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Do some people just not have a sugar dragon?


LisaLulu

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Everyone keeps talking about the sugar dragon like it's a powerful thing, but both times I never really felt it. My cravings tend to go toward savory/salty, so I'm able to satisfy them with pickles and olives and guacamole and salsa and grilled meat. I love salt!!!!!! Do you think people with a salty tooth have an easier time on the whole 30 than those with a sweet tooth? I love non compliant foods like bread and pizza, but I can still indulge in the general flavor so it's not as hard as those who love sugar and have to cut out anything that resembles it.  Anyone else a salty tooth?

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That sounds a little extreme. I don't put extra salt on foods or on fruit, but I love pickles and olives and salty meat. In my case it's not causing heart trouble, the women in our family all suffer from low blood pressure so we've been encouraged to eat high sodium diets, especially when we're pregnant or breastfeeding.

 

But I thought salt wasn't limited on the whole 30? Since we're not eating anything processed we can cook with it as much as we want?

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I think it's maybe easier to trick yourself into feeding (over-feeding? ) salt cravings because it's so easy to pretend that is compliant and above board, whereas noone thinks that eating 6 dates at once is anything other than the sugar dragon getting its way.

So, maybe it's easier and maybe it's trickier :-)

I think MeadowLily gives a fairly extreme example there - I add salt to pretty much everything (in normal amounts) and there's nothing wrong with me. Like you I have low blood pressure, I don't know if that has anything to do with it.

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I remember that chart that listed all the foods you could possibly be craving and what it meant you were actually lacking and should eat instead, like if you're craving sugar you are lacking x and should eat y foods... for salt it said you were lacking salt and to eat salt lol. Maybe it's also because it's about 100 degrees outside lately?

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I have a salty dog AND a sugar dragon. To me, a perfect world would  be where one can maintain health by eating only good cheese, red wine, salty crackers, and dark chocolate. However.... B)

Yes, I think this is very common.   The Salty Dog and Sugar Dragon enjoy  movie theatre food.  Salty popcorn and choco covered everything, washed down with a soda pop.    :D 

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The first time I went to the movies I saw vomit all over the floor and my uncle said 'someone ate too much popcorn'. It was very traumatizing for a little girl who already had a phobia of vomiting! So when I go to the movies I usually bring oranges!

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I have an alcohol dragon.  I'm on day 23 now, and although it's passing, pretty much every 2-3 days I would get a huge craving for a martini or some scotch.  So far so good, a good cup of bone broth or a bottle of kombucha knocks that craving out.  But that is one of the main reasons for doing this Whole30 is to lay off the bottle for a while.  My wife works for a large company that owns a ton of well known liquor brands, so we are well stocked at home, and I work in a business where we are constantly out to lunches, dinners, ball games etc where there is food and alcohol aplenty.  I don't have a problem or anything, but it's nice to have a break from it once in a while, and wake up with a nice clear head on days after we have been out a bit late, while my colleagues are a bit foggy in the mornings.  It's amazing what a difference it makes too, in the 23 days I've been on the Whole30, I can really see a huge difference in myself in the mirror.  it's a good reminder / inspiration to not indulge as much as I normally would, once I go back to having some drinks here and there.

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I read somewhere that people's dopamine is fired by different triggers- for some it's sugar, others if alcohol, or gambling, or internet or shopping. One persons addiction can hold no interest to another person. My biggest dragon is an internet dragon, so I gave up facebook for my whole 30 as well, but i'm seeing it probably has to be more than that because I just find new sites to waste time on. But my husband couldn't even finish one day trying the whole 30 because he was face deep in a pile of chocolate by the first night- he has a chocolate dragon too big to tame, while I enjoy chocolate but have zero problem giving it up for a month and eating it now and again when I'm not on a whole 30.

