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> There were certainly times when I didn’t enjoy the experience. I missed ice cream, chocolate squares, Chinese restaurants and cocktails. But I also knew that
by daveguy 10y ago
> There were certainly times when I didn’t enjoy the experience. I missed ice cream, chocolate squares, Chinese restaurants and cocktails. But I also knew that I’d get to enjoy them all again.
> The unpleasant parts of a month without sugar are temporary, and they’re tolerable. Some of the benefits continue long after the month is over. If you try it and your experience is anything like mine, I predict that your new normal will feel healthier and no less enjoyable than the old.
This is the extent of the results. NONE of the benefits, expected or experienced are discussed!
The rest is just telling you what to avoid and what to eat. The sugar naturally occurring in fruit, vegetables and dairy are allowed. Author also claims that you can't eat things that have 0g sugar listed because that just means less than 0.5g. You have to read every ingredient for -ose, honey, sugar, agave, etc. That seems a bit ridiculous if you are allowing fructose from an apple (~19g).
Reduce sugar in favor of grain and calorie balance among fat, carb, protein with reduced total intake is generally good. Diets like these are replacing one extreme with another.
- truth_sentinell 10y agoYes, but is unlikely that you overdose your daily sugar intake with fruits whereas with a can of coke or a bag of ships you're already overdosing. Besides that, fruits have nutrients and other elements that help fight the possible downsides of the fructuose.
- cheald 10y agoYou'd be really surprised - fruits contain a lot of sugar. Dried fruit and fruit juices (which many people think of as "healthy") can zip you past sugar quotas in a hurry. Honestly, I think it's probably just easiest to limit carb intake overall. Don't bother with the nonsense about subtracting fiber and all that, just set your carbohydrate goals for the day and stay under that. Sugar-heavy foods tend to get naturally eliminated in such a routine because the calorie-to-satiation ratio sucks.
- chillacy 10y agoJust adding on as to one of the reasons: we've bred fruits over thousands of years to be packed with sugar. http://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-what-fruits-and-vegetables-looked-like-before-we-domesticated-them http://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-what-fruits-and-vegetable...
- deepnotderp 10y agoStudies have been done on this, for some reason, whole fruit sugar is immune to the negative effects of sugar. The mechanism isn't entirely known though and doesn't apply to dry fruits.
- tomerico 10y agolink to studies?
- brandon272 10y agoCan you link to the studies?
- Geee 10y agohttp://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/making-the-case-for-eating-fruit/ http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/making-the-case-for... http://www.nmcd-journal.com/article/S0939-4753(08)00088-4/abstract?cc=y= http://www.nmcd-journal.com/article/S0939-4753(08)00088-4/ab... etc..
- EpicEng 10y ago>fruit juices Yes, these are deceptive. You're typically getting all of the sugar, but none of the fiber along with it that slows digestion (along with other benefits). Eating an apple and drinking apple juice are very different in terms of sugar content and the resultant insulin spike. That said, I doubt anyone has ever experienced negative health effects from eating too many apples.
- fpoling 10y ago
- zdean 10y agoNaturally occurring sugars in fruits and vegetables have a completely different impact on your body than the processed sugars found in packaged foods (and directly through sugar, of course): http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/06/08/is-sugar-really-bad-for-you-it-depends/ http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/06/08/is-sugar-really-bad...
- cheald 10y agoThe article doesn't say that - it says that glucose and fructose are handled differently (which is true; both occur from natural and processed sources) and that naturally-occurring sugars often come in high-fiber foods, and fiber impacts sugar uptake (which is also true). Sucrose is sucrose, whether naturally occurring or from processed sources. The issue with "processed sugars" is that they appear in forms which cause you to not necessarily get enough fiber with them, and in form factors that are very easy to overconsume, but biochemically, 19g of table sugar and a couple of Benefiber caps are going to do approximately the same thing as an apple. Being processed doesn't make it magically toxic.
