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How do you cope with your 'sweet tooth'?

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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Cherrelle DUK

Cherrelle DUK

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One of the biggest challenges when trying to make a healthy lifestyle change as a diabetic is managing sugar intake.

I know some have found success in managing things by finding 'sugar free' alternatives but I wonder if there are any tips and tricks that might be useful to share?
 
Being brought up in the 60's sweets were a very rare treat, so personally I have never developed a sweet taste.
Cherrelle DUK said:
One of the biggest challenges when trying to make a healthy lifestyle change as a diabetic is managing sugar intake.
Click to expand...
This isn't strictly true, it's more to do with carb management which does not just mean sugar.
 
I am new here so still learning but I cut out all sweet things and been low carb since Christmas.
I can now say the cravings have gone and i have got my head round it.
The amazing book carb and calories recommended on here has been an eye opener.
It helps that I live alone so not having to shop for others
 
I have never completely got rid of sweet cravings. I find when I get them, low carb snacks don't hit the spot.
 
Cherrelle DUK said:
One of the biggest challenges when trying to make a healthy lifestyle change as a diabetic is managing sugar intake.

I know some have found success in managing things by finding 'sugar free' alternatives but I wonder if there are any tips and tricks that might be useful to share?
Click to expand...
I freely admit I have a sweet tooth. I have two squares of chocolate with my coffee and I have managed to keep to that. I don't particularly like cake but on the odd occasion when I have a slice, I will only have half. It has been over 2 years now and I am still ok with this strategy
 
I have a sweet jaw and am an emotional eater - I often can't tell the difference between hunger or starvation and emotional triggers so ride out the pangs until the next mealtime. I had to go cold turkey with sugary treats and snacks generally. What surprised me was that the sugar cravings I usually get 3 days in didn't happen for a couple of weeks but when they did, hoooboy, I was crawling the walls. Determination and gritted teeth will get you there.

While yet to lose a taste for sweet things, my tastes are changing and I can taste the sweetness more in normal food I'm eating.

As of 6 weeks in to diagnosis, I have a floating 10g carb allowance to use as I please and sometimes I use these for chocs - matchmakers are about 2g carbs each. Sucking on a single stick when cravings were really awful worked for me several times. A portion is 4 sticks and still under 10g carbs. Currently I'm going through a Green & Blacks mini selection - a 15g individual bar is 7.6g carbs but easier to control as each bar is a wrapped single entity. I have avoided all the sugar substitutes so far. If something needs honey, it needs honey - having a bit of fruit with yoghurt is working well as a dessert. Lots of people recommend a few bits of very dark chocolate but over 80% cocoa is too bitter for me.

The occasional splurge of cake has happened and I've been lucky that I could handle it due to activities around those blowouts. Plan big exercise either before or the day after a carb blowout to help absorb and use the sugars.

We're living with this for the rest of our lives so it's about rolling with what is manageable. 😎
 
Much of my sweet intake is from things I bake myself (cakes, biscuits, desserts) and often use less sugar than the recipe suggests but I avoid faux-sugar sweeteners as I don't like the flavour.
But, as someone with Type 1 treated with insulin without a weight (or tooth) problem, I don't feel I have to "cope" with my sweet tooth provided I take my insulin appropriately.
 
I have a peculiar restricted diet prior to being diagnosed with pre diabetes. I did not eat anything sweet for many years and cannot eat any grains so biscuits and cakes have been off my menu for years, nor was I a chocaholic.
However this last year I have developed a taste for a vegan chocolate called Ombar. It has many ranges from very dark, no sugar to light/dark and I once had too much....I keep giving it up. But I buy tiny bars and give it to my husband to hide in the house. I ask for a centimetre each day eating it early to work it off...which seems to stop the craving. Chocolate also contains caffeine which is not great either. I know I shouldn't and after no sweet stuff for years it seems so silly of me to develop this habit. Hope you find a balance. PS I also test regularly to keep an eye on things.
 
