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Training the Brain to Eat Less Sugar

drexel.edu

81–90 of 166 posts

Re: Training the Brain to Eat Less Sugar

#81
post #4

Just do keto-diet, and sugar addiction will dissolve pretty quickly.

Keto is great but be aware of increased cholesterol readings at least in certain 🧬. All of my Indian friends report that their cholesterol LDL was very high while they were doing keto.

There is little evidence LDL is bad for you.

Re: Training the Brain to Eat Less Sugar

#82
post #75
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The elephant thing was an example. Humans too can get whatever they need from plant sources. The day humans start eating raw fresh or rotten meat and find enjoyment in that is the day I will accept that humans are meant to eat other animals. Also, if you are downvoting me thinking that I am some vegan activist, you are wrong. I am from Asia where relying on fruits and vegetables is or at least was till a few decades…

> The day humans start eating raw fresh or rotten meat and find enjoyment in that is the day I will accept that humans are meant to eat other animals. Sushi. Shrimp. Spanish ham and other cold meats like chorizo. Steak tartare. Jerky. Many fermented meats that I don't know the name of. My brother even loves eating raw meatballs. We cook, not because we aren't meant to eat meat, but for the better taste and easier dig…

> they're too crunchy and taste like... cardboard

Whenever I read this kind of thing it makes me sad that people don't realise that actual fresh veg of the kind that you don't buy in the store is actually delicious.

Re: Training the Brain to Eat Less Sugar

#83
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Define natural please. It’s my belief that industrialized food production has created unnatural availability of foods that largely use unnatural ingredients. Unnatural as in not found readily or at all in nature. Are you defining natural as ‘conventional 21st century Western diet’? ie what everyone is doing around you.

Since everything is sourced from nature, for argument's sake, even plastic can be called natural. However, as far as food is concerned, I have started treating foods that have been manipulated in any way by a human or a machine as unnatural. All I am saying is that in my opinion Keto does not fit the definition of natural. I eat mostly fruits while I feed my dogs raw meat and organs only.

Ironically such a diet in itself is deeply unnatural - hunter-gatherers would have starved if they attempted such a thing - there is a reason why they were nomadic and caused mass extinctions - they ate everything and depleted capacity to fuel their large brain and relatively big bodies. There is a reason cooking caught on and was used long before agriculture.

The point being that both natrual and unnatural are terrible heuristics. Your diet may be fundamentally good or deeply flawed but naturalness isn't why - nutrient balance, satiation, metabolic factors and similiar are why.

Re: Training the Brain to Eat Less Sugar

#84
post #64

For the first 3.5 months of this year I was completely off artificial sugar. That meant fruit was ok, but any kind of dessert wasn't. It was hard initially but after a couple of weeks it was easy. I didn't feel the craving to eat dessert like I always did. I also felt much better and more productive now that my insulin levels were more stable than before. On my previous diet I had regular sugar highs and lows (which…

At my doctor's urging, I've cut out added sugar and switched to a high fiber diet. I eased into it. First I cut out the category of things that are mostly made of sugar: dessert foods, ketchup and many salad dressings, most breakfast cereals. After about a month of that, I additionally cut out things that have sweeteners as an ingredient. This would have been impossible without adding lots of high fiber foods, because most American food has sugar high on its ingredient list. I eat a lot of fresh / frozen fruit and vegetables, rice, nuts, and steel-cut oats now. I use my spice cabinet a whole lot more than I used to. As a result, I feel much healthier and I lost ten pounds without trying and without feelings of hunger.

I'm telling this story because I find my current diet quite delicious and fulfilling, and I want people to know that eating healthier food doesn't have to be about self-denial. This is especially true if you're willing to spend some money on good foods. Nor does it have to be all-or-nothing, ostentatious asceticism. I'll eat a slice of cake at my kids' birthday parties, and I'll eat what's offered me at a friend's house. I probably won't have seconds though, because after mostly abstaining from sugar, I can't handle eating too much of it at a go.

Re: Training the Brain to Eat Less Sugar

#85

At what stage, if any, are we going to call sugar an addiction? "Craving" being the word used here is very obviously an indicator of the strength here and there are negative consequences to having too much. I don't know what other leaps need to be made to formalize the addiction category.

