Wednesday 27 April 2016

A Sugar Free Update

Since the start of this year we have been focused on a sugar free diet.  We still eat fresh fruit but try an avoid added sugar and concentrated sugars such as juices and dried fruits.  We also avoid processed food and when I bake I try and use dextrose instead of sugar.

After nearly four months we have learnt a few things about ourselves and about adapting to a world that is just full of sugar.

  • If you avoid sugar as much a possible your perception of sweetness changes and you find many foods too sweet to enjoy
  • You will often find it difficult to find foods without added sugar
  • It is not the end of the world if you decide to have something sweet as a treat
  • We often share what would be considered a small sweet treat for one person and are satisfied
  • Once you start looking to avoid sugar you see it being consumed in vast quantities all around you
  • Some baking does not work with dextrose
  • Once you are in the habit of having less sugar in your diet you rarely miss it, but sometimes do

We have decided to keep avoiding sugar but we are also not going to run our lives by it.  We will have the odd icecream in summer and eat good dark bitter chocolate when it takes our fancy.
And if I get so crazy pregnancy craving for jam and pickle sandwiches hey I might even give that a go too.
Sometimes we feel that we are depriving ourselves or making our lives harder but these thoughts are normally short lived and we see the bigger picture of our health.

We feel that if we keep going how we are we will not end up giving up on the low sugar life style because we are not going down the all or nothing path.  But at the same time we are aware that it would be an easy habit to fall back into so we are mindful of what we eat.

14 comments:

  1. It's so true about your perception of sweetness changing. Years ago I was a "two sugars and milk girl" in tea and coffee, gradually I weaned down to one sugar, and then no sugar at all, and that is still how I take tea and coffee today. But if someone accidentally sweetens my beverage it seriously tastes disgusting, actually like poison, I haven't wanted to eliminate cake or other sweets from my diet because I love them so much! I imagine if I did, they too would taste bad after a time.

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    1. Cheryl I love to bake and some recipes are ok with dextrose but others are not. I do miss good cakes but with just 2 of us I now only bake them when we have others to help eat it otherwise it is too easy to eat it every day.

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  2. I think it's great that it's not an "all or nothing" or the 80/20 rule..80% of the time you do the right thing and if the other 20% you enjoy yourself a little it's a good balance.

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    1. Kathy you are right balance is the key. we aim to avoid sugar but do not give up or stop if we fall off the wagon so to speak it is just no big deal.

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  3. The odd ice-cream becomes less and less of an occurrence. The longer you go without sugar the less you can tolerate at treat times too. I still use a lot of sugar in the pickles, relishes and chutneys but that's about all in our life these days.

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    1. Tanya I have not made pickles etc as we are trying to eat all the last jars we have before we move to NZ but once there I will use it in those things too as you never eat too much chutney or pickles I find.

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  4. What a very sensible approach, I think being well informed is half the battle. It is really surprising how much seemingly innocent stuff is loaded with sugar and if you are making most of your food from scratch you can control and cut back in many ways.

    As a child I was brought up with teacups not mugs and it was the standard milk and 2 sugars, if I were to do that in a mug ! I seriously think I would throw up.....yuk

    I agree with you about your tastebuds changing , you don't miss much of the things you thought were delicious treats, you just prefer other things now.I don't even think about chocolate let alone look for it,a little bit occasionally is fine , a little treat.

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    1. Margaret it is everywhere and unless you really read the labels you don't know. I saw cereal the other day with 6 types of sugar in it. Crazy.

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  5. It's very easy to fall back into old sugar habits, especially when the company who makes your favourite chocolate brings out a limited edition pineapple cream that you just have to try.

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    1. Jan I have only ever like dark chocolate so most commercial chocolate does not appeal to me, luckily.

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  6. I am also on the avoiding sugar route, it is in so much these days,a nd the longer i avoid it the better my tastebuds are. I find i enjoy flavours better. I think I missed something - it sounds as though you are pregnant - congratulations!

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    1. AA Yes a baby is indeed on the way. So far so good. Yes our tastebuds have changed.

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  7. Congratulations on your wonderful news, hope you stay well and healthy and enjoy the amazing process. Pregnancy yoga is really nice to keep your body feeling good and for connecting with other mums. Weeeee so exciting! 😊

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    1. Thanks Margart yes very exciting. I am off to yoga this week.

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