Category Archives: sweets

Losing the Taste for Sweet

Posted on February 1, 2014 | Leave a comment

I would have said at one time that it was impossible I would lose my taste for sweets, but to my surprise, after the last few years of very low carb eating, my taste for sweet has vastly diminished. Last night I was out to dinner with friends, I didn’t give the bread basket a second thought, then a dessert sampler was ordered for the table by one of my friends. I would have declined dessert if we had ordered individually. But, my friends are not on my low sugar-starch diet, and I don’t make a big deal when out with others.

So this big dessert platter with four desserts was put in the middle of the table. At one time I would have dived in and had my fair share, but instead I nabbed the strawberry settled on some whipped cream, had one tiny bite each of two of the desserts, an apple tart and a sticky pudding, and had no desire for more, indeed it was a ‘ho-hum’ experience. I just had no desire for any more. At the time I was not thinking much about it, but when I got home I realized what a different experience I just had from the years when I had to have my very own dessert in order to enjoy the meal.

So, take heart if you are still struggling with avoiding sweets. By maintaining good habits at home–no sweets live here–and avoiding most situations that are personal triggers, like convenience stores were for me, then given enough time, months to a couple years, we do gradually lose our super-sweetened palates and find pleasure in much healthier options. I make pumpkin custards, almond flour cup cakes, mousses, etc.,  sweetened only with a little bit of liquid stevia, and enjoy such treats as much or more than the old heavy sugar desserts.

All the negative issues with weight, inflammation in the cells, brain fog, and other such bad reactions to sugars-starches-artificial sweeteners, are enough to keep me on the path of good health which for me is anti-sugar.

Even when you fall off the wagon, and we all have, in the early days especially, take heart–it will get easier.

When you no longer feel deprived, you no longer want what is bad for you. To get to that point requires both habit changes and a change of mindset, but the good news is that it can be done.

Yours in learning,

Nan aka Sugarbaby

Leave a comment

Posted in behaviors, cravings, determination, eating out, sugar, sugar addiction, sweets, will power

Tagged , , ,

Traveling and Other Sugar Pitfalls

Posted on October 7, 2013 | Leave a comment

Traveling and Avoiding Sugar Pitfalls

Sometimes I could travel and do fine, but other times I would cave and then slide into a binge. Struggling to stay free of binges I examined what places I was most vulnerable, and in those places, what foods tended to be the the ones that started the ball rolling.

Here is an interesting fact about human behavior: we are creatures of habit. We tend to repeat the same behaviors which is why it can be hard to break bad or negatives patterns. But the good thing about this slavish trait is that we can use that knowledge about ourselves to break through the negative.

A couple years ago I read a book on habits by Charles Duhigg, called The Power of Habit, in which he layouts out the powerful nature of habits, why that is good, and why it is a challenge for us to change habits. The short version is there are three basic parts to a habit: 1) a stimulus or cue, 2) to which we respond, 3)to produce the reward or goal. The key to changing a habit is not denial or will power, but taking advantage of the first and third elements, changing only the response. So, if every evening you have an alcoholic drink (response) while watching television (the stimulus), which is relaxing( the reward);  you replace the alcoholic drink with another rewarding drink, perhaps a cup of herbal tea you enjoy. Soon the idea for the drink is for the tea, not the booze.

I realized that when I visited a family member’s house where I tended to give in to sweets, the most usual or initial food I was tripped up on was chocolate. Next time I visited I stopped at a market before going to the house and bought some of my favorite cheese and cold cuts. Now I had something to respond to the cue.

I further realized that chocolate was almost always what tripped me up because I can do some chocolate at home, very dark 85% chocolate to which I add some sliced almonds or coconut, and don’t over eat. Away from home the chocolate had a lot of sugar, and that I cannot or will ever be equipped to handle.

Now it will probably take more than one time to make the shift, but if you are determined, you can do it.

Yours in changing unhealthy habits,

Nan aka Sugarbaby

Leave a comment

Posted in binges, cravings, determination, eating out, sugar, sugar addiction, sweets, Travel

Tagged , ,

Avoid Substitute Treat-Foods Like the Plague

Posted on March 23, 2013 | Leave a comment

One of the most common things you read on no-sweet, low carb, paleo-primal, and all other such blogs, is all the ways to make substitutes for all the junk/gluten/sugar/starch treats people have had trouble with before, and will keep having trouble with by trying to cook up faux treats.

I know some people seem to have control over these, but most do not, especially not anyone who identifies with being a sugaraholic. Trying to create faux sweets and other such substitutes  is the epitome of trying to eat your cake and have it, too. Just doesn’t work. If you would eat a whole batch of regular cookies, chances are very good you will eat a whole batch of faux treats.

The best, smartest, and EASIEST way to get over a problem with sweets/carbs is to turn your back on them. You don’t need them, they don’t taste that good anyway, and if your bigger goal is to be healthy, slim, and free of the cravings, then give up the substitutes.

I’ve had to learn this the hard way; my weight loss would stall using almond bread, for example. Not surprising really, since bread, cookies, and cakes made with almond flour are very high calorie, and often hard on the digestive system. Plus, these foods also can lead to binges on the real thing, since you keep in your mind the idea of bread, cookies, candy, etc.

I’m not an absolutist about diet, so if you can in fact find a couple of things you can enjoy as desserts and not over use them, that’s great. For me ice cream is something I can make that is very satisfying and I’m happy with a small serving.

