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I have a bit of a sweet tooth and I’m wondering how much damage I’m actually doing by eating these things.
I would say that my typical meals each week are a decent balance of proteins, starches and vegetables, and my snacks are mostly healthy as well. I’ll stick to things like tortilla chips and hummus, granola, bananas and peanut butter, and nuts. However, I do admit that I eat a lot of unhealthy things on top of this.
Just a few of the unhealthy things I eat would include the following. Now that the weather is getting warmer, I’ll occasionally treat myself to a Dunkin iced coffee with cream and sugar, usually once or twice a week. Sometimes, I’ll get a flavor swirl and cream and omit the sugar if I’m really craving a sweet drink that tastes nothing like actual coffee. I hang out with my local friend once or twice a week, and every single time we hang out, we go to Dairy Queen and I’ll get a small M&M Blizzard. So I usually have one Blizzard per week, occasionally two. At home, I’d say I either have an after-dinner snack or dessert on an additional one or two nights. This will usually be a Chipwich or 5-6 Oreos.
In addition to all the sweets, I drink regular soda, mostly Coke or Dr. Pepper, three times per week. This is always with a meal at a restaurant or if I get takeout at home. I don’t keep soda in the house, nor do I get it as an afternoon snack the way I do with iced coffee. It’s strictly with food to minimize tooth decay.
I always thought I was doing okay and my diet was balanced, but when I spoke to my nutritionist friend about this, he said he was surprised I haven’t developed Type 2 diabetes, destroyed my stomach lining, or gotten heart disease yet from “all the toxic poison” I’ve been putting into my body. I really try and be balanced, but I enjoy these things, and I don’t understand people whose lives revolve around drinking only plain water and never touching soda or even juice, and avoiding the occasional ice cream like the plague. But then I wonder if he’s right. Am I just asking to die early, become a diabetic or have stomach issues the rest of my life by consuming the things I listed on top of healthy things? I do exercise 3 or 4 times a week as well and generally stay active, so I always thought I didn’t need to torture myself and live in fear by never eating or drinking anything unhealthy. But then the health nuts say I’m 100% going to get cancer, heart disease, diabetes, liver damage, etc, if I even dare to touch anything that’s not nutritious.
Sugar is treated as a toxin by the body. The most dangerous sugar is high fructose corn syrup. Fructose from sugar itself is treated as a toxin the body immediately takes it and stores it as glycogen then as body fat if you are not an athlete or needs to tap the sugar for energy. That's how so many American are so fat, living a sedentary lifestyle and abundance of sugar stored in the body as fat.
Sodas are extremely bad because it's like pouring cocktail of chemicals that destroys your digestive system. You know sodas are full of acid, preservatives, and color agents depends on flavor. It is the kind of sugar that is very difficult for the body to break down because it is so thick and dense vs plain fructose. Preservatives kill gut bacteria and will make you susceptible to diseases.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mikala43
Recommended grams of sugar range from 25 to 50 per day. Track your average and adjust from there.
That is not meant to include nature sugar in fruit and such.
I was shocked that regular ketchup is 1/3 sugar, not that I eat a lot of it, but I buy reduced sugar ketchup now.
Your young, so you are fine now, but if you can, you should adjust your diet as it will affect you more and more as you get older (most likely).
At the very least you should KNOW how much you are consuming and go from there.
Cane sugar and fruit sugars is all the same, it's fructose. Cane sugar is more concentrated compared to sugars from citrus or other fruits. Stay away from grapes and watermelon. They are loaded with sugar. High fructose corn syrup is the type that is extremely bad for the body since it is extremely processed.
I have a bit of a sweet tooth and I’m wondering how much damage I’m actually doing by eating these things.
I would say that my typical meals each week are a decent balance of proteins, starches and vegetables, and my snacks are mostly healthy as well. I’ll stick to things like tortilla chips and hummus, granola, bananas and peanut butter, and nuts. However, I do admit that I eat a lot of unhealthy things on top of this.
Just a few of the unhealthy things I eat would include the following. Now that the weather is getting warmer, I’ll occasionally treat myself to a Dunkin iced coffee with cream and sugar, usually once or twice a week. Sometimes, I’ll get a flavor swirl and cream and omit the sugar if I’m really craving a sweet drink that tastes nothing like actual coffee. I hang out with my local friend once or twice a week, and every single time we hang out, we go to Dairy Queen and I’ll get a small M&M Blizzard. So I usually have one Blizzard per week, occasionally two. At home, I’d say I either have an after-dinner snack or dessert on an additional one or two nights. This will usually be a Chipwich or 5-6 Oreos.
