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Reintroducing sugar?


susanmcg

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   I am in the midst of reintroduction, going in the same order as the book, starting with wine on day 1,  and am seeing little to nothing about reintroducing sugar.  

   Posting on a facebook reintro page, folks are saying we are not supposed to re-intro sugar.. that it should be eliminated.. some say we are on our own on this one, and most just talk about the drawbacks of sugar.  

  The book and website talk a length throughout about sugar, cravings, and not awakening your sugar dragon, but I am curious that with such a huge topic, why it is not -directly- addressed, even if to say you advise we never have it again.. Maybe Ive missed it? 

 

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One more point about reintro:  I am nearly finished and have had near zero ill effects.. the book advises paying close attention to how you feel, so you can evaluate how much of this you want to keep in your diet, if any... but I dont recall any advice on what to do if you are fine with it all. Eliminating these things I guess has to be all intellectual.. not physical. I was hoping to be sick lol!

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   I am in the midst of reintroduction, going in the same order as the book, starting with wine on day 1,  and am seeing little to nothing about reintroducing sugar.  

   Posting on a facebook reintro page, folks are saying we are not supposed to re-intro sugar.. that it should be eliminated.. some say we are on our own on this one, and most just talk about the drawbacks of sugar.  

  The book and website talk a length throughout about sugar, cravings, and not awakening your sugar dragon, but I am curious that with such a huge topic, why it is not -directly- addressed, even if to say you advise we never have it again.. Maybe Ive missed it? 

Well unfortunately outside of eating spoonfuls of honey or sugar, it's impossible to test sugar on its own... what you want to do is test the items (say dairy) with no sweeteners and then when you know how you do with straight dairy, you can try introducing a sweetened dairy and see what the difference is in reaction if any... 

The usual reaction to sugar is whether or not it affects your sugar dragon and for some with depression or other mental health issues, it can exacerbate those.

 

As for the non physical reaction, did you have any non physical reactions? (mood for instance?).. If not, then you just need to decide how you're going to move forward and what things you like to eat and what things you think are not a part of your diet.

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 Putting sugar in black coffee,  hot tea or iced tea, on berries or  a baked apple..    would not be an accurate test? 

   No, I don't think Ive had any non-physical reactions. I guess I'll decide what to do knowing the W30 diet generally regards grains, sugar, dairy etc as unhealthy.  Melissa did say many things banned on the diet are not universally bad.. but did not elaborate. 

  I still think the book or site should directly address sugar in the reintroduction section. It just sort of felt.. left out. 

Thanks. 

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Yes, that actually would be an accurate test and my apologies, I didn't even think of that...

The idea behind many things that are excluded for the 30 days are that they are the most common inflammatory foods so we remove them all and then add them back in... the question still remains as you're adding things back in,... 'does this food item make me more or less healthy' and then go from there... don't forget that mental and emotional health are part of that as well.

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Thank you!  Very helpful.. but very sad that I am having no ill effects, including mood.  Maybe if I had -more- of these items (one fb member said she had the same thing happen but when she ate lots of dairy.. felt baaad). So i'm hopeful I'll get sick at some point lol.  :) 

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  • 1 month later...

Hi.  I am in the 4th week of my first whole30, and I am planning and preparing for my reintroduction that will begin next week.  I plan on following the steps outlined in the book, but I have a question regarding the sugar reintroduction....is it better to use/reintroduce cane sugar  or sweeteners or natural sugars, i.e. Stevia?  For the past 30 years, I have been a slave to Sweet & Low - which is probably one of the "worst for you" sweeteners.  Through the whole30 process, I have successfully eliminated sugars from my diet, and can safely say I now like my coffee black and unsweet tea.  So chances are pretty good that I will maintain these choices after the Whole30, but what about in cooking?  When a recipe calls for sugar, can I use a sugar substitute in the recipe or is it better to use plain sugar or a natural sugar?  Thank you!

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Hi.  I am in the 4th week of my first whole30, and I am planning and preparing for my reintroduction that will begin next week.  I plan on following the steps outlined in the book, but I have a question regarding the sugar reintroduction....is it better to use/reintroduce cane sugar  or sweeteners or natural sugars, i.e. Stevia?  For the past 30 years, I have been a slave to Sweet & Low - which is probably one of the "worst for you" sweeteners.  Through the whole30 process, I have successfully eliminated sugars from my diet, and can safely say I now like my coffee black and unsweet tea.  So chances are pretty good that I will maintain these choices after the Whole30, but what about in cooking?  When a recipe calls for sugar, can I use a sugar substitute in the recipe or is it better to use plain sugar or a natural sugar?  Thank you!

We don't really recommend "less bad" options here but obviously sticking with something that is less processed/created in a lab would be better in every situation.  You would want to reintroduce the product that you are mostly likely to use/eat. It's really up to you what you decide to use. 

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I would go with the healthiest natural sweetener you can find, in my opinion, something like honey.

or an unrefined, unbleached granulated sugar?

in recipes different sugars are used for their different flavours or characteristics (dissolvability?) etc.

if it specifies light muscovado, then use light muscovado, not black treacle, or icing sugar, say.

depends what you're making though, and if you really want to re-introduce sugar again, now that your body is finely attuned to produce energy from the healthy fats that you're eating.

if you're making a cake for a friend/relative, and you're not going to eat any... then hey, just follow the recipe.

 

artificial sweeteners are way worse than natural sugars - they are far higher concentration of sweetness, and there is evidence that they may cause cancer in large enough doses!

 

also depends on the recipe - some things you can just leave out the sugar completely.

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Thanks for the input, Ladyshanny and Crastney!  I appreciate it!  I have tried stevia before and didn't care for it, but I am sure that is because I was so ingrained in Sweet & Low - nothing was ever sweet enough for me but it.   I am just so thankful for having the "cord" cut from my Sweet & Low Dragon!! :)

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 Putting sugar in black coffee,  hot tea or iced tea, on berries or  a baked apple..    would not be an accurate test? 

   No, I don't think Ive had any non-physical reactions. I guess I'll decide what to do knowing the W30 diet generally regards grains, sugar, dairy etc as unhealthy.  Melissa did say many things banned on the diet are not universally bad.. but did not elaborate. 

  I still think the book or site should directly address sugar in the reintroduction section. It just sort of felt.. left out. 

Thanks. 

 

I'm on Day 30 and anticipating not feeling any reactions to most of the eliminated foods during reintroductions (though I'm still doing it, in case something catches me by surprise) based on my Whole30 experiences. The biggest change has been around sugar, of which I ate mountains before in order to "handle" (very poorly) mental/emotional defects. Not having it has improved my mental state, and because it took some work, I'm afraid to reintroduce any kind of sugar, though I know I'll have to at some point. I completely agree with your assessment of that feeling "left out" - I've been thinking the same things myself as I plan my reintroductions.

 

I also wanted to add that for those to whom the side effects didn't seem to happen during reintroductions, it may not be the item that's the problem, but rather the amount  you were eating before. I know my diet has changed significantly in the last month from being heavy on grains/processed carbs/sugar to being very heavy on vegetables, and though I plan to keep it heavy on vegetables, I'm looking forward to being able to sprinkle banned things into my meal plan (provided I do not react poorly to them).

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  • 2 years later...

So interesting to read these posts.  I was bummed today when I saw a fave salt free tomato sauce contained sugar, and I was wondering about being able to add that back in eventually.  I think yes, especially if it is not one of the first few ingredients, but I have a ways to go before testing that out.  And I want to use it as an ingredient, so that will mean even less sugar in my dish.  

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