Well timed article and good advice. I've been working on sugar cravings/addictions with the aid of an acupuncturist to strengthen the function of my spleen and pancreas. My diet has significantly changed to incorporate more whole foods and now I'm finding that my taste buds have changed. Foods that I craved now taste too sweet, even some of the fresh fruits taste too sweet. If I'm tempted to eat something that I instinctively know is not good for me, I ask myself how do I choose to feel for the next few days.
This has been my experience too. I used to LOVE rich cakes, biscuits etc but now I find them too cloying. Fruit trees have been selectively bred to have much lower fibre content and much higher sugar content than traditional varieties. When I was growing up, the only apple varieties available were red delicious and Granny Smith. These varieties are far less sweet than fujis or pink lady apples. The mangoes in Indonesia are smaller, more fibrous and less juicy and sweet than Australian-grown mangoes, but much more satisfying (I still love Aussie mangoes though :-)).
Lost the taste for sugary foods completely decades ago other than in, preferably, vegetables like the sweeter one (red/yellow capsicum, butternut pumpkin, carrot, gold sweet potatoes, etc where it is more than enough to satisfy ant sweet yearnings). I took to resolutely declining any cake at the office for birthdays, etc – couldn’t stomach the thought of it. I was very wary of the ‘slippery slope’ of ‘just one slice’ and found it easier to just say no, all the time, to anything with refined sugar.
Don’t miss it at all now. There are so many more sources of good, healthy dopamine hits. Cycling can do it for me, or talking to my sister - actually she does all the talking (sisters!) but I’m happy for her.
That, or seeing a favourite Substack writer pop up in my in-tray.
It's fascinating to experience the effects of recalibrating your own reward system. In my teens and early twenties, I had a serious sweet tooth and found it nigh on impossible to regulate my intake of cakes and biscuits. Now I find even the sight of these foods is quite repugnant, whereas a zucchini or eggplant plucked from my garden is the most delectable treat. Exercise is without doubt one of the most immediately rewarding activities (well, apart from that extra-special form of aerobic exercise ;-)), producing a clean and lasting buzz with no nasty let-down afterwards.
I use some rapadura sugar in my baking. From what I've read, rapadura sugar is not too bad for you and in fact can even enhance your immune system? Is this true?
Rapadura sugar retains some of the minerals and other nutrients from sugarcane, so it's better than white sugar, but it's a stretch to say that it would enhance the immune system. Use sparingly in baking, and otherwise use wholefood sweeteners like dates as much as possible.
The first time I went off sugar upon the advice of a naturopath, even my cat avoided me! :-D Thank god I lived with no other humans then! The second time I went off it, I was not so bad, but I did miss it. The third time I went off sugar, it really didn't bother me. I was quite surprised.
I can now, years later, have sugar - or not have sugar - and I'm fine. I think it was more training my willpower to understand how my body reacted, and now that I have been through it and know what happens, I know what to expect and therefore that I'll be OK.
I'm quite sure I'll MISS sugar if I cut it out again, but mentally I'll be OK because I've trained myself to be OK without it before.
As for our Xmas brekkie/lunch/dinner, we had bacon & eggs for brekkie, a normal, basic lunch and then roast chicken with veggies for dinner! Nothing crazy, sugary or weird ;-) So you're not the only one who believes in a sensible diet, even at Xmas, ha ha! Honestly, I can still remember feeling ill TOO many times at Xmas & Easter as a kid. I don't do that to myself anymore. I actually love myself these days so I don't want to torture myself - or my loved ones! :-D
I think you've put your finger right on the central issue here: it's possible to have unpleasant feelings, such as missing sugar REALLY badly, and not act on them. Each time you went through the experience of quitting sugar, you noticed more and more of the fine details of how you felt both on and off it. This helped you to 'update' your internal cost-benefit analysis, so you no longer feel compelled to act on the urge to eat sugary foods because you understand that a) the cravings will pass and b) your life is better without it.
