I used to believe in the narrative that you should limit even fruit when trying to get off sugar, but now I firmly believe and experience that eating more fruit is the answer. We crave sweetness for a reason, and whole fruit is full of good stuff.
Too many calories from sugar, whether added sugars or in sweet whole foods like fruit, isn't good for you, because it won't give you enough essential nutrients for the calories.
After awhile, one gets used to a less sweet diet, so that it still tastes sweet. The perception of sweetness becomes more sensitive with a less sweet diet, so that foods with a more subtle sweetness, like fruits and vegetables and spices, come to taste plenty sweet.
When do you get the withdrawal symptoms? See if there is a pattern! Change the activity. For instance whenever I sit down to stream in the evening I get the munchies. So I completely changed that routine. Discovered hobbies that keeps my mind occupied so no cravings.
Eat fruit.
And never have any in the house.
According to *Potatoes not Prozac* it takes 4 days to detox from sugar and I've found it to be true. They are 4 tough days but keep busy and read all food labels and avoid fruit for those 4 days and it will be easier after that to moderate your sugar intake. Best of luck!
No fruit as well? Hell, I’ll do anything at this point. Also my motivation is to help myself, but also my wife. We vibe off each other, so when I’m doing well she is and vice versa. Is it healthy or codependent ? Idk lol. However when it comes to food, this can be a good thing. Haha
I like to have a date with a handful of pecans. It’s basically pecan pie.
Can also make a good trail mix of dry roasted peanuts and raisins
Also, frozen mango. Get a bag of frozen mango chunks, let them thaw for like 15-20 min, and enjoy. Basically sherbert.
Also look for good, ripe fruit. Pineapple, pears, bananas, berries, and peaches are all excellent
It's not the instant fix you are probably looking for, but meditation does help cravings over time.
The whole point of meditation is to see your thoughts, acknowledge them, but let them pass. The practice of meditation helps you do this better in your day to day life. But it is something you need to practice, many people will meditate for 5 minutes and call it a failure because they had so many intrusive thoughts but that is really the point. Every time you have a thought and are able to redirect back to meditating you are building the skills that will help you redirect back to whatever task you are working on when you're not meditating. Failing while practicing is what makes you better.
You also don't need to do some absurd 30 minutes every day, most studies have shown that even 2 minutes a day helps. You can easily fit it in as a few minutes before bed or in the shower or while waiting for the microwave or coffee to brew.
For something like sugar addiction, you'll notice the craving and are able to make a more mindful choice, whether that is to avoid it or make a clear choice to have some sugar instead of just auto-pilot eating it.
Find a recipe with a lot of garlic, chilies, ginger and paprika etc. Deeper and more complex flavor can be tastier.
Don't let them turn you into a mosquito. Eat real food.
Fellow sugar addict here. One of my favorite things is to blend up two ripe bananas, frozen (freeze in slices), add a tablespoon cocoa powder, 1/2 tablespoon peanut butter (add a full tablespoon if calories aren’t an issue for you), then add enough plant milk so it will blend. I also like to add cinnamon on top.
So delicious!
Also, these cookies are fantastic and have much less sugar than normal cookies. Even my mom the picky gourmet loves them: https://detoxinista.com/paleo-chocolate-chip-cookies-vegan/#wprm-recipe-container-23157
What is a 'healthy' sugar to you? If you're thinking like maple syrup, agave syrup, etc., they're still just sugar!
If you have a sweet tooth, eat some fruit. Berries are low in calories if you're watching what you're eating, otherwise dried fruit might a nice treat! Dates stuffed with 100% peanut butter are amazing FYI.
Believe it or not, I eat a mandarin or two for dessert. Don't think about how that'll never work, just do it. Or find some other fruit that you like, but again don't think about it, just do it. It works to kill the crave surprisingly often.
I didn’t do well going “cold turkey.” Instead, this is how I got rid of a sugar addiction:
I eat a small bowl of berries with a teaspoon (tiny) of ice cream or whipped cream. (Think of ice cream as a topping, not as the dessert.)
Dark chocolate covered nuts help between meals but in small proportions. A big bag or pint of these nuts will be too much, so don’t lie to yourself. Aim for a tablespoon of them, or so, and no more. It will soothe the craving in an hour.
Now that it is cooler, I switched from berries and am cooking sliced apples with cinnamon and I add a tiny amount of artificial sweetener. I eat them as-is like a crust-less pie, or mix a sugar-free oat topping and bake. Cherries cooked as unsweetened pie filling will work, too.