I get cravings for brisket as well, and there are negative consequences for having too much of that, but you can pry that out of my cold, dead, bbq covered hands.

Re: Training the Brain to Eat Less Sugar

#86
post #65

Watch the Fed Up documentary, how sugar is more addictive than cocaine in mice, how 80% of food products in US supermarkets have added sugar. Its nearly impossible trying to train yourself to moderate your sugar, its better to avoid it altogether as your body sugar level (GI) spikes causes withdrawal later. Our body does not need any refined sugar. Fruits are ok, avoid fruit juices as they often either have added or…

"how 80% of food products in US supermarkets have added sugar." The other 20% have added artificial sweeteners that taste awful. (edited to note I hate the taste and idea of products that are heavily marketed as "no added sugar" that are dosed with megatons of suralose or similar) You pretty much HAVE to go homemade paleo style food. Luckily that kind of food can be delicious and easy to make and cheap... A big salad…

> meat and spices in a slow cooker

I cannot overstate how much of a difference it makes to season your food with delicious spices. I think packaged food has so much sugar and salt in it partly because spices are comparatively expensive. If you cook your own food, I highly recommend herbs and spices! (Also some spices, like turmeric for instance, are reputed to have health benefits of their own.)

Re: Training the Brain to Eat Less Sugar

#87
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"how 80% of food products in US supermarkets have added sugar." The other 20% have added artificial sweeteners that taste awful. (edited to note I hate the taste and idea of products that are heavily marketed as "no added sugar" that are dosed with megatons of suralose or similar) You pretty much HAVE to go homemade paleo style food. Luckily that kind of food can be delicious and easy to make and cheap... A big salad…

I have no problems with artificial sweeteners and have used them for over a decade (mostly in beverages). I believe it improved my health. Eating too much real sugar isn't even that enjoyable now, and usually makes me feel sick.

I recently reduced my pop to a friday afternoon one can treat, but before that I drank exclusively diet drinks - I got so used to it that drinking a full sugar coke was sickly sweet.

Re: Training the Brain to Eat Less Sugar

#88
post #59
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/nutrients/report/nutrientsfrm?m... here you go. However, I do not like to measure these things. Like other animals, i like to eat and enjoy my food.

Thanks, but most of those are dried fruits and all are quite low in protein anyway in my opinion (with the exception of goji). But of course if that works for you, it's okay.

Also, dried fruits are quit calorific from being high in (natural) sugars.

Re: Training the Brain to Eat Less Sugar

#89
post #64

For the first 3.5 months of this year I was completely off artificial sugar. That meant fruit was ok, but any kind of dessert wasn't. It was hard initially but after a couple of weeks it was easy. I didn't feel the craving to eat dessert like I always did. I also felt much better and more productive now that my insulin levels were more stable than before. On my previous diet I had regular sugar highs and lows (which…

Awesome, congrats! I'm at 2.5 years of no artificial and as close to 0 "natural sugar" as possible. I don't have any fruit and I don't drink milk but have the lactose in cheese sometimes. I also have tomatoes sometimes so there is a little glucose in that. Generally, if I could, I'd have 0 -ose completely. It's done wonders for my A1C and weight. It definitely gets easier after the original weaning. Now it doesn't ev…

One interesting milk option is Fairlife. It's processed to have more protein and no lactose [0]. Some health bloggers object to the process, here's a summary [1]. Overall I think it's a solid product.

[0] https://fairlife.com/our-nutrition/

[1] https://www.stephshares.com/healthyeating/966/

Re: Training the Brain to Eat Less Sugar

#90

At what stage, if any, are we going to call sugar an addiction? "Craving" being the word used here is very obviously an indicator of the strength here and there are negative consequences to having too much. I don't know what other leaps need to be made to formalize the addiction category.

The problem with those criteria is we would need to ask at what stage are we going to call water an addiction? It also fufills those details. Really just because it can be classified as an addiction doesn't mean it should. The real criteria of concern is "does it cause problems /in this case/". Otherwise you end up with a hysterical neo-puritanism of trying to create a perfect life by excision of all vices.

if it isn't bad for you then it's not an addiction. addictive behavior is by definition always harmful. drinking water is hence not an addiction but a necessity.
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