Discussion: Sugar

Thinking of doing the no sugar challenge for Lent (only 10 days away!) and looking for some ground rules. How do you decide what is allowed and what is not? Clearly things like chocolate bars are out.

Oh I'm pulling up a chair and watching this one......

Any cafeteria meal with sauce is out. No ketchup, no cornflakes...

Susan, I bet you'd be well able for a Lenten sugar challenge :). Pull up a chair and join in!
Rob, it depends a bit on what you want to get out of it. My aim was to stop eating so much sugar, so I cut out what can broadly be described as 'sugary snacks' - bars, biscuits, cakes, hot chocolate (sob). I didn't go the whole way and eliminate all processed sugar. Killian has been doing that and it's a real eye-opener as to what has added sugar in it - prepacked slices of ham, some yogurts.
I have discovered some good things all the same - the kiddie biscuits that I buy for Conor are sweetened with grape juice so if I'm desperate I can have those!

I'm getting the shakes from my current 7-day 'not eating crap' challenge. All of Lent? Are you doing it?

Where do paprika pringles fall in this spectrum?

I think the vast vast majority of yoghurts have tonnes of added sugar (remember the (dairy) industry I used to be in). Hence the 'healthy' 0% fat labelling. Garbage. I wholly recommend Clandeboye natural yoghurt or greek style yoghurt, literally just milk & cultures, not sure if they supply down south but if you see it try it. Divine!

Funny I was just looking at the ingredients of a pot of natural Greek style yoghurt this evening and I decided it was all good with no added sugar. Of course the granola I had it with is another story...

My main concern is that I'll just be too hungry in the evenings to be able to sustain the challenge. Maybe I'll have to rely on fruit and natural yoghurt when I need a snack. I'll need to get creative and buy in some supplies if I'm to do this cold turkey. Mmmm turkey.

Granola is beige therefore it's acceptable.

I think I'll join you on this. Had been looking into it anyway.... Hadn't thought about lent.

So there I was this morning, tucking into a healthy bowl of porridge and a single boiled egg... as I spooned in hazelnut yogurt, knowing all to well it was laced with sugar but in denial and avoiding the label, justifying it to myself that I have a very physically demanding day ahead....

Cutting out sugar is more difficult than it sounds

porridge with homemade yoghurt here - homemade yoghurt is the easiest thing in the world to make! adding no maple syrup is less easy!

Porridge with banana and honey in my case... but will probably need to lose the honey from next week.

When I did it, I went for no added sugars. Thus, honey would be fine, but jam not.

It was impossible to eat 0 sugars as far as I could tell and that seemed like a fair line to draw.

I sort of feel that I should be joining in on this, but as I've been eating more cake and chocolate than ever recently and my weight is still going down, the answer clearly lies elsewhere...

My weight is going down too but it had gone up a lot between woc and Christmas so still too high. not all about weight though... I eat some crap in sugar that just can't be good for me!

Irish squad Lenten challenge! (feel free to join in!).
The most shocking thing for me was that it made me realise how often I reached for the biscuit tin and munched down a ton of crap without even realising it (after evening circuits being the main culprit).
Susan, interestingly salt+vinegar crisps have added sugar but cheese and onion don't... not sure where paprika pringles fit in! The first seven days is definitely the hardest so you may as well keep going :).
Rob, the only way to avoid sugar in granola unfortunately is to make your own. I've a few recipes if you want one. The good news is that it can be stored for a few weeks so you can make a big batch.
Natural yogurt + berries + milled seeds + small amount of honey is a nice snack with no processed sugar (thanks to Caoimhe for this one :). Peanut butter has become a life-saver for snacking (read the label though as some brands have added sugar and some don't).

Best of luck everyone, i'll just spectate in this competition.

Too late on the 'keeping going'. Already had chocolate (albeit dark) for my second breakfast.
I might be up for this but it'll be the 'light' version for sure. Fair dues to anyone going for the full-on de-sugaring.

"de-sugaring", that's a good word. Wonder if Operation Transformation use it?

Cheese and onion walkers crisps have sugar in the flavoring! Definite learning curve.. I saw the sugar crash Rte programme - kids have got some stuff home from school about making sugar smart choices so they are chasing about it so seems like a good time if any!

Hmmm was thinking along these lines for lent (motivation to do it you see). Not thinking final year stress will be the best time for a full shift though :/ how much research did you have to do into things? Also a granola recipe would be amazing! ;) please

I'm sitting here in floods of tears looking at the empty creme egg foil. 3 for 2 in Spar. So much wasted potential economies of chocolate scale.

Ok. I'm gonna try. But shop-bought granola is allowed in my book, and some other things (like my morning shreddies).

Davy bought a small mountain of mullerrice today. He is kinda cross at me.

That's a great story Susan, thanks for the link (will we all be appearing with pints at the end of Lent?! or, more yummily, giant chocolate bars/Easter eggs?).
Do it Alison, do a light version! Just pick something to exclude rather than having to read labels etc. if you are short on time. I'll dig out granola recipe (Derval's book has one - do you have it?).

Oh yes I'll try hers! I have hers and Gillick's just haven't braved it yet I think.
And yes day one i've done at least no "junk" food. So going to do no biscuts, no chocolate, no crisps, kinda the easy junk food stuff where I'm not reading labels. going to try my best anyway! feeling like my body might need it!

I'm in

Would it be wrong to post on this very popular discussion about the sugar you eat rather than don't eat?

Would it be wrong? You're right there Ted.

I failed today when I realised my veggie samosa at lunch had sugar in it (but I'm not going to stress....) I'm going to fail at dad's 70th birthday cake on Sunday too I'd guess! But I'll do my best for the rest of it!