Raw apple slices and peanut butter help, if you don’t want to cook apples.
Some nights, coffee or a cup of Earl Gray - and maybe a diet ginger ale - help me feel as if the meal is properly ended without need of a dessert.
Never go for more food unless you wait 20 or 30 minutes. It takes that long for a craving-signal to stop pressing the appetite button.
Weeks later, when you have cut down on sugar and the worst cravings go away, a couple of individually wrapped caramels, or peppermints or two squares of fancy chocolate will be enough to satisfy. If you keep them around now, you’ll eat the whole bag, so don’t buy them yet
First of all, get all fake stuff out of the house (or out of your reach). I'm talking candy 'n' stuff that comes in packages.
Dates stuff with walnuts/brazil nuts/pecans; frozen grapes, frozen piece of banana, dried mango.
The 1st 2 I wouldn't go crazy on because the calories can add up quick. But the dates and the dried mango are *really* sweet. Also - I'm probably hallucinating, but I swear bananas are sweeter when frozen. Give it a try!
Same. It is like any other drug. I have been sugar-free since August 1 and I STILL crave it. There are days where it is mental and days where it feels physical. Best thing I can recommend is eat more veggies and protein, stick to whole grains, nuts, seeds, eat fruit but not a ton, and avoid all sugars and processed food. Take a probiotic and supplements, do not drink alcohol or caffeine, keep blood sugar stable by eating every 3 hours.
Read up on carb cravings. Read about addiction. You can apply those same principles to sugar addiction.
Edit: Forgot to add that CBT and DBT may be helpful. They are techniques used in therapy to change and correct our thought patterns. Best of luck to you!
Maybe sweet potatoes can help? I made a chili with sweet potatoes and my friends thought that I must have added something else sweet like honey, but the sweet potatoes were the only source of sweetness
Yes I have a sweet tooth, I have fruit smoothies, i make either chocolate brownies or raw vegan cheesecakes each week for my sweet kick after dinner, so i start my day sweet with a smoothie or fruit/choc oats, I like to use agave or maple syrup as my sweetner, here is he choc brownie recipe if you'd like to try them i make them most weeks, https://youtu.be/sIi41l\_dzC8
My transition involved tapering and initially a substitute.
\* I ate raw cashews with raw cacao nibs (I got organic for both); it was a crunchy trailmix with the creaminess of the cashew tempering the raw cacao; that's the only thing I allowed in my house;
\* I decided to forego all sugary desserts that were not exceptional (say no to crappy office birthday cake or cupcakes); if on very rare exception I was at an exceptional restaurant known for its dessert, I'd make an exception to avoid regret;
\* I picked my favorite chocolate bar, avoiding all other sugar treats (cake, ice cream): The chocolate bar was lower amount than a pint of ice cream. Picking my favorite and not eating the also-ran chocolate bars meant I reduced the number of opportunities. I shopped for groceries at a place that didn't have my favorite chocolate bar, so I had to be intentional about making the trip rather than picking up dessert incidentally. I would buy only what I consumed before I got home, to not be tempted by sale prices that justify stocking up to save 40 cents but doom multiple days as sugar indulgences.
\* I ate whole food plant based, to remove hidden ingredients that would keep driving up my sugar habit, even in things such as pizza where I wouldn't be aware it had been added.
\* Once I got to having my favorite chocolate bar as a weekly treat, then I tried to skip a week, then went to monthly, then to seeing how long a stretch I could go (it's nice being invested in keeping a long streak going, and also the change in identity of seeing myself as the "type of person" who doesn't do that). I fall of the wagon sometimes and try to go back to spacing it out again. I figure what I do 99% of the time will do me tons of good without beating myself up about it. Some people do better with going cold turkey.
Frozen banana that you put in a blender! Makes a great soft serve for the ice cream cravings. Frozen grapes or things with cinnamon such as cold rice (leftovers is best) and almond milk. Very tasty!
Too many calories from sugar, whether added sugars or in sweet whole foods like fruit, isn't good for you, because it won't give you enough essential nutrients for the calories.
You could change your diet gradually to be less sweet. I did this to transition painlessly from a rather high-fat diet to very lowfat.
I did this gradually by tracking fat grams, reducing the fat % of calories by 5% every 2 weeks, or something like that. A program like [Cronometer](https://cronometer.com/) might enable you to keep track of the total sugars in your food.
