 30s, so it’s certainly put me in a good place.

Blanket statements about the affect of “good carbs” or combining foods on BG are not true, we all respond differently, what happens to me won’t necessarily happen to someone else.

Other random thoughts:

Do I think everyone should be low carb? Definitely not, carbs aren’t inherently evil. But if you’re unhealthy or consuming food that has lots of ingredients or vast amounts of sugar, then maybe you could improve things.

Do I miss carbs? No is the simple answer. I really enjoy my food, I don’t mind having some carbs (usually 10 – 50g/day) but they are not something I would seek out now.

Do I struggle with fuelling on rides? No, I’m better now than I was a decade ago, even with a few hours of high intensity, I often feel stronger towards the end of a ride, even without any refuelling. But that’s personal to me.

I make my own low carb granola, mainly walnuts and pecans, that I have with high protein yoghurt. I make “keto” pizza, which I absolutely love, thin and crispy is the way forward! There are now some great low carb beers now too, Lean Brew IPA is one. Otherwise, I just eat real food, with a protein focus.

I have been lucky enough to have been using CGM since the first clinical trials of them started, so I have had millions of data points over many years on vegetarian, high carb Mediterranean (?) and low carb diets including many many experiments of fuelling during exercise. It’s finding what works and doesn’t make us miserable, although there was definitely a transition period for me that lasted a few months. 🙂

Went from white to brown, and I only really use it in coffee, but I dont put sugar on anything else, white or brown. Actually white now tastes ridiculously sweet with a bit of an after taste that on the rare occasions i do come across it its not a pleasant taste.

This is nutritional label of a Twix

Are you sure that’s for a Twix? The package labelling on a UK Twix lists the ingredients as –

Sugar, Glucose Syrup, Wheat Flour (17%), Palm Fat, Skimmed Milk Powder, Cocoa Butter, Cocoa Mass, Milk Fat, Lactose, Whey Permeate (from Milk), Fat Reduced Cocoa, Salt, Emulsifier (Soya Lecithin), Raising Agent (E500), Vanilla Extract

I know sugar, more sugar, flour and fat aren’t a great start to an ingredient list and that they sneak some unexpected things into our diet but the info you’ve found seems to have an unusual amount of cheese!