Cutting out sugar from my diet. Has anyone else done this (or IQS)?

A question about : Cutting out sugar from my diet. Has anyone else done this (or IQS)?

I bought some books written about sugar and its effect on health. Then I picked up some of Sarah Wilsons 'I Quit Sugar' books and read through those.

The more I read about it, the more I believe that cutting out sugar is the way forward for me. While I am looking forward to any weight loss that happens, that's not my primary goal.

I want to feel more energetic and balance my moods out, and hopefully sleep better! As well as that, I don't want to feel like an addict, which I do at the moment. I literally struggle to go 1 day without sugar in some form.

If I cant have chocolate, I will eat 5-6 pieces of fruit to get that sugar hit, or anything else that is sweet tasting.

HAs anyone here done the IQS 8 week programme? I am not actually doing that, but the idea sounds good.

Basically the idea is to replace sugar with fat. Sound like madness, I know, but I started trying it before Christmas and lost 4lbs in a week and felt great! So I know it works, and now I don't have the temptations of Christmas

Anyone else doing/done this? Or anyone want to join me in doing it?

Best answers:

• Its one of the principles of the Atkins diet. I've been on a low carb diet for 3 years. I've lost weight, and my bp and cholesterol have both dropped, despite enjoying fry ups for breakfast most mornings.
• I'm sort of following IQS and have tried quite a few of the recipes - bacon and egg cupcakes are my favourite! Tbh, the sweet recipes aren't actually very sweet at all. She uses raw cacao powder which is very bitter and quite savoury.
• No, this is the long held myth about Atkins and the low-carb way of eating that it's all meat. Lots of vegetables (just not very starchy or sweet ones) and dairy, eggs, fish, nuts and some small amounts of fruits like berries.
  I think I read once that you only need 1 teaspoon of sugar/glucose in your blood stream to maintain normal function. Most of us intake many times that in a day.
  People are often under the misapprehension that fruit contains natural sugar therefore is better for you or doesn't count - fructose is still broken down in the body for the same result as processed sugar. So I wouldn't eat 5 - 6 pieces of fruit a day or you may as well have a can of coke.
• Try looking at any food items with added sugar. Difficult, because over the past few decades it has been sneakily added to a whole lot of processed foods.
  One answer can be to eat more 'natural' i.e. unprocessed, and less processed with a long list of ingredients.
  Jimmy Doherty's TV exploration into different countries' diets showed up Iceland as the healthiest country in the world regarding what they eat, and the point was made very strongly - eat food as near to its natural state as possible. The Icelanders eat a lot of fish, but they don't chop it up, coat it in batter and deep-fry it. Why do we do that? What's wrong with eating a potato that you can recognise as a potato, rather than cutting it into bits and deep-frying it?
  It's a bit simplistic just to replace chocolate with several fruit items. True, if you eat one orange it's better for you than drinking a glass of orange juice, which would result in you getting the sugar from several oranges in one go. Fructose is sugar. Some is OK, but not in excess.
  The LCHF diet is now being talked about quite a lot rather than Atkins.
• I am hoping that a low sugar diet will help with mood stabilisation and eliminate (or at least help) my candida problems.
  If anyone follows a low sugar diet, what differences in health and wellbeing have you noticed?
• I agree with margaretclare. That programme was a real eye opener wasn't it? It's processed food I want cut out and, by extension, processed sugar. I'm not sure I stand by cutting out ALL sugar - just the nasty stuff that's added to food. And that includes artificial sweeteners. Keep food as simple as possible.
• Talking about 'needing that sugar hit' means you have a sugar addiction. Don't replace one kind of sugar with another. Cut down your sugar intake overall. We don't need processed sugar at all.
• I was lucky I suppose, because my parents weaned me and my sisters off sugar while we were still young.
  I find it very difficult to eat overly sweet things. If I'm given wedding or Christmas cake, for example, I have to remove the icing before I can eat it.
• Davina McCall has a new book out, the title of which is something like Giving Up Sugar in Five Weeks. She says that giving up sugar was the hardest addiction she has overcome!
  I've ordered the book. It sounds like an interesting read.
• I have followed what it is called a Low GI diet for couple of years and lost a lot weight (dropped to size 8 from 14 over a year time). I'm now a 10.
  I did cut sugar but also exercise regularly. It is not a new thing that to cut sugar and exercise more by the way, you don't really need books or celeb nutritionist :P
  Chromium is a good food supplement for sugar cravings if you are struggling. I wouldn't cut all fruit as you still need some sugar in your diet. Eating blackberries, raspberries etc is harmless.
• Hi, another sugar addict checking in. I am trying to quit all sugar and am following Atkins/Low carb to re balance myself. Just after Christmas I realised I was eating sweet stuff til I felt sick!
  I need to change my eating habits drastically so am hoping to follow this thread and pick up some tips. Thanks.