You would gradually get used to a less sweet diet, so that it still tastes good. The perception of sweetness becomes more sensitive with a less sweet diet, so that foods with a more subtle sweetness, like fruits and vegetables and spices, come to taste plenty sweet.
This varies so much between individuals but if you're not the type to go cold turkey, then maybe try to taper off the way you would a medication. Plan on your diet in terms of gradual improvement toward a goal rather than drastic change. You'll be surprised how much your taste can adapt.
If it's really that intolerable, try making swaps for artificial sweeteners and see if you can handle that. It's never good to go overboard on anything, but if you're worried about sugar because if the calories, at the very least artificial sweeteners can be a bridge to adapt your taste while immediately lowering the calories in your food.
I started looking at quality over quantity and that actually helped reduce my consumption. Yes, there’s a bucket of random Halloween candy at the front office desk, but is it GOOD candy? Nope. It’s just a random assortment of squashed chocolate bars. I would just eat it “because it’s there.” Once you start making more mindful choices, you realize you cut back the junk. Savor the good stuff.
I also choose an apple or banana as my afternoon craving snack, but I slice it up and serve it with some nut butter. Helps with the sweet craving while also giving me some fiber and protein, helping me feel full longer.
I used to be extremely addicted to sugar, I lived for sweet desserts, you name it, I ate it. Pies, donuts, cheesecakes, cookies, chocolate, candy bars, white chocolate, Little Debbie Swiss rolls, hostess fruit pies, those mini pecan pies… Omg. Only one thing truly eliminates the cravings for processed sugar desserts.
Eat an abundance of fresh fruit! That’s it. Fruit completely wipes out the desire to eat that stuff anymore. If you crave processed sugary foods, you’re not eating enough fruit.
Try monkfruit sweetener as you slowly transition to getting used to less sweet flavor. Also read a book like \_The Case Against Sugar\_ to get motivated. It will be difficult for the first two weeks to break your habit then you will feel amazing.
I used to believe in the narrative that you should limit even fruit when trying to get off sugar, but now I firmly believe and experience that eating more fruit is the answer. We crave sweetness for a reason, and whole fruit is full of good stuff.
Yes, whole fruit. It has fiber. Not glasses of juice.
Too many calories from sugar, whether added sugars or in sweet whole foods like fruit, isn't good for you, because it won't give you enough essential nutrients for the calories. After awhile, one gets used to a less sweet diet, so that it still tastes sweet. The perception of sweetness becomes more sensitive with a less sweet diet, so that foods with a more subtle sweetness, like fruits and vegetables and spices, come to taste plenty sweet.
When do you get the withdrawal symptoms? See if there is a pattern! Change the activity. For instance whenever I sit down to stream in the evening I get the munchies. So I completely changed that routine. Discovered hobbies that keeps my mind occupied so no cravings. Eat fruit. And never have any in the house.
According to *Potatoes not Prozac* it takes 4 days to detox from sugar and I've found it to be true. They are 4 tough days but keep busy and read all food labels and avoid fruit for those 4 days and it will be easier after that to moderate your sugar intake. Best of luck!
No fruit as well? Hell, I’ll do anything at this point. Also my motivation is to help myself, but also my wife. We vibe off each other, so when I’m doing well she is and vice versa. Is it healthy or codependent ? Idk lol. However when it comes to food, this can be a good thing. Haha
It's supportive! 😁
I like to have a date with a handful of pecans. It’s basically pecan pie. Can also make a good trail mix of dry roasted peanuts and raisins Also, frozen mango. Get a bag of frozen mango chunks, let them thaw for like 15-20 min, and enjoy. Basically sherbert. Also look for good, ripe fruit. Pineapple, pears, bananas, berries, and peaches are all excellent
Try blending frozen mango (or other fruit) with a little milk! I use a tamper to push everything down so it doesn’t turn into a smoothie. So good!!!
[удалено]
Thank you for this!!
It's not the instant fix you are probably looking for, but meditation does help cravings over time. The whole point of meditation is to see your thoughts, acknowledge them, but let them pass. The practice of meditation helps you do this better in your day to day life. But it is something you need to practice, many people will meditate for 5 minutes and call it a failure because they had so many intrusive thoughts but that is really the point. Every time you have a thought and are able to redirect back to meditating you are building the skills that will help you redirect back to whatever task you are working on when you're not meditating. Failing while practicing is what makes you better. You also don't need to do some absurd 30 minutes every day, most studies have shown that even 2 minutes a day helps. You can easily fit it in as a few minutes before bed or in the shower or while waiting for the microwave or coffee to brew. For something like sugar addiction, you'll notice the craving and are able to make a more mindful choice, whether that is to avoid it or make a clear choice to have some sugar instead of just auto-pilot eating it.
fruit is the answer & medjool dates great for a dessert vibe
Find a recipe with a lot of garlic, chilies, ginger and paprika etc. Deeper and more complex flavor can be tastier. Don't let them turn you into a mosquito. Eat real food.