I have good willpower, and a bit of a clinical mindset (I've been a Chiropractor for 17 years now...!), so I DO notice all those minute differences - and make alterations based on them. I've also done Pilates for 10+ years, and you need to be very body-specific for that. I'm not sure that most people can notice all the tiny changes in their body/body systems so easily, though, which is probably why it's much harder for them. I've also never been drunk, never smoked and drugs are NOT my thing! Yes, most people are not like me, I know! I wanted to be able to say to my body "I'm the boss here, not sugar, and we're going to do what the boss says!" Mostly it works quite well - but sometimes I still like a chocolate biscuit or three! :-)
Love the look of that bluevado pie, thanks for the link! I think I might just have to try it! Being Coeliac, I'll have to alter that cup of oats in there (because I'm pretty sure that my system will think the oat protein is too close in nature to other gluten-containing nasties and will hate me for eating it) - but I'm pretty sure with my cooking ability that I can find a good substitute ;-)
You could easily sub rolled rice or rolled quinoa. Have you ever tested out your reaction to oats? There is a sizeable percentage of coeliacs who don't show any intestinal inflammation after prolonged exposure to oats.
Thanks for the suggestions, but after what me and my gut have been through in my life, I'm quite fine to avoid oats. There are loads of other foods out there and the less torture I cause myself, the better! I don't need to find out whether I'm OK with oats or not. But I'd kind of bank on me NOT being OK with them. I'm already the 1% of the 1% in that I don't have the genetic coding of HBA-DQ2 and/or -DQ8 like 99% of Coeliacs do. My body is REALLY sensitive. But I keep it good these days, and I'd like it to stay that way.
Maybe others will be more willing to try things out, but I'm pretty well past the testing phase now...! My general rule of thumb is if it doesn't naturally have gluten in it, it's potentially safe. But then I need to know if it's a whole food, how has it been grown, what else has it touched, how has it been stored, are there any additives etc. If there MIGHT be a chance I'll get sick from it, I won't touch it with a 10-ft barge pole. I don't want to be a guinea pig any more!!! As it turns out, I ate mostly the wrong food from birth until my mid-30s (I even ate organic wheat pasta from my early 20s...and organic cow & goat milk in my 30s...but organic wasn't the problem, was it?!). I've been through just too much to risk torturing myself anymore. I'd honestly rather starve than risk being glutened. That's where I've been for some years now!
I tried making Anzac biscuits once with quinoa flakes...they were horrid. Just not a good substitute! Quinoa is great, but not as a sub for oats in Anzac bikkies! So no more Anzac biscuits for me. Ah well. There's still lots of other great food in this world! :-)
Fair enough!!! Just wanted to point out though that oats don't actually contain gluten. They contain avenin, a storage protein with structural similarities to gluten, that many coeliacs cross-react to. And of course oats can be contaminated during growing or processing with gluten, from grains that do contain it.
You are absolutely right though that there are plenty of healthy gluten-free foods out there, so there's no need to eat oats if you don't want to risk a flare-up.
Sorry, I'm a bit of a food Nazi here. When you've been burned THAT many times, especially when you thought something was safe, or someone told you it was safe, when it wasn't, you learn to trust no-one, take nothing for granted and take precautions for everything!
We're moving house soon, and I've got a helluva lot of cleaning to do first to make that kitchen safe for me!! I like to be able to feel safe in my own home, even if it's a rental. When our new house is finally built, that will be super safe - because hubby is building it and hubby eats no gluten and no tradies will be allowed to eat gluten in the house, either!
No gluten - or risk of gluten - passes the threshold of my house. I have no idea how Coeliacs cope in houses where gluten is rife. Most of them must be in that 1/3 of Coeliacs who still have flattened villi due to micro-contamination...
Yes, I know oats don't technically contain gluten, but I'm pretty sure anything vaguely similar gets thought of as a poison in my body! Anything that looks like a skeleton key probably IS a skeleton key in my cells ha ha...
And yes, the growing and storing and processing is something have to be careful with. I've made FAR too many phonecalls over the years to manufacturers to find out how they make/process their food.
Very interesting. I have work colleagues who insist that carbohydrates such as those found in bread or rice are also as “toxic” as added sugar. Any truth to that ?
No, carbohydrates in the form of complex starches behave very differently from added sugars, and have been found to enhance mood. Obviously I'm talking about bread made from wholemeal flour, not the glow-in-the-dark white sliced loaf with all the funny little numbers on the ingredients list! Many of those additives have deleterious effects on mood and behaviour. And wholegrain rice (brown, black or red) is a better deal nutritionally than white rice.
Well timed article and good advice. I've been working on sugar cravings/addictions with the aid of an acupuncturist to strengthen the function of my spleen and pancreas. My diet has significantly changed to incorporate more whole foods and now I'm finding that my taste buds have changed. Foods that I craved now taste too sweet, even some of the fresh fruits taste too sweet. If I'm tempted to eat something that I instinctively know is not good for me, I ask myself how do I choose to feel for the next few days.
