Sweet Poison - going sugar (fructose) free, anyone?

Gigi, yes, that's the same Richard. I am a HUGE DAAS fan. Sooooooooooo weird listening to Richard being all smart and sensible now. :lol:

Gigi, you are going to HATE me for telling you this..... :hide: but dried fruit and honey are both big no nos. So is raw sugar... You may as well eat whit sugar!! :hide:

I will shut up now.... (sorry! :( )

oh I was so hoping honey was ok.

so what about cereals? Are they ok - glucose, right?

Mad B – at the end of this article there’s a bit more info on what’s in and what's out (just go and get the book girl... you know you want to :D ). Almost all cereals are OUT!

Sugar cause of obesity says Sweet Poison author David Gillespie

Interesting. We're just starting the GAPS diet, which is basically the SCD. It is grain free, sugar free & lactose free but I can have honey & fruit as they are monosaccharides. Though the diet is supposed to be 85% savoury to cut down on these even though they are natural sugars.

I had a read through his websites (so not convinced on the fruit thing, I tend to be from the school of thought that says if it grows in the ground and goes off, it's good, but I'll try to keep an open mind).

So he's recommending avoiding:

Confectionary and Bikkies
Flavoured drinks
Breakfast cereals - but plain oats are okay
Condiments
Muesli Bars
Yoghurts - but plain yoghurt is okay
And anything you add table sugar/honey/fruit juice concentrate/ rice syrup/agave syrup etc to..........................tea, coffee, baking.

But I gather there's an allowable 'limit'.

Looking at my diet, since I try to eliminate processed foods and make everything from scratch, there isn't any of these things in my diet, with the exception of the occasional fruit juice (maybe once every couple of days). I add a small amount of sugar to the bread we make and obviously in baking, but again, I am pretty sure it would be within the allowable limits. I know I have the odd treat when I'm visiting for morning tea ;), but since I'm so time poor, that happens about once a month! We already use natural plain yoghurt and I only have oats when I have cereal.

So in the end, Epacris, even though I haven't read through all of his stuff, if you're taking processed foods out of your diet, you'll probably go a long way towards meeting what he's suggesting anyway, and you can still have the fruit cake! Maybe because I don't have any of those major no-nos there's no craving and the stuff I do have that's probably on his no list is not a big issue. :dunno: I don't actually like a lot of sugary things, I think it's how you train your palate.

I'm a fan of the Michael Pollan school of food thought. His Food Rules book is so simple.

I have been diagnosed with "fructose malabsorption", which basically means by body can't process the stuff.
(TMI warning) Basically, I get the runs BIG TIME just from eating just an apple!
The scary thing is when you find out just how many products have fructose or HFCS in them!
Giving up juice, and dried fruit was the most difficult for me tho!

There's lots of info on the net about what fruit and vegies to avoid and of course check labels on all your canned goods etc too.

Good luck with everything. :)

yes, alright alright, I'll buy the book.
DH is not going to be pleased about this though.... he's already insisted that he has to have honey (he keeps his own bees, so maybe it's a matter of pride)
But it says bread is 'largely ok'...

The more I read the social media stuff around Sweet Poison the more it seems less like a diet and more like a religion to me. :lol: Some people are absolutely fanatical about it, others want to aggressively discredit him, then there’s a whole bunch of moderates saying “well it worked for him, it might work for you, different diets work for different people, not everyone is addicted to sugar just like not everyone is addicted to heroin, alcohol or gambling”.

Jen, I have many, many, many more dirty little secrets associated with sugar than I care to reveal here. :lol: I definitely am addicted.

I just want to give it a go and see how I feel about it. I am really sick of feeling constantly, mildly hungry. This might be a way for me to get rid of that feeling and have other positive health benefits.

It's funny isn't it? The rabid defense of sugar... must be addicts :shakehead:

So after reading this thread I went and borrowed the book from the library. I had a quick look through last night and seems sensible enough to me. One thing from flicking I didn't get, maybe it wasn't in it) is there a recommended level sugar in a product to stick to. For example I have Bran Flakes for breakfast which have 7g per cup. Which I am not sure are suitable or not.

Epacris - how are you going??

Thanks for asking kts64s I am going great! :thumbsup: I baked a fruit cake yesterday (not my birthday one, a gift for someone ) and get this, I did not lick the beaters, I did not lick the bowl. Astounding! I did not even sneak one (or a few) glace cherries. :o We went visiting today and took a custard bun and I didn’t have any of that either. Tonight I had a little bit of tomato sauce with dinner (DH cooked sausages, how could I not) but I’m sure it would have been within the 10g of fructose per day limit.

Anything with more than 3% “sugar” 3g/100g is out (unless you only have a tiny amount, like the tomato sauce I had with dinner tonight).
One teaspoon sugar = 4.2g (I think that’s correct?).
“sugar” is 50% glucose 50% fructose, glucose is fine, fructose is evil (apparently).
You need to limit fructose to less than 10g per day.

So, I’m on day 4 now and I’m expecting to feel something (not quite sure what) at around the two week mark???

I crave sugar all the time and I’m mildly hungry all the time. When I can’t stand it anymore I have a teaspoon full of glucose syrup and a handful of raw nuts. But unfortunately I am still snacking a lot and most of my snacks now are much higher in salt that I’m used to. So my goal is after 2 or 3 weeks of no sugar, to really start ramping down my salt intake too.

I’ve never done anything like this before, i.e. been on a “diet” I am really surprised that I’ve lasted this long.

:cheer:
Well done resisting the cake temptation Ep!
I'm cutting back but not to that extent. will see how I go.

How is everyone here going with being sugar free?? I am about to embark and am really doubting myself but have to give it a try. I have a list of foods I can eat and will stock up on when shopping later today but DH is doubting I can do it and he thinks if Im not strong enough myself then I will fail - which is probably true but a bit of faith would help!!
;)