Post Whole30 Sugar

[Tamara21]

I am nearing the end of my first whole 30! I am curious what some of you post-whole30ers are doing as far as adding sugar back into your diet. I know I am definitely going to do another round right after this one, but I am just curious about what types of sugars to let back into my diet. I know I can't stay away from sugar forever. Obviously I want to keep processed, chemical sugars out of my diet. But what about natural sugars like honey, agave, stevia etc? 

[jmcbn]

Sugar is sugar is sugar, and your body doesn't particularly care what the source is - apart from when it's fructose which can only be processed by the liver after all other sugars have been processed so it's often stored as fat.

It's not our place to tell you what/how to eat post Whole30, but IMO raw honey or maple syrup are your best options as they do contain an element of micronutrients/antioxidants that the others lack.

Agave may be natural, and touted as healthy because it is low GI (meaning it has less of an impact on blood sugar), but it's particularly high in fructose (around 85% compared with 50% in other sugars) so that's one you'd do well to avoid.

[katieblue]

I have honestly been doing okay with using maple syrup if ever I need to use any kind of sweetener. I've found that sugar itself makes me shaky and gives me bad anxiety and affects my body image in a bad way. Maple syrup, in small doses here and there, like in a cold sweet potato salad that I made, or in a sweet potato casserole, has really not bothered me or woken up the sugar dragon at all. And it's DEFINITELY sweet enough after avoiding sugar for so long on Whole 30. Plus, like jmcbn said, there is a little bit of benefit to that and honey, rather than just empty sweetness in sugar. I don't even eat salad dressings or normal condiments that have sugar anymore, because it just doesn't taste right to me... I had some cole slaw that had sugar the other day and it had a funny aftertaste and I think my body is just like, "Get this away!" But you'll have to experiment and see for yourself.

[MeadowLily]

It depends on your pre W30 condition.  Do sugars affect your blood sugar/cravings and so on.

 

I eat fruit.    Eating fruit in reasonable amounts has kept me from falling back into sugar sugars and upside down sugars.  Fruit is a plant.  I suffer no guilt from eating fruit and it hasn't caused any noticeable uptick in my blood sugar for 2 years. 

 

For 30 days, many eliminate fruit to starve a sugar dragon but returning immediately to sugars will stir it back up again.  The only natural sugar I eat is whole fruit with natural fibers at the end of a meal.  It keeps those deprivation feelings away.  

 

Eliminating whole fruit but returning to sugars is throwing the baby out with the bathwater in my recovering from all dieting mindset.  

[mmmartha]

Sugar is a huge problem for me so even in life after whole30 I am trying to stay away. I have let things like regular bacon and ketchup back into my diet in moderation. I did not go back to sweetening my coffee or other foods I eat day in/day out.