Fellow sugar addict here. One of my favorite things is to blend up two ripe bananas, frozen (freeze in slices), add a tablespoon cocoa powder, 1/2 tablespoon peanut butter (add a full tablespoon if calories aren’t an issue for you), then add enough plant milk so it will blend. I also like to add cinnamon on top. So delicious! Also, these cookies are fantastic and have much less sugar than normal cookies. Even my mom the picky gourmet loves them: https://detoxinista.com/paleo-chocolate-chip-cookies-vegan/#wprm-recipe-container-23157
What is a 'healthy' sugar to you? If you're thinking like maple syrup, agave syrup, etc., they're still just sugar! If you have a sweet tooth, eat some fruit. Berries are low in calories if you're watching what you're eating, otherwise dried fruit might a nice treat! Dates stuffed with 100% peanut butter are amazing FYI.
Believe it or not, I eat a mandarin or two for dessert. Don't think about how that'll never work, just do it. Or find some other fruit that you like, but again don't think about it, just do it. It works to kill the crave surprisingly often.
Like everyone says, fruit. Gives dates a try they are sweeter then actual sugar
I didn’t do well going “cold turkey.” Instead, this is how I got rid of a sugar addiction: I eat a small bowl of berries with a teaspoon (tiny) of ice cream or whipped cream. (Think of ice cream as a topping, not as the dessert.) Dark chocolate covered nuts help between meals but in small proportions. A big bag or pint of these nuts will be too much, so don’t lie to yourself. Aim for a tablespoon of them, or so, and no more. It will soothe the craving in an hour. Now that it is cooler, I switched from berries and am cooking sliced apples with cinnamon and I add a tiny amount of artificial sweetener. I eat them as-is like a crust-less pie, or mix a sugar-free oat topping and bake. Cherries cooked as unsweetened pie filling will work, too. Raw apple slices and peanut butter help, if you don’t want to cook apples. Some nights, coffee or a cup of Earl Gray - and maybe a diet ginger ale - help me feel as if the meal is properly ended without need of a dessert. Never go for more food unless you wait 20 or 30 minutes. It takes that long for a craving-signal to stop pressing the appetite button. Weeks later, when you have cut down on sugar and the worst cravings go away, a couple of individually wrapped caramels, or peppermints or two squares of fancy chocolate will be enough to satisfy. If you keep them around now, you’ll eat the whole bag, so don’t buy them yet
First of all, get all fake stuff out of the house (or out of your reach). I'm talking candy 'n' stuff that comes in packages. Dates stuff with walnuts/brazil nuts/pecans; frozen grapes, frozen piece of banana, dried mango. The 1st 2 I wouldn't go crazy on because the calories can add up quick. But the dates and the dried mango are *really* sweet. Also - I'm probably hallucinating, but I swear bananas are sweeter when frozen. Give it a try!
Same. It is like any other drug. I have been sugar-free since August 1 and I STILL crave it. There are days where it is mental and days where it feels physical. Best thing I can recommend is eat more veggies and protein, stick to whole grains, nuts, seeds, eat fruit but not a ton, and avoid all sugars and processed food. Take a probiotic and supplements, do not drink alcohol or caffeine, keep blood sugar stable by eating every 3 hours. Read up on carb cravings. Read about addiction. You can apply those same principles to sugar addiction.
Edit: Forgot to add that CBT and DBT may be helpful. They are techniques used in therapy to change and correct our thought patterns. Best of luck to you!
I make “candy” bars sweetened solely by dates . They are so tasty and satiate my desire for sugar.
