Refined Sugar Withdrawal

Overall my diet is healthy. Even though I've always enjoyed sweet treats. The problem is that I have allowed myself to slide into a very bad habit of way too much refined sugary snacks in the past couple of months. So now I am trying to back off, not for menieres but for the sake of good eating habits.
Trouble is, first, my cravings driving me insane! Second, my first full day without sugary snacks first thing in the day and I am literally shaking and starting to feel clammy.

Anyone have any suggestions to ease the transition?

 

Hi Terry!

Have you considered fruit or fruit and yogurt for a snack? Nuts also comes to mind. Dried fruits may be too sweet.

I have one last thought. If you having any concern about being diabetic, make sure you talk with your doctor about that.

Wobbles

 

Thanks Wobbles!
I don't believe it's diabetes as I have had no symptoms, just started shaking this morning when I would normally start snacking on sweets. It's happened in the past with sugar fluctuations in my diet. I do eat fruit regularly anyway, and I had a banana, but the shaking still was there.
I like yogurt, soy yogurt for me, but the sugar count is still really high on those, although I'm sure lots better than following up a bowl of cereal with a handfull of cookies!
This should stabilize in a few weeks, but until then, all suggestions are very much appreciated. I will try nuts.

 

I want cookies!
I want marshmallows!
I want chocolate!

HELP!!!

 

Go to the health food store and see if you can find L-glutamine plus it helps stop sweet cravings

 

.

 

Terry - FYI, Wobbles is Joe.

 

Joe!!! ;D I didn't know you as Wobbles. I was thinking about who is left to sign back up again, and I thought of you and Rick. Was ready to send out the troops to find you!

Thanks Linda.

Diane, I've been eating all kinds of sugary things. Cookies, marshmallows (the ones that have toasted coconut on them), tub after tub of Soy Ice Creams, soy ice cream cookie sandwiches, McDonalds fruit pies-lots of them, Ritter dark chocolate & marzipan bars, etc.
It's a wonder I haven't gained any weight!

I need help don't I? But I am eating quite healthy otherwise, lots of great fresh summer fruits. I just need to get over this sugar problem.

I'll check into the L-glutamine too.

Oh Riiiiicccckkkk....where aaaarrrreee yoooouuuu?

 

Burd ~ I was raised on deserts after every meal, since childhood and weaning off this way of eating was very difficult and took a long time. I had to be patient with myself. However, like smoking, I could go back very easily if sufficiently coaxed

I allow myself a treat once a week but sometimes that gets out of control as well. Since I have eliminated all sugary foods I notice how my body reacts to ingesting this substance and I don't like the after effects.

Here are a few suggestions. If you are going to eat chocolate, the TV series "20/20" did a show on the healthiest chocolate. It's called Coco Via. Most CVS pharmacies stock this. It's rich dark chocolate and the manufacturer took out the cocoa butter and reduced the sugars to 9g per bar and the bar is pretty large. I like it and keep it on my shelf for those "moments".

While in the health food store, a clerk recommended cinnamon as a good suppresent of the sugar needs. I have been taking it in pill form, but not entirely sold on it.

I avoid late night TV as all the sugary foods are shown there and in the grocery store, I have soo many isles called "the isle of no" that I won't go down for that reason. I do most of my shopping on-line now so that I don't expose myself to the isle of no

At night my favorite herbal tea is by Numi called "Honey Bush" and I sweeten it more with "SweetLeaf" by Stevia Plus as a sugar substitute. That seems to help with my sweet tooth.

It all comes down to making a decision about what's healthiest for your body and what types of foods will support healthy choices for you. It's not easy and I fight it daily.

Hope some of this helps

Sparrow

 

I use raw sugar or honey - my body digests and handles it better - I've tried stevia but couldn't develop a taste for it and yet many swear by it.

 

The isle of no! I like that!
I am going to find the Coco Via. And I will allow myself the weekly treat. The reward for a week of good behavior. I just need to be careful not to binge.

I have wondered about the natural sugars, turbinado, as I have bought it in the past. I wonder if I baked my own cookies with it if that would be healthier. ?

I know these intense cravings will pass. We are creatures of habit, and most of my job is in the dining area and at the computer where I have developed the habit of nibbling on the sweets.
That's when it's toughest.

 

Try eating small meals every 2-3 hours. Always include protein, carb, and fat.

Example: 1/2 cup berries added to 1 cup low-fat (not fat free) yogurt

2 tablespoons nut butter on 1 apple

low fat cottage cheese with 1 tablepoon flax oil & a banana

If you eat lots of fiber and good fat with each snack, your blood sugar will be more even. You need good carbs for production of seratonin.

Sometimes people think they're withdrawing from sugar and it's really a caffeine or other stimulant withdrawal....like giving up chocolate. Add some green tea and see if it helps.

 

Hi,I go through bags full and I mean bags of hard candy a week. Sucking on hard candy seems to help with my ear fullness . I tease my husband I'll probably have a horrible dentist report. But You guys have me concerned about all the sugar? I started out on sugar free lifesavers but the ingredients for the sweeteners upset my stomic. What else can I suck on for relief? I dont dare ride in a car with out gum or hard candy. Every small hill has my ears popping like I'm traveling up a mountain. Any suggestions?

