Everyday Systems

I totally 'get' why we should avoid 'fake' sugar. Sweeteners are all just chemical concoctions and when viewed that way have no place in a healthy diet. However, if like me you just have to have everything tasting mega sweet what do you eat instead? Porridge not sweet to me is foul. Cereal without tons of granulated sweetener is vile. I have just been diagnosed pre-diabetic and need to change my relationship with sugar but it is not the sugar itself that I crave but the taste of the sugar.

All I can think of is to stop eating things that unless submerged by granulated sweetener I think taste horrible, on the basis that I genuinely do not like those foods themselves.

How do you all manage fake sweeteners?

Anne

I am not pre-diabetic. Since you are, I would say stopping eating things you don't enjoy unless they are very sweet is actually a smart strategy. Modern cereals are way more processed than any grains eaten before they arrived on the scene. I think there is no reason to eat any food that needs to be submerged in sweet.

What are the stakes if you don't conquer the attraction to sweet?

I do use stevia daily. I don't like the taste as much as I liked sugar, but I just couldn't accept the risk of overdoing it too often, and like it in my coffee. If I were pre-diabetic, I would probably cut the ties to the need for sweet tastes even more and resolve to make even better friends with savory foods and modest amounts of fruit, mostly low sugar ones, maybe a couple of servings a day. That's actually about how much I eat most of the time, though not all low sugar. It's cherry season so I've been immoderate, but that will end within a few weeks, and my glucose levels are quite low, or were in the spring.

You can do this, Anne! I have faith that you really can learn to enjoy the foods, frequency, and amounts to conquer your condition.

Thank you Oolala! As always I am strengthened by your words and reassured by your thinking. What you say about modern cereals is so true. I have been known to binge eat cornflakes buried in sweetener and actually eat near enough a whole box in one sitting. I like porridge cooked with dried fruit which kind of explodes while cooking and tastes like pudding with some but not tons of sweetener. I think that making a deliberate shift from sweet to savoury is the answer. Eggs for breakfast instead of cereal may very well be one of the swaps.

I will give it a go tomorrow and report back. Hope you are well.

Xxxxxx

One thing I would add is that how sweet (or salt) we like things to be to taste "right" is partly a learned behavior. You don't "have to have" everything taste mega-sweet, but you are used to it. And you can change your tastes over time.

A decade ago, if you had told me that I would drink tea and coffee with no sugar or other sweetener, I would have scoffed at you. Now, sugar in tea tastes weird and "off". It was my habit, not a requirement.

Definitely Ironchef. It is only the last ten years that have seen my sweet tooth rear its ugly head. I actually remember sitting in weight loss meeting groups when I was there with only half a stone (7lbs) to lose to be 140lbs. I recall women talking about how they found it impossible to resist sweet things and chocolate. I couldn't understand this apparent alien phenomena and such a lack of willpower. I apologise now to those women who never even knew my thoughts, yet I fully appreciate their predicament now. If I were trotting off to Weightwatchers with just seven pounds to lose what a day that would be. Yet I was there once and still wasn't satisfied it's my lot.

I must be honest and say that this particular plan is tried and tested and works when you stick to it. I wish I could stick with it and it would all be sorted. There is part of me that needs more structure to stick within than No S affords because I am such an intrinsic rebel and am the one who will push the plan to its boundaries and I feel there is too much scope for freewheeling. Doing Weightwatchers purely as a nutritional decision maker whilst doing no snacks, no sweets and no seconds, I think that be my saviour. Damn the sweet tooth though.

Get your reasons front and center. Maximize how important they are to you! Without completely dismissing them, minimize the difficulty in complying.

See your rebel not as a personality trait but just the habit exerting itself. It will try to make you feel and think anything to keep the habit. It is smoke and mirrors. Be a rebel against the overeating habit! Don't let it tell you what to do!

oolala53 wrote:Get your reasons front and center. Maximize how important they are to you! Without completely dismissing them, minimize the difficulty in complying.

See your rebel not as a personality trait but just the habit exerting itself. It will try to make you feel and think anything to keep the habit. It is smoke and mirrors. Be a rebel against the overeating habit! Don't let it tell you what to do!

*LIKE*