This has been my experience too. I used to LOVE rich cakes, biscuits etc but now I find them too cloying. Fruit trees have been selectively bred to have much lower fibre content and much higher sugar content than traditional varieties. When I was growing up, the only apple varieties available were red delicious and Granny Smith. These varieties are far less sweet than fujis or pink lady apples. The mangoes in Indonesia are smaller, more fibrous and less juicy and sweet than Australian-grown mangoes, but much more satisfying (I still love Aussie mangoes though :-)).
Ah, the old Dopamine hit.
Lost the taste for sugary foods completely decades ago other than in, preferably, vegetables like the sweeter one (red/yellow capsicum, butternut pumpkin, carrot, gold sweet potatoes, etc where it is more than enough to satisfy ant sweet yearnings). I took to resolutely declining any cake at the office for birthdays, etc – couldn’t stomach the thought of it. I was very wary of the ‘slippery slope’ of ‘just one slice’ and found it easier to just say no, all the time, to anything with refined sugar.
Don’t miss it at all now. There are so many more sources of good, healthy dopamine hits. Cycling can do it for me, or talking to my sister - actually she does all the talking (sisters!) but I’m happy for her.
That, or seeing a favourite Substack writer pop up in my in-tray.
It's fascinating to experience the effects of recalibrating your own reward system. In my teens and early twenties, I had a serious sweet tooth and found it nigh on impossible to regulate my intake of cakes and biscuits. Now I find even the sight of these foods is quite repugnant, whereas a zucchini or eggplant plucked from my garden is the most delectable treat. Exercise is without doubt one of the most immediately rewarding activities (well, apart from that extra-special form of aerobic exercise ;-)), producing a clean and lasting buzz with no nasty let-down afterwards.
Thanks! This is another well-sourced article, and the advice is practical and especially timely!
So you don't think I'm a Christmas party-pooper :-)?
Haha! Nope -- I think it's great advice!
I use some rapadura sugar in my baking. From what I've read, rapadura sugar is not too bad for you and in fact can even enhance your immune system? Is this true?
Rapadura sugar retains some of the minerals and other nutrients from sugarcane, so it's better than white sugar, but it's a stretch to say that it would enhance the immune system. Use sparingly in baking, and otherwise use wholefood sweeteners like dates as much as possible.
OK, thanks for the feedback :-)
The first time I went off sugar upon the advice of a naturopath, even my cat avoided me! :-D Thank god I lived with no other humans then! The second time I went off it, I was not so bad, but I did miss it. The third time I went off sugar, it really didn't bother me. I was quite surprised.
I can now, years later, have sugar - or not have sugar - and I'm fine. I think it was more training my willpower to understand how my body reacted, and now that I have been through it and know what happens, I know what to expect and therefore that I'll be OK.
I'm quite sure I'll MISS sugar if I cut it out again, but mentally I'll be OK because I've trained myself to be OK without it before.
As for our Xmas brekkie/lunch/dinner, we had bacon & eggs for brekkie, a normal, basic lunch and then roast chicken with veggies for dinner! Nothing crazy, sugary or weird ;-) So you're not the only one who believes in a sensible diet, even at Xmas, ha ha! Honestly, I can still remember feeling ill TOO many times at Xmas & Easter as a kid. I don't do that to myself anymore. I actually love myself these days so I don't want to torture myself - or my loved ones! :-D
I think you've put your finger right on the central issue here: it's possible to have unpleasant feelings, such as missing sugar REALLY badly, and not act on them. Each time you went through the experience of quitting sugar, you noticed more and more of the fine details of how you felt both on and off it. This helped you to 'update' your internal cost-benefit analysis, so you no longer feel compelled to act on the urge to eat sugary foods because you understand that a) the cravings will pass and b) your life is better without it.
We ate Christmas lunch on the beach - a delicious mushroom loaf (recipe at https://empowertotalhealth.com.au/mushroom-loaf/) accompanied by a garden salad, potato salad with herbs picked fresh from my garden, followed by Bluevado Pie (recipe at https://empowertotalhealth.com.au/bluevado-pie/). Absolutely lip-smacking, with no post-meal food coma or tummy aches!
