Giving up sugar?

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Has anyone ever given up sugar? Does anyone plan to?

It seems like an ideal thing to do. Just check out this video: http://www.sciencealert.com/watch-this- ... your-brain

It seems sugar is a killer overall. It makes you look bad, feel bad, and think bad.

Given the great limitations of autism ( executive dysfunction, bad social thinking etc.) it might seem priority one to get rid of sugar.

I have been a lifelong refined sugar "addict" and have struggled with making/keeping friends, depression and organization.

I have spent 2 1/2 days without being on refined sugar ( Mostly cutting out candy/soda/sweets.. I still eat fruit!) It is a bit too early to tell what the effects are, but I do plan to keep it up.

Completely giving up sugar is a bad idea. Your body will forget how to process it and if you do end up eating it again, it will be bad. Plus, your body needs sugar.

I've eaten a very low sugar diet for the last few years. It's been good for me.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

The "Sugar is a killer" thing is the new "Fat is a killer" myth. It's overblown and as Alex says, we need sugar. We need carbs too. Our parents got along fine on sugar. As with everything, everytime - consume in moderation.

I will try..

Hold on folks!! ! I am living proof that you do NOT need refined sugar to live! I have been severely hypoglycemic all my life and gave up the stuff about 1984. Not only refined sugar but the others such as Splenda, high fructose corn syrup, etc. That meant no soda, no candy, no cakes, no ketchup, no salad dressing, or I should say none of these things that are commercially made. I have made my own cookies, ginger ale, salad dressing and a few others but without any sweetener and done fine.

Convincing people they need sugar for a balanced diet is a myth created by Big Sugar (the sugar producing industry) in the United States. Read the book "Sugar Blues" by William Dufty for more on how sugar weaselled its way into most everything consumed in the US, including cigarettes. It is difficult to find bread in this country that does not contain sugar. I make my own.

Once I gave up sugar (and white flour incidentally) I felt so much better overall plus some chronic conditions cleared up. For one, I would get hiccups frequently and they would go on for hours. Eating no sugar, once a year or so I might "hic" one time and its over.

Now that I know about AS and its associated meltdowns, I wonder how an Aspie/Autie would do on my sugar free diet, how many meltdowns they would have then. I don't recall how prone I was to meltdowns before but I can say they have been very few since then.

I was an all out sugar addict growing up and in retrospect I'm almost sure that was to self medicate for all the other problems that weren't addressed properly. Despite being fit and very active otherwise my blood sugar indicated prediabetic levels a couple years ago and I needed to cut out refined sugar and most simple carbs. It was a shocker. I never realized you could be thin as a rail and active and still develop diabetes.

Quitting refined sugar is pretty much hell for the first week or so. That's when you realize its a legit drug with its own withdrawal symptoms. Once you get past that you feel incredible, so much better than before. You sleep better, feel calmer, don't get hungry as often or tired as fast. Your physical endurance goes through the roof and your thinking is a lot crisper. Sugar, the healthy kind, is available in many fruits, vegetables and grains, so it's not like you're doing without. But in its unrefined form its accompanied by fiber which slows its absorption since the real hazard isn't its presence but the rate in which it enters your bloodstream. You don't have to think too hard about the exact foods you're eating unless you're at risk for diabetes or metabolic syndrome, but if you realize nutritionists think that, at most, a safe level of refined sugar intake per day is the equivalent to one can of soda, that most people are putting themselves at risk.

Serend, I couldn't agree more! I felt so much better after I eliminated simple carbs that I drew this analogy: When you realize that hitting yourself in the head with a hammer hurts, you lay down that hammer!

I have a definite sugar addiction. I'm not happy about it, but it is what it is.

I know it's emotionally linked because I'm being hit hard by it at the moment. This has been a particularly tough couple of weeks for me.

I'm living in a constant state of exhaustion.

I wake not long after 5am. It used to be that I looked after my daughter during the day, worked when she napped and had the evenings to myself once she went to bed.

She's recently stopped napping which means that I'm with her from 5am until at least 5pm, then as soon as she goes to bed I start work. I'm not getting to sleep myself until 10pm at least.

I have no time to myself at all - this is at least a six-day-a-week thing. I'm struggling a lot with the lack of 'me time'. And, I became acutely aware yesterday that my natural response has been to go out and buy cans of soda and chocolate bars. It's like the sugar is fuelling me and stopping me from going crazy when my brain doesn't get a second to stop.

And it's only when I noticed this yesterday that I realised I hadn't behaved like this in a while!

And when I thought back, the last time I had this 'buy sugary junk food every day' habit was when I last had to work evenings because my daughter wouldn't nap during the day. As soon as she started napping and I could bring my work forward and free up my evenings, the sugar addiction naturally calmed down. My evenings were my me time, and that gave my brain the same hit that I've been subconsciously replicating with sugar.

The problem is that the sugar is nowhere near as effective as the free time. It's a hit that is over in seconds and I'm still struggling with having no time. It's not like sugar is giving me any free time - it's just a sort of comforter.

So I know the problem's there, and I know that my natural response isn't solving anything, but when it's all I've got the thought of forcefully reducing my sugar intake is a horrible one! I don't see an alternative whilst my life is this busy, but at least I do know that the addiction does dial itself down when I'm not under pressure.

I've come to realize that addictions are particularly hazardous for people on the spectrum because of our tendency to fixate on things, but if you can manage to make a paradigm shift, it may be possible to harness that fixation to eat only foods that don't contain added sugar. After several weeks something strange happens. Whole foods start tasting sweeter and desserts and processed foods become intolerably sweet. I don't miss junk food at all and even if I eat the occasional cookie, I have no desire to indulge anymore.

There are fruitarians out there who are skinny as s**t. All they eat is fruit for years and years, they are living proof of not getting diabetes from fruit/natural sugar at least. I reckon refined sugar is probably bad but maybe natural sugar not so much. I think giving up sugar is not the right way to go since professional cyclists use it, example - the sky sports team have sugared water in their bottles for the energy boost.

Carbs are important too, like potatoes/rice/lentils. East Asian people frequently eat this and yet their nations don't seem to have an obesity epidemic like the west.

Personally I just follow a raw vegan diet even though I'm not vegan. In my opinion meat is s**t for you since it's FULL of fat/fatty oils but it's fine to have it as a one off now and then for me.

I also stay away from oils in food in general because they put weight on you and make your performance sluggish.

There is also a strong theory that humans are supposed to be super lean and skinny like greyhounds naturally, I figure from a mostly plant based diet.

I had an obsession with super healthy eating for a while and how professional cyclists are trained so I learned a lot about it.

I'm skeptical that an all fruit diet is healthy. I can't see how anyone could get all the essential nutrients that way. I lived in the tropics for a year and turned into a mango freak. I would eat several a day. I started to feel weak afterwards and wasn't sure what was going on. It turns out that tropical fruit (bananas, mangos, pineapple, etc) has a higher sugar to fiber ratio than other fruit greatly increasing and possibly overwhelming your blood sugar levels almost as easily as drinking soda or eating cake. Not all fruit is created equal. And if you drink the juice from fruit you're getting all the sugar with none of the fiber and you might as well be drinking soda at that point as far as sugar is concerned. Fruit is great and most people don't get enough, but it goes to show that it's possible to overindulge in anything.

I try to avoid high-fructose corn syrup but don't entirely avoid sugar. But yeah I usually try to get sodas and drinks that have no added sugar or specify pure cane sugar or are sweetened with stevia or some other natural sugar substitute.

I don't really eat a lot of sugary food never have really liked to all that much, and I rarely ever put sugar in my coffee or tea.