Have any of you completely given up sugar? I mean totally.

I will be watching this with interest. I am properly addicted to the stuff and would love to be able to give it up but it just seems inconceivable quite honestly. I know how bad it is for me and would dearly love to be able to take or leave it. Here's hoping!

Avoiding all sugar is going to be near impossible. I just don't see a need for it and find sugar substitutes that people usually replace them with way worse for you. I'll stick to the natural sugar thank you. Lol.

I gave up all refined sugar in my 20's, after reading "Sugar Blues." I was pretty serious about it - I read labels on everything I bought. At restaurants, I didn't fret about the bread or sauces, but I would only eat fruit for dessert unless it was a whole-food restaurant where they used unrefined sweeteners.

I got to the point where bakery cakes and other sugary treats were totally unappealing, though I happily ate treats sweetened with fruit juice, maple syrup, or Sucanat.

My temper improved quickly - I hadn't realized how often my crankiness coincided with (for example) a brownie sundae. I had no weird withdrawal symptoms or anything.

If you are talking about giving up all sugars including fruit, potatoes, etc. then my experience would not apply. At the time, I believed that the harm in sugar was a result of its being divorced from the nutrients that occur with it in its "whole food" state. I will say that I found only positive effects in a no-refined-sugar diet.

Sadly, after eating that way for a few years, refined sugar crept back into my diet and has stuubornly remained.

I'm assuming you are talking about giving up refined sugar and foods with HFCS in them. We did about for most of last winter and have been pretty successful at sticking too it when at home. Eating out and traveling are a little more challenging as sugar creeps into so many sauces, dressing, breads, etc.

We were cutting out most carbs and dairy, not just refined sugar, so followed a Paleo/Whole 30 type plan which allows honey and maple syrup. The basic rules were super simple and I made sure to have lots of protein, nuts, fruits & vegetables in the house.

The hardest part in the first couple of weeks is just breaking the habit of eating the foods you usually eat with sugar in it, so planning what you will eat is really critical. You don't want to find yourself hungry and no appropriate food or snack handy.

We felt good almost immediately and have significant improvements to our health.

I didn't cut out all sugar, but I'm going on 4 weeks of cutting back on sweets, cakes, candy, cookies, chocolate, etc. I haven't had much trouble, except for today. I ate a donut this morning and since then I've been wanting sweet stuff all day. :frown:

I have given up refined sugar and definitely don't use any artificial sweeteners. I do eat fruit in moderation and very occasionally (like once a month at the most), I will makes some kind of Paleo-ifed dessert/sweet treat that uses a bit of maple syrup or honey for sweetener. My palate has definitely changed. Treats that I used to love now tastes cloyingly sweet to me.

I've given up sugar, most breads, pasta, potatoes, milk (but not cream or butter), white rice. I've never felt better. All the pain in my legs is gone, I've lost weight and I have tons of energy. I had a sugar headache about 3 days into it but it only lasted a day. I do use a natural sugar substitute but not any artificial sweeteners. I can still enjoy all kinds of baked goods, ice cream, pizza etc. I've felt so good I haven't been tempted to go back.

I cut out most of the sugar for a year as a challenge to myself. No candy, sodas etc. But I did't cut out everything with sugar in it, although the amount I was consuming must have dropped a lot.

What I noticed was that my iron levels went up quite a bit. Probably because I was replacing empty calories with actual nutrients. I lost weight, and my craving for sugar dissapeared within a few days of starting the experiment. Stupidly, I went back to the sugar

At the end of February I went low carb and low sugar. It has been the BEST thing I have ever done. I will tell you though that the first 2 weeks were horrible. I would not want to repeat them but after that, it has been amazing. I never had much sugar anyway previously (only 1 tsp. on my oatmeal each morning and ice cream at night). No soda, only water for 20+ years but it was still hard. I did spend 3 hours in Wal-Mart reading labels when I started, and I left there crying. EVERYTHING has sugar of some sort in it. I get angry companies put it in their products so you will crave it and want more. It's so sad. I have found mayo without sugar now and various other products but it has been hard. I also will not eat anything with artificial sweeteners. Those are really bad, and I avoid those also. I am pleased with where I am now, I eat as I want 6x a day, and I feel great at 49.

My late DH gave up all sugar about 5 years before he died. He lost 50 pounds and kept it off. He followed the SugarBusters diet and felt very good on it. He allowed himself one piece pumpkin pie with whipped cream at Thanksgiving but very, very rarely had a slip. I learned to read labels and cooked a little different for him but it wasn't too hard.