 

Try the Weight Watchers CORE diet for a couple weeks. Your sugar craving will be gone in a matter of days.

I second fruit - especially a banana after dinner and ff milk - just a little for sweets.

 

Wow what an old post.  I had forgotten about it.  Interesting that the food options for sugary substitutes I can no longer have, no nuts, no bananas, no chocolate.  I'm still feeding my sugary vice, I have different choices now.  Sugar doesn't bother me as far as symptoms as long as I don't overdo it days in a row.  I try to have as many days in a month without cookies on the shelf as I have days with them available.  And I try to eat alot of other kinds of fruits for my sugar needs. I don't worry too much about it as long as my diet overall is fairly healthy.

 

I eat sugar free fudgicles, and light cool whip instead of chocolate and ice cream when I'm trying to be good. Terry, you shouldn't be shaking. I am insulin dependent. I am wondering if you have a slight case of hypoglycemia? If you eat well and the shakiness resolves it should be fine. If you are hypoglycemic, then just eating well is the best answer. When I have been off sugar a while, I just love all the light yogurts. Yoplait most. When you just eat well they taste really sweet. The above have aspartame but that is okay for me. Good luck, Lisa

 

how did I miss this one? anyway here's the reply I should have wrote
...Sugar is nothing but a carbohydrate, no different from any other carb. They are "bad" because they just have calories, no nutriants. To have withdrawal like you described, would indicate possibly reactive hypoglycemia which can happen after eating a lot of high glycemic carbs and then fasting. This was the problem I was having and would actually trigger a vertigo attack.

...But if this is what's happening, you may want to add some other foods into the equation. Potatoes, rice, and white breads will cause this problem faster than table sugar. That was one of my problems at first, I would try to eat "healthy" and feel worse not knowing it was these other foods. Another possibility is the sweetner for these "sugar" products you eating. Table sugar is actually a medium food glycemically speaking but corn syrup is the highest. it is chemacally identical to glucose(blood sugar). So you may want to check some labels to make sure corn syrup is the evil one.

...But if you did like me, you may have substitued a good ole baked potato instead of that snickers bar and it was the potato that is giving you these symptoms. As Diane mentioned, you may want to avoid eating high glycemic foods by themselves but with other lower glycemic foods. There are several lists on the web and here's a good site www.glycemicindex.com. The glycemic index is nothing more than a rating system to tell you how fast a carb is metabolized. The faster it's metabolized the worse it is. I'm on nother computer so I can't give you another link but if you Google "mendoza" and "glycemic index" you'll find a good site.

...The disorder I have is called Metabolic syndrome, you may want to google on that too.
Rick

 

Lisa, my doc did suspect hypoglycemia but it isn't consistent so we've never taken it any further than suspicion. If it became a common occurence I would have it checked out further. I can't have aspartame because of MAV and because it's off the menu anyway but there are some really good soy yogurts although a bit pricey for regular consumption.  Can't have dairy stuff.

Rick, I don't know how this thread slipped under your radar the first time, but since then I do remember some really good and helpful advice from you mostly in pm.  You explained things I never really understood.  I try not to eat too much of the white stuff.  I can get a reaction without a sugar fix sometimes (shakes, sometimes clammy sweats and weakness) and one with too much (MAV type symptoms and an edginess).  I haven't kept notes yet to fine tune any patterns.  I try to avoid corn syrups but not religiously, and when I have a choice at home I use agave nectar, sucanat, turbinado, and 100% real maple syrup, although I question if the body really knows the difference from refined sugars.  You've got some great and much appreciated advice.

 

...Hypoglycemia refers to low levels of blood sugar which is a fairly rare condition and usually has a different set of symptoms. What we normally experiance is reactive hypoglycemia which is where are adrenal system takes over blood sugar regulation from the pancreas. Thus the adrenal hormones is what gives us the shakes. The key is "do the symptoms go away if you eat something?" If the symptoms go away, then it's usually hypoglycemia or reactive hypoglycemia.

...From what my doc told me and from my reading, as far as our bodies go, there's no difference between any carbohydrate including sugars. All carbs are converted to glucose by our metabolism. The only difference is how fast the carbs are converted to glucose and based on research, this has nothing to do with whether their simple or complex, refined or not refined.

...Since carbs didn't follow any set pattern, the researchers just cataloged each carb by testing it and comparing it to the reaction time of glucose(corn syrup). Thus the GI was invented. I think what's interesting is your reaction to too many carbs. If it's truly just to carbs and not and allergy to a specific food, then that might point to hyperinsulinemia as being a trigger. Of course I doubt if we will see any research in our lifetime on a link between hyperinsulinemia and MAV symptoms but it does make me wonder.

...Once I saw the reduction in my Triglycerides and blood pressure from following the GI diet and read about diseases like PCOS being caused by hyperinsulinemia, I have no doubts there may be other conditions caused by too much isuli being released from our carb metabolism.

Rick

 

Didn't know this was old, glad you're not craving now!!! Lisa