- zdean 10y agoI may be nit-picking here but I said that the impact of the 2 sources is different...because of fiber, etc. I didn't mean to imply that the sugars themselves were different.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- cheald 10y agoSorry, the way I read it was "the sugars have different impacts". Even if you didn't mean it that way, it is a common pseudosciency belief that "natural" and "unnatural" sugars are chemically different. So many people ignore that at the end of the day, the body is just making glucose out of the cabrohydrates you feed it.
- 10y ago
- msabalau 10y agoThe author identifies "resetting sugar-addled taste buds" and becoming mindful of how many foods have added sugar as benefits. Having gone without sugar for a month, I can affirm that both of these things were true. And, of course, willing abstinence from certain foods is a part of many spiritual traditions. Given that the author is suggesting that interested people undertake this as a month long exercise, and only claims to have undertaken this exercise twice, it is not clear why you are characterizing this as an extreme diet.
- Frondo 10y agoThe resetting the taste buds effect is amazing. Several months ago, I started trimming back my sugar intake, with a goal of putting almost none of it in food I make myself, and generally avoiding dessert-type items. What I've found is that restaurant food all tastes incredibly sweet. All of it. There has to be so much sugar they're putting in food, and I just used to be used to eating that much. Getting a chai-type beverage, if they add sweetener at all, it's wayyyyyy too much. I've started requesting no sweetener in my chais, and that now tastes normal to me. I still eat fruit, but no more than one piece a day. Even a whole apple often feels like a little too much sweet for me. The biggest take-away I have from all this is just how easy it is to get accustomed to foods, one way or another. The biggest benefit has been weight loss and having my energy throughout the day feel almost totally steady and even now. Even when I get hungry, it's a sensation I can mostly delay gratification of, where I used to get crazy and distracted from hunger.
- cheald 10y agoSalt is another big one - if you go on a low-sodium diet for a while, many "normal" (American, at least) foods start to taste super salty. My wife and I cook quite a lot at home, and tend to under-sweeten and under-salt things compared to the status quo, and my perception is that we're both much more sensitive to salt and sugar levels in foods we don't prepare as a result.
- RandomInteger4 10y ago
- puissance 10y agoSome of the secret names of sugar I came across when I was sleuthing in the supermarkets—agave nectar, corn sweetener, corn syrup, or corn syrup solids, dehydrated cane juice, dextrin, dextrose, fructose, fruit juice concentrate, glucose, high fructose corn syrup, honey (probably heated and not raw, thereby losing all its nutrients), invert sugar, lactose, maltodextrin, malt syrup, molasses, raw sugar, rice syrup, saccharose, sorghum or sorghum syrop, sucrose, syrup, treacle, turbinado sugar, xylose, etc.
- zwischenzug 10y agoI don't agree. Since I was forced to give up sucrose (due to dermatitis that I found out (accidentally) was caused/triggered by sucrose) I've noticed so many health benefits it's insane. I no longer miss sugary 'treats', and happily much on apples instead of chocolate bars as I used to. I sleep better, feel better, concentrate better, control weight better, I'm more productive... the list goes on.
- asdfasdfa11112 10y agoI, also, feel much better when I capitalize on the placebo effect. I take Vitamin D every day, but days I forgot, I become grumpy and depressed. That isn't to say that your sugar-free experience isn't meaningful, significant, or impacts your life. My point is that your sugar-free lifestyle results are indistinguishable from placebo. Or little green moon men, really.
- zwischenzug 10y agoMaybe. But the lack of scabs on my face is a definite plus, and one I've demonstrated to relatives with multiple experiments.
- sabujp 10y agowhole 30 says dairy is not allowed, except ghee
- brianwawok 10y agoGhee has the milk proteins removed though. I guess some might remain in the fat?
- overgard 10y agoThe article is pretty light on useful facts, but theres nothing "extreme" about not eating things your body doesnt need.