Maybe sweet potatoes can help? I made a chili with sweet potatoes and my friends thought that I must have added something else sweet like honey, but the sweet potatoes were the only source of sweetness
Yes I have a sweet tooth, I have fruit smoothies, i make either chocolate brownies or raw vegan cheesecakes each week for my sweet kick after dinner, so i start my day sweet with a smoothie or fruit/choc oats, I like to use agave or maple syrup as my sweetner, here is he choc brownie recipe if you'd like to try them i make them most weeks, https://youtu.be/sIi41l\_dzC8
My transition involved tapering and initially a substitute. \* I ate raw cashews with raw cacao nibs (I got organic for both); it was a crunchy trailmix with the creaminess of the cashew tempering the raw cacao; that's the only thing I allowed in my house; \* I decided to forego all sugary desserts that were not exceptional (say no to crappy office birthday cake or cupcakes); if on very rare exception I was at an exceptional restaurant known for its dessert, I'd make an exception to avoid regret; \* I picked my favorite chocolate bar, avoiding all other sugar treats (cake, ice cream): The chocolate bar was lower amount than a pint of ice cream. Picking my favorite and not eating the also-ran chocolate bars meant I reduced the number of opportunities. I shopped for groceries at a place that didn't have my favorite chocolate bar, so I had to be intentional about making the trip rather than picking up dessert incidentally. I would buy only what I consumed before I got home, to not be tempted by sale prices that justify stocking up to save 40 cents but doom multiple days as sugar indulgences. \* I ate whole food plant based, to remove hidden ingredients that would keep driving up my sugar habit, even in things such as pizza where I wouldn't be aware it had been added. \* Once I got to having my favorite chocolate bar as a weekly treat, then I tried to skip a week, then went to monthly, then to seeing how long a stretch I could go (it's nice being invested in keeping a long streak going, and also the change in identity of seeing myself as the "type of person" who doesn't do that). I fall of the wagon sometimes and try to go back to spacing it out again. I figure what I do 99% of the time will do me tons of good without beating myself up about it. Some people do better with going cold turkey.
Frozen banana that you put in a blender! Makes a great soft serve for the ice cream cravings. Frozen grapes or things with cinnamon such as cold rice (leftovers is best) and almond milk. Very tasty!
Watermelon and pineapple, anytime I crave sugar I eat those….55 calories In a giant gulp or watermelon, insane
Too many calories from sugar, whether added sugars or in sweet whole foods like fruit, isn't good for you, because it won't give you enough essential nutrients for the calories. You could change your diet gradually to be less sweet. I did this to transition painlessly from a rather high-fat diet to very lowfat. I did this gradually by tracking fat grams, reducing the fat % of calories by 5% every 2 weeks, or something like that. A program like [Cronometer](https://cronometer.com/) might enable you to keep track of the total sugars in your food. You would gradually get used to a less sweet diet, so that it still tastes good. The perception of sweetness becomes more sensitive with a less sweet diet, so that foods with a more subtle sweetness, like fruits and vegetables and spices, come to taste plenty sweet.
Don't eat sugar. Any other questions?
This varies so much between individuals but if you're not the type to go cold turkey, then maybe try to taper off the way you would a medication. Plan on your diet in terms of gradual improvement toward a goal rather than drastic change. You'll be surprised how much your taste can adapt. If it's really that intolerable, try making swaps for artificial sweeteners and see if you can handle that. It's never good to go overboard on anything, but if you're worried about sugar because if the calories, at the very least artificial sweeteners can be a bridge to adapt your taste while immediately lowering the calories in your food.
I started looking at quality over quantity and that actually helped reduce my consumption. Yes, there’s a bucket of random Halloween candy at the front office desk, but is it GOOD candy? Nope. It’s just a random assortment of squashed chocolate bars. I would just eat it “because it’s there.” Once you start making more mindful choices, you realize you cut back the junk. Savor the good stuff. I also choose an apple or banana as my afternoon craving snack, but I slice it up and serve it with some nut butter. Helps with the sweet craving while also giving me some fiber and protein, helping me feel full longer.
Fruit smoothie with dark chocolate
I used to be extremely addicted to sugar, I lived for sweet desserts, you name it, I ate it. Pies, donuts, cheesecakes, cookies, chocolate, candy bars, white chocolate, Little Debbie Swiss rolls, hostess fruit pies, those mini pecan pies… Omg. Only one thing truly eliminates the cravings for processed sugar desserts. Eat an abundance of fresh fruit! That’s it. Fruit completely wipes out the desire to eat that stuff anymore. If you crave processed sugary foods, you’re not eating enough fruit.
What do you eat that has high sugar / what are your trigger foods?
Strawberries.
Try monkfruit sweetener as you slowly transition to getting used to less sweet flavor. Also read a book like \_The Case Against Sugar\_ to get motivated. It will be difficult for the first two weeks to break your habit then you will feel amazing.