I have good willpower, and a bit of a clinical mindset (I've been a Chiropractor for 17 years now...!), so I DO notice all those minute differences - and make alterations based on them. I've also done Pilates for 10+ years, and you need to be very body-specific for that. I'm not sure that most people can notice all the tiny changes in their body/body systems so easily, though, which is probably why it's much harder for them. I've also never been drunk, never smoked and drugs are NOT my thing! Yes, most people are not like me, I know! I wanted to be able to say to my body "I'm the boss here, not sugar, and we're going to do what the boss says!" Mostly it works quite well - but sometimes I still like a chocolate biscuit or three! :-)
Love the look of that bluevado pie, thanks for the link! I think I might just have to try it! Being Coeliac, I'll have to alter that cup of oats in there (because I'm pretty sure that my system will think the oat protein is too close in nature to other gluten-containing nasties and will hate me for eating it) - but I'm pretty sure with my cooking ability that I can find a good substitute ;-)
You could easily sub rolled rice or rolled quinoa. Have you ever tested out your reaction to oats? There is a sizeable percentage of coeliacs who don't show any intestinal inflammation after prolonged exposure to oats.
Thanks for the suggestions, but after what me and my gut have been through in my life, I'm quite fine to avoid oats. There are loads of other foods out there and the less torture I cause myself, the better! I don't need to find out whether I'm OK with oats or not. But I'd kind of bank on me NOT being OK with them. I'm already the 1% of the 1% in that I don't have the genetic coding of HBA-DQ2 and/or -DQ8 like 99% of Coeliacs do. My body is REALLY sensitive. But I keep it good these days, and I'd like it to stay that way.
Maybe others will be more willing to try things out, but I'm pretty well past the testing phase now...! My general rule of thumb is if it doesn't naturally have gluten in it, it's potentially safe. But then I need to know if it's a whole food, how has it been grown, what else has it touched, how has it been stored, are there any additives etc. If there MIGHT be a chance I'll get sick from it, I won't touch it with a 10-ft barge pole. I don't want to be a guinea pig any more!!! As it turns out, I ate mostly the wrong food from birth until my mid-30s (I even ate organic wheat pasta from my early 20s...and organic cow & goat milk in my 30s...but organic wasn't the problem, was it?!). I've been through just too much to risk torturing myself anymore. I'd honestly rather starve than risk being glutened. That's where I've been for some years now!
I tried making Anzac biscuits once with quinoa flakes...they were horrid. Just not a good substitute! Quinoa is great, but not as a sub for oats in Anzac bikkies! So no more Anzac biscuits for me. Ah well. There's still lots of other great food in this world! :-)
Fair enough!!! Just wanted to point out though that oats don't actually contain gluten. They contain avenin, a storage protein with structural similarities to gluten, that many coeliacs cross-react to. And of course oats can be contaminated during growing or processing with gluten, from grains that do contain it.
You are absolutely right though that there are plenty of healthy gluten-free foods out there, so there's no need to eat oats if you don't want to risk a flare-up.
Sorry, I'm a bit of a food Nazi here. When you've been burned THAT many times, especially when you thought something was safe, or someone told you it was safe, when it wasn't, you learn to trust no-one, take nothing for granted and take precautions for everything!
We're moving house soon, and I've got a helluva lot of cleaning to do first to make that kitchen safe for me!! I like to be able to feel safe in my own home, even if it's a rental. When our new house is finally built, that will be super safe - because hubby is building it and hubby eats no gluten and no tradies will be allowed to eat gluten in the house, either!
No gluten - or risk of gluten - passes the threshold of my house. I have no idea how Coeliacs cope in houses where gluten is rife. Most of them must be in that 1/3 of Coeliacs who still have flattened villi due to micro-contamination...
Yes, I know oats don't technically contain gluten, but I'm pretty sure anything vaguely similar gets thought of as a poison in my body! Anything that looks like a skeleton key probably IS a skeleton key in my cells ha ha...
And yes, the growing and storing and processing is something have to be careful with. I've made FAR too many phonecalls over the years to manufacturers to find out how they make/process their food.
Very interesting. I have work colleagues who insist that carbohydrates such as those found in bread or rice are also as “toxic” as added sugar. Any truth to that ?
No, carbohydrates in the form of complex starches behave very differently from added sugars, and have been found to enhance mood. Obviously I'm talking about bread made from wholemeal flour, not the glow-in-the-dark white sliced loaf with all the funny little numbers on the ingredients list! Many of those additives have deleterious effects on mood and behaviour. And wholegrain rice (brown, black or red) is a better deal nutritionally than white rice.