In addition to all the sweets, I drink regular soda, mostly Coke or Dr. Pepper, three times per week. This is always with a meal at a restaurant or if I get takeout at home. I don’t keep soda in the house, nor do I get it as an afternoon snack the way I do with iced coffee. It’s strictly with food to minimize tooth decay.
I always thought I was doing okay and my diet was balanced, but when I spoke to my nutritionist friend about this, he said he was surprised I haven’t developed Type 2 diabetes, destroyed my stomach lining, or gotten heart disease yet from “all the toxic poison” I’ve been putting into my body. I really try and be balanced, but I enjoy these things, and I don’t understand people whose lives revolve around drinking only plain water and never touching soda or even juice, and avoiding the occasional ice cream like the plague. But then I wonder if he’s right. Am I just asking to die early, become a diabetic or have stomach issues the rest of my life by consuming the things I listed on top of healthy things? I do exercise 3 or 4 times a week as well and generally stay active, so I always thought I didn’t need to torture myself and live in fear by never eating or drinking anything unhealthy. But then the health nuts say I’m 100% going to get cancer, heart disease, diabetes, liver damage, etc, if I even dare to touch anything that’s not nutritious.
It sounds like you've convinced yourself (in the past), that you're a healthy eater, because the snack foods you list initially are more or less healthy. Then the truth comes out, and it turns out, you've been sort of compartmentalizing your food intake in your mind, so that the sugary snacks don't really count, somehow.
We don't know how old you are. Some people's systems can manage that level of snacking for awhile, when they're young (teens, 20's). You're pushing your luck beyond that. But even in the younger years, sugary drinks, milkshakes, and the like, can cause obesity. Come to think of it, we don't know your weight, either. Excess weight can push the body toward diabetes, as well.
The flavored coffee drinks are super loaded with sugar and fat (= calories!), OP. Read the labels (if Dunkin doesn't provide nutritional info, check out a Starbucks Frappucino in the grocery store, to find out calorie, carb, sugar and fat content). You might be shocked.
Tortilla chips (any corn products or even fresh sweet corn on the cob) are high in "natural" sugar. Corn on the cob causes big blood sugar spikes, just like eating sugar does.
Dialing back your sugar intake =/= "torturing" yourself. You've really set yourself up with a mindset, that will make it difficult for you to switch to a healthier diet. Your diet already is high in starch, very high-carb, even without the sweets. You need to change. your mindset.
Have you talked with your doctor about this?
P.S. Switching to diet sodas isn't a solution. Most artificial sweeteners have been proven to cause an insulin reaction similar to sugars. Seriously! No lie! Some young people's metabolisms seem to be able to handle that, but others gradually become obese, even if their "sweets" only contains Sucralose and other sugar substitutes. Stevia isn't a solution, either.
Develop an interest in mixed salads, dressed with your own home-made oil and vinegar dressing. You can add garlic to it, or green onion for extra flavor. I could give you other recommendations, but first you need to wean your body off of sugar. That will be challenging. You may have bacteria and fungi, like candida, in your system that have become addicted to the sugar. If you eliminate sugar from your diet, those critters will start to die, and will induce a sort of panic in your body, pushing it to resume the sugar regime, so they won't die off. If you can make it past that stage, you'll find it much easier to resist sugar. This takes about 3 weeks to get past that stage.
Last edited by Ruth4Truth; 03-31-2021 at 09:33 AM..
I also want to echo what other people are saying. Sugar is in pretty much everything now. And there are over 40 different names for added sugar that are used on ingredient labels. So just because something doesn't specifically say sugar in the ingredients, doesn't mean it still doesn't contain sugar.
Track the grams of sugar you eat for a week. Like read labels, pay attention to portion sizes, etc. Like don't just look at the ketchup label, see x grams of sugar per serving, and write it down. Because there's a good chance you're eating more than one serving size. One bottle of soda, for instance, may contain more than one serving. For restaurant foods, go to their website to get the nutritional info. I think you (and most people) would be surprised at how much sugar they really consume. Don't do this forever, because that's crazy. Just a week or so to give you an idea.
Like others have said, there are tons of food that have sugar added to them, that most people would never guess. There are also foods that are considered "healthy" that have a boatload of sugar in them. Granola and granola bars are a good example. There are some yogurt cups that contain more sugar than a candy bar.
The OP is being honest...many healthy people have relatively good diets while satisfying the occasional sweet tooth. I think people would be shocked if they actually wrote down everything they ate for a week - many are deluding themselve on how great their diet is and also exaggerating how bad a tbs. of sugar is.