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I have an alcohol dragon.  I'm on day 23 now, and although it's passing, pretty much every 2-3 days I would get a huge craving for a martini or some scotch.  So far so good, a good cup of bone broth or a bottle of kombucha knocks that craving out.  But that is one of the main reasons for doing this Whole30 is to lay off the bottle for a while.  My wife works for a large company that owns a ton of well known liquor brands, so we are well stocked at home, and I work in a business where we are constantly out to lunches, dinners, ball games etc where there is food and alcohol aplenty.  I don't have a problem or anything, but it's nice to have a break from it once in a while, and wake up with a nice clear head on days after we have been out a bit late, while my colleagues are a bit foggy in the mornings.  It's amazing what a difference it makes too, in the 23 days I've been on the Whole30, I can really see a huge difference in myself in the mirror.  it's a good reminder / inspiration to not indulge as much as I normally would, once I go back to having some drinks here and there.

Good one, as usual.   Thanks, Juice.

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  • 1 month later...

I remember that chart that listed all the foods you could possibly be craving and what it meant you were actually lacking and should eat instead, like if you're craving sugar you are lacking x and should eat y foods... for salt it said you were lacking salt and to eat salt lol. Maybe it's also because it's about 100 degrees outside lately?

 

This'a one?

 

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I have also always had an issue with salty foods, so I have found the sugar dragon to be not an issue for me.  I could eat crackers, chips, nuts, add some red wine or a craft beer and call it dinner!  For me this has been more about being mindful.  I would say I'm eating paleo 80% of the time but if I'm reaching for chips the other 20, than I'm not eating healthy in my opinion.  I truly hope, as I near the end of my 30 days that I am able to hold on to the mindfulness and really stop and think when an urge hits to grab something that is less healthy.  Or at least be okay with it when it happens on occasion, and move on, not fall into the rabbit hole of a bit more and a bit more and suddenly I'm back where I was.

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I have tried w30 multiple times and already had to bail out because I was getting sick from nit enough salt (even with salting all my food heavily) some people need a lot of salt. Women need more than men (per the midwife). That being said, when I find myself with my head in a bag of chips, I am usually dehydrated.

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Periwinkle - have you tried taking salt tablets? I used to take them and they were very helpful. I am a heavy salt sweat-er, and when I was training for a half marathon a few years back I kept fainting. Turned out it was due to low blood pressure, caused by salt depletion (I'm a stew of weird medical stuff, but fortunately not anything super bad!!). Even now, when I play tennis in the summer, I take little packets of salt with me and while everyone else is drinking their Gatorade, I am licking salt out of my hand (and my tennis team still likes me - go figure!)

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Chips. Just plain salt and pepper chips. Or Cheetos. When you ate eating processed foods, you just get more sodium. My mid wife was always a bit concerned about my low blood pressure.

I am going to do this again starting Oct 22. I have made up some sole water which is basically water supersaturated with pink salt. A little of that every morning should do the trick.

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I find that if I drink water, I want my water to have a few crystals of salt in it. I don't add much, but a few crystals here and there actually makes my water feel and taste better to my tongue. I don't have severe issues with salt, but my blood pressure has been much lower on the W30 than when I'm off-roading. It's funny, because just two years ago, prior to my W30, I was an active 26 year old with borderline high blood pressure...partly because I get nervous when I get it taken but also because my diet was crap.

 

When I crave salt, I eat roasted/salted pistachios usually; they have the salt I want while still giving me fat and minerals so I'm not just eating a whole lot of terrible-for-me nothingness. And they're a slow food (so to speak; it takes a while to get them cracked and eat, so my brain gets the signals of "okay, we're full now" when it's appropriate.

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I wish...but my sugar dragon is WAY stronger than my salty dog. I have willpower when I'm on a W30, but when I'm off...I wish my husband didn't insist on buying cookies and candies and keeping them in the house. Which is why doing my W30 this time has made me lose as much size as it has. Pants are fitting differently, although I did have some salt craving PMS bloating the other day (salted pistachios + briny dill pickles an hour after lunch...yeah...this kind of bizarre eating makes it sound like I'm pregnant, which is sad because I'm not).

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