Need Help Cutting Refined Sugar from Diet

About eight years ago I decided to give up sweets. After a few days, I found myself craving pretzels and nachos. I gave into those cravings and gained 20 pounds!!! I realized I had replaced my sugar addiction with a refined carbohydrate addiction. The drugs Fen-Phen took away the cravings and I lost the weight.

Unless you have excellent willpower (which most people don't have IMO) you might need a suppliment. You might also want to try drinking Green Tea. I work with a lady who swears by it for curbing your appetite and cravings for certain foods.

Try substituting honey for refined sugar.

Yikes, Fen-Phen is now officially a health hazard. I hope you're not still on it doglover. Green tea is good, so is natural fruit juices without sugar, like the R.W. Knudson juices and spritzers (which I really like). I hear that Trim Spa is a good supplement, and it has a money-back guarentee if it doesn't work.

jora, read labels. Avoid anything containing a sugar ending in -ose. Fructose, glucose, sucrose, and the worst of all, high fructose corn syrup.

jora, you need to learn to bake, and bake with honey rather than refined sugar. You'll still eat sweet things, but the amount of sugar will be cut, and it's likely you'll eat fewer sweet things, as you'll know how much time it took to make them.

Stevia, a plant that is a sweetener ("artificial") is used as a sweetener in Japan. It is not allowed to be sold as a sweetener in the U.S. because of protests from the two main artificial sweetener markets, but you can buy it as a "health food/ nutritional supplement." The two different parts your can buy are those with the plant (green) and those with the flower/pollen (white.) I like the white kind better because it is so refined. Don't expect it to taste like sugar - it has a sweet taste but is definately not the same taste as sugar.

The stuff is so strong that you can sweeten a quart of lemonade with just two teaspoons!

We get stevia here. It's a good product, and safe for diabetics.

Once I bought some sugar-free chocolates from CVS to replace my own craving for sugar. They were expensive and tasted like week old crud. I substituted exercise instead and it works just fine.

Doglover is right about the carbohydrates. Four calories/gram, whether pure sugar, potatos, or whatever. I may have to make that green tea a habit. Mostly, it tastes like hot water, but what the heck.