Virtual Sefer No Sugar Diet thread from March, 2001

"No sugar diet//Fuzzy?"
We need to cut the sugar out of our ds's diet, due to migraines. Fuzzy, I know your son Josh is diabetic. So, could you give me an idea of what he eats?
We already eat a ton of fruits/veggies and we have changed our diet to low fat since January. However, I didn't cut out all sugar and now I need to do that as well.
Do you have some good recipes for treats of any kind that don't use sugar and are low in fat?
Does your whole family eat the same and since you have other kids, how does he handle that they can have some things that he can't?
At home, for our low fat diet, I just don't have the junk here and do have the good stuff ready and availble to eat. That solves the majority of problems before they start.
But, when we are out at someone's home and they serve brownies and ice cream, what is he supposed to do? How do you handle this? (BTW, we have a good-bye party for some Missionaries this afternoon at 3:00, and I KNOW there will be chocolate there. Chocolate is a DEFINITE no no, because of the high sugar, fat and caffeine content.
Please help!
Thanks, Lisa
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4. "RE: Lisa Jane"
Sorry to take so long to see this - I only come through this forum occasionally when I have a bit of spare time!
I wonder about a couple of things you say and will try to answer accordingly! When you say you are not allowed sugar does that mean sweet things or specifically sugar - the white processed stuff! If it is just sugar then I would suggest making cakes etc. with honey instead. It is much sweeter than sugar so you need less. You could maybe use half the amount of honey that you would sugar and you could also add some fresh fruit to your cakes - or dried fruit. we experiment quite a lot, fresh banana cake, fresh apple cake - we puree the apple and then just add it to a basic cake mix. It is great fun - we sometimes puree tinned fruit if it is in natural juices rather than syrup. Maple syrup is much the same as honey, or you could use molasses.
If on the other hand you need to cut out all sugary, sweet things then it is tough! There is sugar in everything it seems - like fruit, has fructose in; milk has lactose in etc. We have a very good book here called Erica White's Anti-Candida Cookbook. Erica is our next door neighbour and runs her own nutrition business from their house. This book really goes into detail about cutting out ALL sugar from the diet - this kills off the candida found in yeast infections. She has some great recipes and good ideas, but nothing is sweet. In about 3 months it is possible to get rid of your sweet tooth - I've never yet made it to 3 months!! In this case I think it is best to concentrate on great savoury dishes rather than try to imitate something sweet that isn't!
We have found with Josh that on the whole he doesn't mind not having sweets etc. when we bake we always use much less sugar - about half the amount - when I bake with honey it is half that again. We are all getting used to having that much less sweet things and I must admit that now there are some things that I find are too sweet - I used to have a really sweet tooth! Fortunately Josh has always been more inclined to savoury food anyway - everyone else would have a chocolate bar and he would want a bag of crisps! So it doesn't usually cause too much trouble. He is allowed small amounts of sweet things - especially if he is about to do some sort of exercise. Sometimes if he is given something sweet - say a lollipop - I will buy it off him!! If we are going somewhere where I know there will be sweet chocolatey things then we prepare before hand - I tell him how much he will be allowed so that this saves any scenes when he wants more, I might also take something along that he really likes that he is allowed plenty of. Sometimes we have had to resort to a bribe of some other treat - a non-eating one like going bowling or something.
One other thing to remember is that amongst the various sweeteners you can use instead of sugar most contain aspartame - ask Vicki about that one! Or if not that then they contain sorbitol which is actually a laxative. It is in most "diabetic" foods you can buy - which is why diabetic specialists don't recommend buying them. It needs to be used with great caution!
If you want anything more specific would you like to email me and I'll try to come up with some recipes etc. I could go on and on about this!!

Liz
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5. "RE: Lisa Jane"
Thanks, Liz! I need to talk with the doctor again, because I didn't ask about honey or molasses. I DID ask about fruit, and he said that was fine. He told us to make sure the milk was low fat, but didn't say anything about the sugar in it.
I think he wants us to cut out as much sugar as is possible for us to do. I think your life has to be lived in moderation. If I told ds he could never again have a piece of candy or cookie, he would be totally depressed (at age almost 14). If this change were coming when he was a lot younger, it would be easier.
I already cut the sugar WAY down in recipes that call for it, even in sweets.
I do need some good recipes, so I will email you.
Thanks for the info.
Lisa
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7. "RE: Lisa"
I don't really know about using applejuice concentrate - it is something we can get in the UK, but is really expensive that I never have. I would assume that it is sweet because of all the fruit sugar (fructose) in it. It is possible here to buy a packet of fructose which you use like sugar, but more sparingly as it is quite expensive. I would tend to just puree down some fresh fruit we found that really adds quite a lot of sweetness. It is a totally different taste. We also found that adding vanilla is quite good - it isn't exactly sweet but does lift a recipe - when we've been doing the no sugar at all diet, we use lots of vanilla and coconut is quite naturally sweet as well.
I would guess - if it is for the migraines - then the doctor is probably talking more about the commercial white type of sugar rather than natural sugars.
I'll be hunting out the recipe book to see what I can find! I also had some recipes somewhere for sweets made with fruits etc. that used very little actual sugar - they were really good. I'll see what I can find.

Liz
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Thank you for going to so much trouble for us! I would think also, that the doctor was talking about white table sugar, but I'm going to call and ask him what I could substitute.
I'm trying to find some really sweet fruits also, to blend down and use instead of the apple juice concentrate. They sell just fruit pulp in the freezer section here. It is nothing but blended up fruit, nothing added. But so far, I haven't found one that is really sweet.
My kids really love smoothies made with fresh fruit and yogurt, but I'm not sure how much sugar yogurt has in it. I have a lot of researching to do.
Lisa
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9. "yogurt smoothies"
if you get plain yogurt, it shouldn't have sugar. I use tofu instead of yogurt (my dd is unable to have dairy) and that has no real taste and no sugar... it just takes on the taste of the bananas and other fruit.
JOY