The psychology of food and eating is very important, and needs to be understood alongside the desire to eat well. Someone came up with the acronym JERF, for just eat real food; that’s the best goal. Eat real food and keep the idea of treats as something rare and even unnecessary.  My present goal is to be an A-1 Jerf-er, and keep away from the temptations that are purely replacements for the old sugary-starchy foods. If we have learned anything about substitutions, and we know from studies on the effects of artificial sweeteners, that people actually eat more, and gain more weight in diets high in them.

My advice: avoid substitutes like the plague. Eliminating such food will make our lives far easier, and we will be leaner and healthy for it.

Yours in learning,

Nan aka Sugarbaby

Leave a comment

Posted in binges, cravings, sugar addiction, sweets

Sugar is the Problem

Posted on February 28, 2013 | 1 comment

Today’s New York Times has yet another article on the problems of sugar in the modern diet.

Since 1985 the incidence of Type 2 Diabetes has quintupled, which is just the most obvious effect of the similar increase in sugars in virtually every kind of food that is prepared by the industry food giants. They intended to make people addicted to their food, and succeeded wildly.

This past week I was out at meetings most of the day and on the way home passed a Kentucky Fried Chicken store, and thought about the fact that I had not eaten any KFC in years, and decided to take home some of the chicken and coleslaw, thinking we could take off the breading and it would be within my carb margin of error. The first bite was a shock, for the chicken didn’t at all taste like I remembered it, and was in fact quite cloyingly sweet; even though I peeled away almost all the outside breading, but you could still taste the sweet–and excess salt. The coleslaw was also very sweet, and I threw out the bulk of the meal.  It was not just that the food was sweeter, but it was a different sort of sweet which I take to by corn syrup. I know my palate is now used to very little sweet of any kind, but that alone does not account for the bad taste, not just sweetness.

I also paid the price later in the day with gut issues, so I doubt I will ever be entering a KFC again.

I always think about how rare it was to see anyone grossly obese in the 1950-70s, and how very common it is now. Things have most certainly changed, and the main change is sugar-starch-artifical sweets in all packaged and prepared foods.

Yours in discovery,

Nan aka Sugarbaby

1 Comment

Posted in artificial sweeteners, eating out, sugar, sugar addiction, sweets

Tagged , ,

Dr. Yudkin, the Cassandra

Posted on January 23, 2013 | Leave a comment

Like Cassandra of mythology, who could foretell the future but would not be believed, Dr. John Yudkin, a British scientist who  was both PhD and MD, did research that eventually led to his book, Pure, White, and Deadly, published in 1972, claiming that sugar was not just bad, but dangerous. I have remembered since the seventies hearing that some British or Australian doctor had said, in effect, if dangers of sugar was just now discovered it would be a banned substance, but I didn’t know who it was until recently. He states this in the first chapter in a bit different way, but just as damning.  Further, I was able to find a link with the book in pdf format to download (just click the title).

All great movements start as disputed, disparaged, unappreciated ideas that are considered radical, too liberal, against the conventional wisdom;  and,  like many of history who were right but unattended, Dr. Yudkin  along with a few others like Drs. Atkins and Pennington who were bellwethers signaling the dangers that now are finally being recognized via the efforts of Gary Taubes, Dr. Robert Lustig and now many bloggers.

The current of time eventually sweeps away the dross, but we can be plagued by it for a very long time. Sugar (and other feel-good things) is something people do not want to give up, or acknowledge is really seriously bad for them, so they assume the denial position (I envision this as on their bellies, with arms out-stretched and legs spraddled out,  hugging their sacred ground).

While it is hard to understand how people can stay in denial when their bodies are grossly enlarged, their health steadily declining, their medical bills rising, and worse, yet this is exactly what continues to happen.

Still, there are small signs of hope, like the major soda manufacturers trying to fake less terrible options, though in truth they are just as terrible. Grocery markets are also beginning to offer more sugar free options, and happily the food labeling is still our greatest gift.

Today I wanted to lift up how thankful I am for the predecessors in the fight against sugar who helped lead us to what one day will be understood as an inevitable conclusion–despite the agri-business and government attempts to hide, mask, or prevent the truth from getting out (in this they are exactly like the tobacco industry).  Dr. Lustig is reaching parents of small children which may be the biggest achievement in the long run to get sugar out of our diets.

Sometimes one is at the right time in history, I wish some of the now deceased diabetics in my family, like my mother, had been.

Yours in furthering the truth about sugar,

Nan aka Sugarbaby

Leave a comment

Posted in Dr. Yudkin, poison, sugar, sugar addiction, sweets

Tagged , ,

How about Halloween?

Posted on October 16, 2012 | Leave a comment

Halloween has been the undoing of many a sugaraholic. Buying a lot of candy to have around the house is surely a dangerous thing to do. After my own children were grown, I always bought candy that I didn’t like, Smarties &/or DumDums lollipops were on the list.  Then the next day, any leftover candy went either to the food bank, if unopened, or in the trash.  If you can’t keep your house free of candy you don’t like, the next best thing is to buy limited amounts so that it will all get handed out.

Another option, if you have access to a catalog that has lots of party favor type gifts, is to get a bunch of little toys to give out. Of course, that doesn’t replace candy.

Lastly, I have bought fast food coupons/tickets for a dollar–I don’t know if this is still something you can get; or you could simply give out shiny new quarters. Next to candy, cash is king with kids.

The main thing is not to give ourselves any excuses for eating candy or sweets that for the sugaraholics may result in days of binge behavior.

Yours in the fight for health,

Nan aka Sugarbaby

Leave a comment

Posted in candy, eating out, getting back on track, holidays, sweets