Is sugar good to eat?

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  • JellicleCat
    JellicleCat Member Posts: 25
    edited July 2007
    Hi All,
    I'm still wondering if sugar replacements, like SPLENDA are o.k.? It's great for baking with, and sometimes your stuff comes out even sweeter than when cooking with Sugar.

    Some of our soft-drinks have Splenda in it, and I may hate diet soda right now, but looks like I have to make a change.... Isn't there an in between????
    Anybody know?
  • fawnrnbsn
    fawnrnbsn Member Posts: 2
    edited July 2007
    There is an enormous amount of information out there with regard to sugar and cancer, you can just about find any opinion you can think of. I do not drink carbonated beverages so don't know about that, but I do drink herbal teas and green tea that I like sweetened and other things I like sweet as well.....As a health care professional and survivor, I avoid all things artificial.

    I tried Stevia powder a few years abo, this is derived from a plant, a shrub actually that is native to Paraguay. Can bake and cook with it to, there are cookbooks dedicated to it's use. Recently found a product called SteviaPlus, which comes in convenient packets like splenda etc in a restaurant, and it has the added benefit of having inulin fiber added for bulk (Stevia is over 1000 times sweeter than sugar) so 4 packets has the fiber of a bowl of cereal.

    Hope this helps

    Fawn M. RN BSN LNC
  • Jorf
    Jorf Member Posts: 498
    edited July 2007

    CatherineH - where do you live that you get peaches and strawberries at the same time!! That would be cool. Strawberries are long gone around here and we're on blueberries. Waiting patiently for the peaches....

  • Luckysmom
    Luckysmom Member Posts: 49
    edited April 2008

    I have developed a taste for ice cream and realize it must be stopped immediately; does anyone else have this hankering for ice cream? Maybe it's because of the sudden warm weather. In any case, do you all avoid ice cream completely? And flavored ices too, like Rita's Italian ice? What about a weekly, or twice a month, small treat? Now it seems like people are also saying fruit is dangerous because of its natural sugar. Truly, I would like to enjoy life not fret about every single thing I eat; this is not what I survived for; but I also realize I have to respect the fact that my BC could return and do as much as I can to prevent it. But if it does return, am I going to want to blame myself for eating ice cream? I don't think so. Any thoughts?

  • paige-allyson
    paige-allyson Member Posts: 781
    edited April 2008

    There are sugar free fudge bars that you could try. I may get some when I go shopping today or tomorrow. I steer clear of the ice cream, except on special occasions (couple times a year). This is how ice cream eating used to be 100 or so years ago. In the past (years ago) I had an ice cream habit. I feel as you do re: wanting to feel like I am doing all I can to prevent recurrance.

  • althea
    althea Member Posts: 1,595
    edited April 2008

    I'm a stubborn person who loves cookies and cakes made with real butter, sugar and eggs.  Just yesterday I baked a birthday cake for my cat.  It had a half pound of butter and 12 egg whites.  It's from a shaker cookbook I found at the library.  I went there for vegan cookbooks, and very little in those do I find appealing. 

    I can say this about sweets that others might find beneficial -- I gave up soda years ago, long before bc.  I don't like diet drinks and I during chemo espeically I was drinking loads of arizona tea drinks and fruit juices like cran-grape or cran-raspberry.  As I was steadily gaining a pound every other week during rads, I couldn't figure it out.  I've never been much of a calorie counter, but I looked more closely at the labels.  First of all, who thinks 8 ounces is a serving??  That's like two sips on a hot day.  Anyway, I was taking in about 1,000 calories a day just from my drinks, and all my favorite ones had high fructose corn syrup.  I might not have been any better off than drinking soda!  The calories were about the same.  

    I've now eliminated all beverages with corn syrup.  I'll have a coke for special occasions or if I'm thirsty and caught without my roadmug which I try to make my constant companion.  I find that my sweet tooth has greatly diminished.  I used to always have candy bars in the house.  I don't anymore and don't miss them. 

    I think the glycemic index is big factor in all this.  I resist the instructions to give up sugar.  Why should I?  My body converts what I eat into sugar, so dont' tell me to give it up!  The corn syrup, however, from what I understand is absorbed into our systems very quickly, and avoiding the insulin response is what we ultimately want to avoid.  There' no question in my mind that we'd all be better off without sugary diets, but for those like me who are diehards, avoiding the corn syrup products is a big help.  It could be the first step of many toward better nutrition.  And even if it's the only step, it's a big one because so many food products include corn syrup.  

  • paige-allyson
    paige-allyson Member Posts: 781
    edited April 2008

    I talked myself out of the fudge bars after reading the ingredients. Better to curb/redirect the sweet tooth I think.

    Good advice re: the sweet drinks and corn syrup. Even if you sweeten drinks yourself with sugar it is not nearly so bad as the presweetened stuff. I used to drink some of the drinks you mention. Now I stick with unsweetened green tea, water, and the odd glass of grape (organic!) or orange juice and some seltzer now and then.

    How did the cat like the cake?

  • althea
    althea Member Posts: 1,595
    edited April 2008

    I loved it, er um, she loved it!  I'd make it again if I needed to do a fancy cake. 

    A more healthy choice from the shaker cookbook I've been using is the shaker daily loaf.  For a while I was on a quest to avoid soybean oil.  I spent 20 minutes in the bread section one day trying to find anything without soybean oil.  I didn't look at every single product, but I didn't find one that had no soybean oil.  Now I'm making the shaker daily loaf, but it has a cup of milk and some butter in it.  I tried it last week with a nondairy milk substitute.  It was very dry.  

    I'll keep trying though.  I followed a link from a different thread to my.crazysexylife.com and there's some recent blog entries talking about this issue with sugar.  I also looked at some of the recipes people there are using for juices and smoothies.  They didn't sound appealing, but I have been juicing every day for weeks now and maybe someday I'll step away from sugar altogether.  Rightly or wrongly, I feel like I have the luxury of taking some time to make lasting changes.  If I was actively lugging a tumor around with me, I wouldn't be so nonchalant about my nutrition.  Even at the pace I keep now, I feel I have a new career as a food detective when I want to buy healthier products at the store.   

  • ElaineM
    ElaineM Member Posts: 81
    edited May 2008

    Hi,

    I monitor my blood glucose levels. I try to make sure they are always within the normal range. I try not to eat things with refined sugars like candy, cake, cookies, ice cream and prepared foods with alot of sugar.  I understand the theory behind PET scans. Where the glucose based injection fluid goes that is where the cancer is supposed to be, so cancer must like sugar/glucose as much as we do.

    ElaineM

  • luvdog242
    luvdog242 Member Posts: 5
    edited June 2008

    Is there a relationship between Tamoxifen and sugar intake that can promote low grade yeast infections?

  • AccidentalTourist
    AccidentalTourist Member Posts: 365
    edited September 2008

    I have given up smoking and dairy products without (too much) difficulty but giving up sweets seems like a huge loss.

  • Estepp
    Estepp Member Posts: 6,416
    edited September 2008

    What about someone like me.. I eat friut like crazy.. Watermelon.. apples... blueberries.. blackrasberries... I eat these everyday.. a lot of them... is THIS BAD ?

    Laura

  • coffeeluvr
    coffeeluvr Member Posts: 11
    edited October 2008

    I've heard that yes, we should stay away from sugar because the cancer feeds off of it.  I'm a sugar-holic and love sweets.   I try and cut my intake.  Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

    I just figure EVERYTHING in moderation.

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