3 ms·

Sugar is everywhere, cheap, legal and culturally important (birthday parties, weddings, farewell parties, etc). Very difficult to create isolation environment,

Sugar is everywhere, cheap, legal and culturally important (birthday parties, weddings, farewell parties, etc). Very difficult to create isolation environment, unless one goes full Ted Kaczynski. I don’t want to discourage the author, but i am old, so yeah been there, done that. But avoiding sugar like its evil is not healthy. Nor is it sustainable. It appears that the author is probably young and single. That may help with this regimen. However, it is best to adopt a less extreme strategy for stress free happiness.

strken 2y ago
It's pretty easy to avoid large quantities of refined or concentrated sugar on most days of your life, and that's the part that would be a big improvement to every diet that doesn't belong to an athlete.
FredPret 2y ago
Sugar is indeed ubiquitous but there’s an increasing number of people who regard it as poison, so it’s actually becoming more and more feasible (depending on what circles you’re in).
Xenoamorphous 2y ago
> Sugar is everywhere, cheap, legal and culturally important (birthday parties, weddings, farewell parties, etc). Those should all be rare occasions.
- okr 2y ago
  In a social environment these things are not rare. I wish. But ppl dont stop having these birthdays distributed all over the year. :)
- alanbernstein 2y ago
  Not rare at all for an average family with kids.
- swiftcoder 2y ago
  You don't work in a very big office before there is birthday cake in the break room on the regular. Or the Girl Scout cookies someone's parents are desperately trying to get rid of. Or the left-over pastries from that executive meeting. Or your manager brought in a box of donuts to "boost morale"... Dieting in an office setting is often quite difficult
  - m000 2y ago
    One more reason for people not wanting to return to the office I guess.
itomato 2y ago
I think a big piece is that accepting it as culturally important is not healthy or sustainable. You're not a victim of evil, you're just a product of that unmotivated culture.
- richrichie 2y ago
  Eating a slice of cake with coffee with your partner or friend or coworkers, enjoying a bowl of ice-cream with your children are important to a life well lived. Of course, standard disclaimers apply i.e. eat good quality cakes and ice cream, etc.
yellow_postit 2y ago
Michael Pollan’s : “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” continues to be a useful way for me to look at food X life.
marginalia_nu 2y ago
Low carb has been around for a while, enough that people are aware it's a thing, and it's not that hard to pass up on the celebratory sugar, if you want just say it's for a medical condition and don't elaborate further and people will generally respect that. You aren't really telling us why this is unhealthy and unsustainable and stressful. In my experience avoiding sugar in the past, it's anything but.
- oarfish 2y ago
  To avoid sugar might not be impractical, but to avoid carbs altogether and go full keto? Very difficult for many, and would probably reduce my enjoyment of life quite a bit.
  - marginalia_nu 2y ago
    A smoker will say the same thing, smoking is a very pleasurable thing after all, the first hit in the morning can be almost orgasmic and if you go pack a day you get some of that sense of well-being more than once an hour. It really takes the edge off things. Yet it's quite possible to enjoy life without nicotine, as it is possible to enjoy life without high-carb foods.
m000 2y ago
> Very difficult to create isolation environment If you eat at home, it's actually pretty easy: Just go to the supermarket with a full belly. It's amazing how disciplined one can be in their groceries shopping when they shop with a full stomach. When, eventually, your fridge and pantry aren't stocked with sugary junk, it's a change of environment! After that, it's pretty much out of sight, out of mind. The ocassional indulgence at a social event is not the end of the world. The real problem is that many city people don't really plan their groceries, but just open doordash/flink/gorillas/whatever when they are already hungry and tired. No good choices are going to come from that habit.
stavros 2y ago
I've decided that I won't eat anything sweet from a supermarket. It keeps all the low-hanging sugar away (chocolates, cakes, donuts, etc) while still leaving me able to enjoy a nice dessert at a restaurant, or similar rare occasions.
simplicio 2y ago
Yea, hadn't realized this till I had kids. People are basically constantly throwing sweets at them, and while Im not super-strict about regulating sugar, if I let them eat all the candy they were offered, it'd basically be all their calories in a given day.

strken 2y ago

It's pretty easy to avoid large quantities of refined or concentrated sugar on most days of your life, and that's the part that would be a big improvement to every diet that doesn't belong to an athlete.

FredPret 2y ago

Sugar is indeed ubiquitous but there’s an increasing number of people who regard it as poison, so it’s actually becoming more and more feasible (depending on what circles you’re in).

Xenoamorphous 2y ago

> Sugar is everywhere, cheap, legal and culturally important (birthday parties, weddings, farewell parties, etc). Those should all be rare occasions.

okr 2y ago
In a social environment these things are not rare. I wish. But ppl dont stop having these birthdays distributed all over the year. :)
alanbernstein 2y ago
Not rare at all for an average family with kids.
swiftcoder 2y ago
You don't work in a very big office before there is birthday cake in the break room on the regular. Or the Girl Scout cookies someone's parents are desperately trying to get rid of. Or the left-over pastries from that executive meeting. Or your manager brought in a box of donuts to "boost morale"... Dieting in an office setting is often quite difficult
- m000 2y ago
  One more reason for people not wanting to return to the office I guess.

itomato 2y ago

I think a big piece is that accepting it as culturally important is not healthy or sustainable. You're not a victim of evil, you're just a product of that unmotivated culture.

richrichie 2y ago
Eating a slice of cake with coffee with your partner or friend or coworkers, enjoying a bowl of ice-cream with your children are important to a life well lived. Of course, standard disclaimers apply i.e. eat good quality cakes and ice cream, etc.

yellow_postit 2y ago

Michael Pollan’s : “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” continues to be a useful way for me to look at food X life.

marginalia_nu 2y ago

Low carb has been around for a while, enough that people are aware it's a thing, and it's not that hard to pass up on the celebratory sugar, if you want just say it's for a medical condition and don't elaborate further and people will generally respect that. You aren't really telling us why this is unhealthy and unsustainable and stressful. In my experience avoiding sugar in the past, it's anything but.

oarfish 2y ago
To avoid sugar might not be impractical, but to avoid carbs altogether and go full keto? Very difficult for many, and would probably reduce my enjoyment of life quite a bit.
- marginalia_nu 2y ago
  A smoker will say the same thing, smoking is a very pleasurable thing after all, the first hit in the morning can be almost orgasmic and if you go pack a day you get some of that sense of well-being more than once an hour. It really takes the edge off things. Yet it's quite possible to enjoy life without nicotine, as it is possible to enjoy life without high-carb foods.

m000 2y ago

> Very difficult to create isolation environment If you eat at home, it's actually pretty easy: Just go to the supermarket with a full belly. It's amazing how disciplined one can be in their groceries shopping when they shop with a full stomach. When, eventually, your fridge and pantry aren't stocked with sugary junk, it's a change of environment! After that, it's pretty much out of sight, out of mind. The ocassional indulgence at a social event is not the end of the world. The real problem is that many city people don't really plan their groceries, but just open doordash/flink/gorillas/whatever when they are already hungry and tired. No good choices are going to come from that habit.

stavros 2y ago

I've decided that I won't eat anything sweet from a supermarket. It keeps all the low-hanging sugar away (chocolates, cakes, donuts, etc) while still leaving me able to enjoy a nice dessert at a restaurant, or similar rare occasions.

simplicio 2y ago

Yea, hadn't realized this till I had kids. People are basically constantly throwing sweets at them, and while Im not super-strict about regulating sugar, if I let them eat all the candy they were offered, it'd basically be all their calories in a given day.