The pendulum swings back and forth at a faster and faster rate. Don't eat ANY fat, don't eat ANY sugar; don't eat any MEAT; eat ONLY protein and high fat (keto). You're all crazy and you all change your diet every year to fit the latest craze instead of eating a balanced diet...that, OMG, has some carbs and sugar. The worst part is putting down everyone else's diet and believing your own is the gospel, even though you have been on 3 different ones in the last year.
The above is basically a dilution of information presented.
The OP isn't indulging in occasional sweets. He's consuming high amounts of sugar and other carbs every single day. He knows he is, he even says so.
I know I overindulge, I know I eat more sugars and breads than I should. But I'm not the one pretending I eat a mostly healthy diet with no concern for my health. I also don't think I need to eliminate sweets and breads. I need to reduce my intake of them, and learn to control that.
It's one of the reasons I gave up drinking soda. I found it was just making me crave sugary and starchy things even more when I drank it, and I was at the age where the body needs to work juuuust a little harder, in order to maintain the same level of health and weight.
I dropped only around 2 pounds total from cutting soda out of my diet, but I FELT better swapping it out for water. Turns out, I actually LIKE drinking normal plain ordinary unflavored non-carbonated water.
The OP is sabotaging his "healthy food" menu with too much sugar and starch. He doesn't need to eliminate either of them. But what he does need, is MORE fats from nuts and eggs and dairy, MORE protein from lean meats, MORE fresh fruits and vegetables for bulk and to feel full, and LESS starches and refined sugars.
It's not a diet. It's a return to actually eating healthy. One Blizzard every 2 weeks is MORE than enough. 1 12-ounce can of soda every week is sufficient. Swapping out raw veggies with those chips he's using for his salsa/dips will fill him up better, the filled feeling will last longer, taste better, and be healthier.
This video just appeared in my YouTube feed. Seems almost tailor-made, as a definitive answer to this thread's original question. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rd438U_9Zs
Cane sugar and fruit sugars is all the same, it's fructose. Cane sugar is more concentrated compared to sugars from citrus or other fruits. Stay away from grapes and watermelon. They are loaded with sugar. High fructose corn syrup is the type that is extremely bad for the body since it is extremely processed.
Watermelon has a low glycemic load. It's actually a healthy alternative to cake, candy, or any other processed sweet food. A cup of melonballs has only around 11 grams of carbs, with most of them sugar. Watermelon is made up mostly of water, and is fairly high in vitamin C and vitamin A.
Sugar is not a toxin. The body doesn't treat it as a toxin. It treats it like a source of energy - which is what it is, for a human body.
I am 23. I am 5’11” and about 130 lbs, and I work out (chest, legs or back) 3 times a week. I also get out for walks on most warm days.
The sodas are usually either a 20-oz bottle or 12-oz can, and at least one 24-oz restaurant-sized glass with ice.
It may not be a problem when you are 23, but as you get closer to 40, it will become one. I could eat anything I wanted until I hit about 45. Out of nowhere, I gained 10 pounds after being pretty much the same weight for all of my adult life. Now, while I do eat some sweets, (a bowl of frosted mini wheats nightly) and a birthday cake now and then, I try to cut back. I have a couple of pieces of dark chocolate covered caramel after lunch. I rarely drink anything with sugar and only drink alcohol when we go out to dinner, which is usually when we travel.
Watermelon has a low glycemic load. It's actually a healthy alternative to cake, candy, or any other processed sweet food. A cup of melonballs has only around 11 grams of carbs, with most of them sugar. Watermelon is made up mostly of water, and is fairly high in vitamin C and vitamin A.
Sugar is not a toxin. The body doesn't treat it as a toxin. It treats it like a source of energy - which is what it is, for a human body.
The liver treats fructose exactly like alcohol. And too much fructose over time produces cirrhosis of the liver, just like alcohol.
So...the debate over the word "toxin" is irrelevant.
Watermelon has a low glycemic load. It's actually a healthy alternative to cake, candy, or any other processed sweet food. A cup of melonballs has only around 11 grams of carbs, with most of them sugar. Watermelon is made up mostly of water, and is fairly high in vitamin C and vitamin A.
Sugar is not a toxin. The body doesn't treat it as a toxin. It treats it like a source of energy - which is what it is, for a human body.
The toxicity levels of fructose is same as alcohol. Just because a fruit has natural sugar meaning it is less processed than a candy bar doesn't mean sugar it's a toxin. The main problem with fruits is that people in America are eating GMO fruits that are genetically altered to be even sweeter than the original.
So in what food group does sugar belongs? None because the FDA can't categorize sugar as a food and they can't say it's dangerous because it's a cash crop. Some of the biggest cartels in the food industry depends on sugar.
WebMD specifies processed sugar can be comparable to alcohol.
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