Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Yeah it was ! Thanks for sharing! I don't think there was anything new (after the videos we've all watched), but man I am scared into getting back on the wagon and how.

Yeah, this was a really good article. I'm still curious about sugar alternatives, though... I wish someone would address this. For instance, I know agave has a super high fructose content (and they were saying fructose is what is treated as 'toxic' by the liver) so is it not a good alternative? Also, I don't know about things like brown rice syrup, maple syrup, date syrup, coconut sugar, etc. I read through the author's replies to a bunch of the comments but he said he really had no idea about sugar alternatives, but he thought agave was bad because of the super high amount of fructose :/

Anywho, I didn't eat any sugar last week except for some alcohol, yay! Obvs drinking isn't good for me but I turned 21 recently so I had to have a bit of fun with that ;)

oh, this thread is now in the general health forum.

Thanks for posting this Tofulish. Got a few people I'm gonna send it to later.

Radish, I remember reading a couple of years ago that agave reacted in your body pretty much the same way as HFCS does, and because of that, I've never used it. I use brown rice syrup pretty much exclusively, and I can see if I still have any of the literature on it that I used when deciding what sweetner I wanted to use, and I also use maple syrup some depending on the recipe and whether I want it to have that maple-y undertone or not.

I consume sugar mostly by way of fresh fruit.
I am on a allery free diet for ms = no refined sugars. I do have a little organic raw fairtrade sugar in my evening tea. That has been it for about a month so far. I also found some wonderful raspberry fruit bar with natural sugars that I can eat at my coop.

http://environment.about.com/od/pollution/a/sugar.htm looking into things like this has definitely motivated me to stop buying products with sugar lately.

That was a good article, but I have to wonder if Taubes had any bias in his research and writing. He is a big proponent of eating a low carb diet with lots of meat.

I also watched Dr. Lustig's video, and his lecture convinced me that I need to drastically reduce the amount of added sugar in my diet. I realized that I have been holding on to this mindset of thinking that giving up meat and dairy was a deprivation, and eating vegan sweets was some kind of reward. I've been vegan long enough now to recognize that eating a plant based diet is satisfying in itself. I've noticed that I crave less sweets now than when I ate animal foods, which is pretty remarkable for someone like me who had a major sweet tooth.

I had a chocolate pudding (with fresh organic cherries, omg) and a muffin this weekend, and now I am craving sugar like crazy. >_<
It's weird how a little bit of it just makes me want to just eat more, more, morrre

This. Yes. I hate it.

My new favorite thing ever is a smoothie made of the following:

Small handful frozen fruit (whatever's on sale, usually strawberries and something or other)
Half scoop Vega powder (snazzy protein+ powder sweetened with stevia)
Large spoonful cacao nibs
Enough almond milk to cover the other ingredients
Scoop of refrigerated coconut milk if I happen to have any leftover

Takes 30 seconds with my immersion blender and it tastes like a milkshake. I especially like the cacao nibs because they have a slight crunch to them, similar to when you put chocolate chips in the blender. I used to add almond butter for protein, but I eat enough of the stuff in/on other things so I don't bother anymore. I know I've probably recommended this already on this thread, but it's... just so tasty!

mmmm.

my fav smoothie has
Tinned pumpkin
Applejuice
a banana
cinnamon
coconut milk
almond or soy milk
and cinnamon.

Its like drinking a pumpkin pie

Okie dokie, I'm back. My sugar eating has been getting progressively more out of hand lately so I'm giving it up until the end of the semester to avoid stress eating cookies for dinner during finals.

I'm joining this thread now, too. I've been under a lot of stress lately and have been overdoing things with refined sugar- like eating cookies or cake or whatever until I feel sick. And that's not healthy for a bunch of reasons. So I just need to get back on track and do the things that really help me deal with stress.

I'e been doing so fantastic this week! Only the black bean brownies (I made ~15 and only a 1/3 cup of Agave Nectar in it) with refined sugars. Haven't (so far) felt too much NEED for sugar, which feels great. I'm so excited to see other people returning this week as well. Good luck to all!

Part of what helped me this week is that a 'diet challenge' (diet, not so much as in reduced calorie-lose weight mentality but more eat healthy food in your diet/food intake) on an exercise blog I follow has been no refined sugars this week!
It's a little extra support, which has made all the difference.

Hey lillianp, What recipe did you use for the brownies? Were they any good? Karen

Yesterday I ate a serving of Justin's chocolate hazelnut spread on whole grain bread, my first sugary food in a week. I enjoyed the treat and it didn't spark cravings, so I'm going to call it a win. Before trying to give up sugar, if I ate something sweet I immediately wanted more.

At least for me, eating regular meals and enough food is key to taming the sugar monster.

I'm back. I only lasted ten days and then jumped right back on the sugar train. UGH.

But I'm back, and I'm for real this time.

Last night I passed up chocolate lavender soft serve and free baked goods, AND I'm a hormonal mess. Since when do I have willpower?! Self-discipline, what is that???

I actually made them again-happyherbivore's: http://happyherbivore.com/2009/05/vegan ... -brownies/

They're basically like chocolate bananas. Which I find I don't mind. It does use quite a bit of agave-but I think that could be futzed with to make it less sugar even. I used half dates this time and the banana taste was just as strong. But deliciously chocolate like.

Hmm,I'll have to give those a try. You replaced half the agave nectar with dates? How many dates did you use? Karen

I just made these and used like 8 dates but put in more spices and some coconut milk. They were bomb.

I replaced half the bananas-someone ate one of my bananas that I was planning on using. I used 4. I think you could also use dates to replace half the agave. Fetalexplosion's mix seems good.

The no sugar thing is going so well! I'm not craving anything too terribly. I feel a lot better and I've lost 2 pounds without really trying, it's amazing how much of a difference it makes.

However...the boyfriend is returning from DC with Sticky Fingers on Saturday so I'm going to have to make a little exception.

I love it. That's the problem.

I'm back to the no-sugar lifestyle. /siiiigh/

Starting over is hard.