Dr. McDougall's Online Discussion Board

I joined FOK plant-based movement in April 2015. Did really well the first 18 months! Lost 25-30 pounds, felt fantastic. But the last 8 months, I have slid backwards. I am still eating 100% plant-based foods so that's not the problem. Insidious sugar has slipped back into my life. Sugar has been a problem my entire life, starting in childhood. Those 18 months was the first time in my entire adult life (I'm 59) that I was free of sugar. But my old addiction has returned. The weight has crept back on. I need help and advice please.

I have had plenty of experience with my own sugar addiction(s)...the "s" is because I have back-slide a quite a few times. My take on it is that sugar is such a powerful hook, the only way out is cold turkey. Eating fruit will help you because there is a lot of satisfaction in the whole food sweet taste but do not fool yourself into eating dried fruit because it is just too concentrated. Mostly though, I would suggest finding other, easy to access food you like that aren't "sugar" and eat them instead when the craving comes on. It WILL fade reasonably quickly but you have to sort or draw a hard line for yourself i.e. "these are not food for me" and use will power to stick to that. Others may disagree and I would love to hear about other approaches...

I will offer you my experience, and feel free to do with it whatever you wish:

I have binge eating in my genes, and know that many people consider sugars and flours some of the most dangerous food triggers for binge eaters. As such, I have seen these food with great caution and have chosen to abstain from these foods for most of my plant-based time.

As a result of this decision, my weight has been where I like it to be, for the last year and a half of my plant-based journey. I've had minor forays back into sugars and flours over the last year and a half, which I've regretted and had to do the painful work of digging out of. It is easier to remember and respect the addictive powers of sugars and flours, than to let them have their way with you, and then have to fight your way back out of their control!

My sense of food addictions, is that cutting out the worst binge triggers and binge behaviors, has not "cured" me, but it HAS been an extremely important step along the way. Someone who once binged on sugary foods, can easily transfer their behaviors to mangos, bananas, pears and dates.

As people tend to say, we indulge in our addictions because on some level, we like the way those make us feel. A pot smoker, smokes pot, because they like the way it makes them feel on some immediate level. An alcoholic takes a drink because that first drink feels good on some level. A compulsive spender whips out their credit card because in the moment, buying something gives them a high.

A food addict is no different! I understand that for me anyways, deciding to overeat (even if this means having a third bowl of broccoli) is something that I have done, because on some level I've enjoyed the way overeating makes me feel. At some point, I've had a dawning awareness, that I no longer wish to feel this way (bloated, overstuffed, off my path, etc), but it takes a bit of time to get to that place.

It also takes a persistence and a dedication, for me to undo the behavior patterns, even though I am pretty clear on not wanting the long-term patterns of overeating anymore. The grooves of hiding in the food are there, and it is a powerful temptation, to hide in the food once again.

Not sure if that will help you at all! Just my perspective, and see what feels right to you, on your path.

GeoffreyLevens wrote:Eating fruit will help you because there is a lot of satisfaction in the whole food sweet taste but do not fool yourself into eating dried fruit because it is just too concentrated.

Eat oranges, bananas, grapes, cantaloupe, etc. in place of sugar. Be careful with the dried fruits like dates, raisins (ok in moderation) as they are much more calorie dense.

When you say you eat sugar, what do you mean? You sprinkle a small amount on a cereal or you eat a junk food that is high in sugar, fat and salt. If you are eating junk food, you can substitute healthy fruits in their place.

I have a sweet tooth and cannot bake anything myself or I will eat all of it. There is no "just one cookie" for me. Even WFPB dessert recipes would be a challenge. At work for snacks I have been leaning more to savory than sweet to train myself not to crave it. Apples are also a good thing because they are very fiber rich and require a lot of crunching and chewing.

Simba4,

Here are my thoughts.

Have you considered an extended Mary’s Mini diet, say for a month or so? They say it takes that long to make or replace a habit.

https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2006nl/july/marys2.htm

As the article states, as a food is eaten, it becomes less appealing, but the taste of other foods remains relatively unchanged. Perhaps with the monotony, you’ll eat until you’re comfortably full. And over the course of the month, your taste buds will change and you will not crave sweets anymore.

I have been known to eat brown sugar out of the bag.

I'm quite ashamed of this.

