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Originally Posted by Crunchy*VT*Mom  Were you raised with a limit on the amount of sugar you were allowed to eat?
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There is a family story (told VERY frequently) of me being... oh 3 or 4 or something, and my mom explaining that we would now have a one sweet per day rule. Little daughter of a lawyer that I was, I knew and reminded her every day that I hadn't yet had my "sweet per day" yet that day. And of course she said every time it meant NO MORE than one sweet per day.
We didn't eat a lot of sugar as children, though I certainly knew my way around any rules my parents set down for sugar out (at parties, etc). That said, as a teenager, I had a horrible diet. My parents DID limit fat (other than butter), buying low fat milk, I wasn't allowed to finish the cream the rare times we bought it even though I craved it, etc. Other than that, I could eat what I wanted to. I started to eat a lot of processed foods, and TONS and TONS of sugar. My cholesterol SKYROCKETED (well above 200, at 16!), I put on a lot of weight(my bmi, which admitedly I don't put a lot of stock in for most people, put me at overweight), my depression got worse, my health was terrible.
A year ago this january, I first started trying to cut down on sugar (having already cut out all processed foods that contained ingredients I didn't know and could cook with at home for 6 months and having great health changes). It was so so hard. After about 2 weeks of serious withdrawl (and NO refined sugar at all), I would be fine, and not crave it. Until I had two desserts/sugar things in a row. And I had to go through withdrawl again.
In may, I moved into my own place, and the first things I bought were copious amounts of whole milk, cream, and butter. I was starving for them. It was both an emotional and physical craving. I was crazy over the cream, and ate large amounts of butter. (and other TF foods.) fairly quickly, my health returned, my weight dropped to a healthy weight and stayed there, my cholesterol came back to normal.
After about 9 months of eating TONS of healthy fats, I find myself without much of a sweet tooth. I can eat dessert, but I only really want about 2 bites, and then it is too sweet, and I didn't go through withdrawl after the holidays, when I ate TONS of sugar. It was just easy to come home and stop eating it.
This just reinforces for me, the fact that sugar cravings are a physiological craving, and often indicate either a lack of fat or a lack of sugar.
My advice for cutting out sugar is this:
-Eat protien and fat rich and naturally slightly sweet foods instead when a craving hits (when I was going through withdrawl so many times, peanut butter and coconut oil mixed with a little honey and raisins was my savior. the coconut oil makes it taste like dessert, the peanut butter, raisins and smidge of honey make it sweet so it satisfies that without any refined sugar, and the protein and fat are what your body crave. That or cream for dessert, with or without a little honey or raisins. It's naturally sweet, but has plenty of fat.)
-Eating LOTS and lots of healthy fats
-NO refined sugar in the house. at all. (we do actually have a bag of white sugar for kombucha, but because I don't bake sweets really, it doesn't "count" to me, because I'm not going to do anything with it in a craving. a cookie on the other hand....etc. at least til your caught up on fats
-Start cold turkey. It sucks, but it's the only way to do it. you wouldn't deal with an alcohol or heroin addiction by trying to cut down slowly. it doesn't work. did you ever read about that study where rats had to choose between feeding their sugar addiction or their heroin addiction, and chose the sugar? your up against one tough foe here, but you can do it.
-For me, one refined sugar thing on one day is ok as long as it doesn't happen about more than 1x a month, and is a small amount. (a peice of birthday cake, but not a sweet lunch and candy and birthday cake, etc), once I'm thouroughly out of withdrawl. One peice, two days in a row triggers the addiction, and I have to start over.
-Tough it out. It sucks, but your kids can't eat what isn't in the house (except at friends houses, and I think it's reasonable to ask other parents not to give them any sugar), and they will thank you
-Teach your kids good food. Don't just feed them good food, teach them what good food is, how to choose healthy food, and how to prepare it. Teach them how it nourishes them.
-Never stop. Don't figure that you've taught them enough by the time they are teenagers. Don't feel that you don't have time anymore, or because they are gone a lot it doesn't matter. It matters most then, that you keep involving them in healthy food, and eating healthy food with them.
Sorry it's so long. I hope my experience and advice can help.