I eat sugar sometimes eg in desserts, cakes and to treat hypos. I had Weetabix this morning and fancied a little sugar on it, so I had some. I had chocolate cheesecake for dessert last night.

It’s not just sugar that puts up blood glucose, and, in fact, some sweet things have less impact than, say, a good size serving of mashed potato.
 
EllsBells said:
I have a sweet jaw and am an emotional eater - I often can't tell the difference between hunger or starvation and emotional triggers so ride out the pangs until the next mealtime. I had to go cold turkey with sugary treats and snacks generally. What surprised me was that the sugar cravings I usually get 3 days in didn't happen for a couple of weeks but when they did, hoooboy, I was crawling the walls. Determination and gritted teeth will get you there.

While yet to lose a taste for sweet things, my tastes are changing and I can taste the sweetness more in normal food I'm eating.

As of 6 weeks in to diagnosis, I have a floating 10g carb allowance to use as I please and sometimes I use these for chocs - matchmakers are about 2g carbs each. Sucking on a single stick when cravings were really awful worked for me several times. A portion is 4 sticks and still under 10g carbs. Currently I'm going through a Green & Blacks mini selection - a 15g individual bar is 7.6g carbs but easier to control as each bar is a wrapped single entity. I have avoided all the sugar substitutes so far. If something needs honey, it needs honey - having a bit of fruit with yoghurt is working well as a dessert. Lots of people recommend a few bits of very dark chocolate but over 80% cocoa is too bitter for me.

The occasional splurge of cake has happened and I've been lucky that I could handle it due to activities around those blowouts. Plan big exercise either before or the day after a carb blowout to help absorb and use the sugars.

We're living with this for the rest of our lives so it's about rolling with what is manageable. 😎
Click to expand...
How many carbs do you have a day?
 
Great thread @Cherrelle DUK 🙂

When I was in hospital just after diagnosis the WRVS trolley came round and I was offered a cup of tea or coffee. It was the first day of my 4-5 day stay. I remember asking, "Can I have a sugar with it" and the kindly volunteer giving me a look of genuine empathy and sadness saying, "... No, dear"

Of course, with T1 there are hypos to treat, so sweet stuff can be consumed then... But you can't really enjoy it, and often the timing is terrible. And by association various high glucose low fat options like Jelly Babies or Skittles take on a functional feeling, and become associated with a sense of failure and frustration.

There's also nothing quite as gutting as deciding to go for a slice of cake or whatever, and taking on the counting, calculating and risk of BG upheaval... only for the cake to be dry and distinctly disappointing.

My tastes certainly have changed though. In theory I can eat puddings or whatever whenever I like, just counting the carbs and dosing correctly, but it's never quite that simple, and some are eye-wateringly sickly sweet to me now. So I save my sweet treats for things I know are going to be 'bolusworthy' as some of my US #doc friends used to say 🙂
 
Not a problem - I am old enough to have had a ration book and there was still the wartime mentality of not using sugar - two things I have an emotional response to are liver, and carrot cake.
When writing down recipes I either do not include the sweetener or mention it to use if necessary.
These days I cannot even stand the sweetness of sugar free jelly, so I add gelatine and more water to reduce the overall sweetness.
 
Hi. It does require discipline but after a while you can accept less sweet things. As others have said it's all carbs you need to reduce not just sugar. Don't bring into the house things that need to avoided. If there aren't biscuits in the house you can't eat them! Have nuts, berries and cheese for snacks. Eggs and bacon for breakfast etc
 
I became dairy intolerant! And when that happened there were very few sweet alternatives as there are now so my taste just adapted over time and now I dont really enjoy excessively sweet things. I will eat a square of dark chocolate or have a black coffee which even though isn't sweet somehow does the trick.

Otherwise I just try to pick a healthier alternative if I really do need a sweet hit. I was once told now to eat more than 3 fruit a day by my diabetes nurse but if you inject and avoid a high I dont think it's a problem.
 
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