My trick is to go for a microwaved ear of corn over the sugar. I buy them frozen. I think it helps to replace vs restrict

healthyvegan wrote:My trick is to go for a microwaved ear of corn over the sugar. I buy them frozen. I think it helps to replace vs restrict

I agree but be sure you are replacing an "Old Favorite" with something new that you really like rather than trying to find a "healthy duplicate". For me, trying to duplicate has always been a very great disappointment. Like replacing chocolate with carob. I happen to really like carob so it stands on its own merits but it is not chocolate and nothing you can do to it will make it so. Or "vegan cheese". That stuff is really a sore point with me. Some of the recipes out there are not bad on their own but don't try to tell me it is cheese!

Feiro - You are not alone. I did exactly the same when I was a teen. I think that's when my addiction began.

Since confessions are coming in, I used to chug Log Cabin "maple" syrup right from the bottle. Not real maple even then.

Hi, my name is Lyndzie, and I have a bad relationship with sugar.

For me, I can't have any refined sugars, natural sweetners (maple syrup, honey, etc) or flour products, even 100% whole wheat. These always put me on a bad path of more more more.

Things I can eat: Ezekiel bread, dried fruit and dates. I make a chocolate smoothie with unsweetened vanilla almond milk, frozen bananas, a touch of peanut butter and cocoa powder. I recently found out there are ethical issues with cocoa relating to child labor and fair wages, but at this time this is a vice I'm going to keep.

Best of luck to you!

P.S. Who hasn't eaten brown sugar straight out of the bag?!! I've made cookies just to eat the dough. Ditto for brownie batter.

Edited to fix typos.

Hi

The only way I was able to give up sugar was to give up sweeteners as well. No maple syrup, no honey, no stevia, no nothing. It is the only way cravings went away.
I totally made a commitment to no sugar.
I kept a list in my pocket of why I made that commitment.
It took a while, but it worked.
I sweeten desserts with cinnamon or with whole fruit, no sweeteners.
i.e. avocado/cocoa pudding without sweetener it's quite bland, but dip apple wedges in it and it's so yummy. Bonus, end up eating a much smaller portion of pudding.
i.e. baked apples only need cinnamon

I'll echo what others have said -- brown sugar out of the bag probably tastes good to nearly anyone! One of the hardest things about growing up (meaning: living in someone else's household, in which I didn't have a vote about what we kept around) was that my mother DID keep baking ingredients like this around, so there was always someplace to take food from.

Something that can be difficult for people with binge tendencies is having a large amount of ANYTHING around, and trying to portion out 1/8th of that bag, and put the rest away for some indefinite time in the future. While buying smaller portions often has a more expensive unit cost, I'd nevertheless encourage anyone who would benefit from doing so, to buy just what they need for the day and not have to deal with a kitchen stocked with a pound of almonds, or a jar of peanut butter, or whatever.

As to sugar addictions, I am not sure whether anyone can learn anything from my recent experiments, but I have (intentionally) gone a few months without including even fruits in my intake. It is winter, and the only fruit to be had around here, is stuff imported from far, far away. So because cavewoman Traci would've had no access to fruit during the winter, I decided to see what that might feel like.

The outcome is, I don't miss the fruit, and don't feel that anything is missing. I've eaten extra starches or veggies in its place, because my weight has stayed in the same two-pound range for three weeks or so.

AND . . . this is what I was getting to . . . I find that I am very much able to taste and enjoy the "sugar content" of the foods I AM eating. I have eaten raw carrots a few times over the last week, and they taste very, very sweet. Also, I was eating raw sugar snap peas, which are just very, very sweet.

So perhaps human beings are wired to be quite good at tasting naturally occurring sugars when our palate is not dulled by "extreme foods" like raisins or honey or cookies? I'll throw that out there in case anyone can take that data point and derive some ideas or experiments for themselves around that!

For 4 years now I have been a vegan. I lost 40 pounds and still have 30 or so to go...but it's not coming off. I bought Dr. McDougall's book and a few others and have been reading because no one but no one has been able to get my weight off. So I am once again turning to you for some help. I have Stevia in the house and use it in tea (decafinated). Dr. M. Says no Stevia so that might be one problem? The next is avocados...ahhh I eat them all the time! Maybe I need to get rid of them??? I use Coconut oil in my food...I guess that is bad??? I am juicing and eating salads and nuts. I also include three fruits a day in there like apples and a banana or a tangerine! Sometimes I just have a grapefruit for breakfast. Any help to tweek my eating would help. I still have a lot to read in the book. Thank you.