My kids get plenty of oreos, etc at their friends' houses. I do not need to keep them at home.

We are a vegetarian household, so my kids are used to grabbing clementines, grapes, (kids-sized) apples, cubed watermelon, and cheese sticks for snacks. Also some nuts.

If I kept oreos in the house I would for sure become addicted.

Good luck, op! Sounds like you’re not eating enough in the beginning of the day so then your body craves quick calories and you dive into the sweets.

Start the day with a lot of protein. 2-3 Eggs cooked with 1-2 cups of vegetables and 1-2 teaspoons of oil is very filling. Pack a salad for lunch. Lots of fresh veggies and roasted sweet potatoes or chick peas which are healthy carbs. Then add proteins like smoked salmon, tuna, rotisserie chicken, air fried tofu, deli ham. Finish with a dressing you like but isn’t insanely high in calories. Trader Joe’s has some good ones in the salad aisle (refrigerated dressings). Pack 1/4 cup nuts + 1/4 cup raisins or chopped dates for your afternoon snack. Learn to like dark chocolate instead of milk as it leads to fewer binges. Find some teas you enjoy and make it a routine to have an afternoon hot tea with a little honey.

Planning ahead is SO key. This will be your key to figuring this out. Plan ahead to have the healthy foods at home and prepped. Make sure you have time to pack your lunch and snacks. Drink lots of water. You’ve got this

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t have it in the house. Why do your kids need Oreos for their lunches?

I mean they are in K and 3rd, they take PBJ and a piece of fruit and 2 Oreos for lunch each day. I don’t want to deprive them of a normal age appropriate school lunch because their mother can’t control herself.

PB&J and a piece of fruit is an appropriate school lunch, minus the Oreos.

Normalizing daily consumption of UPFs in the form of sugar laden treats isn't a gift to your kids. Their bodies might be able to tolerate it in youth, but as they age it will be more and more of an issue. Instead of them struggling years from now to overcome a years long addiction to refined sugar laden treats, help them to establish clean eating habits now. Put two pieces of different fruits in the lunchbox - an apple and a mandarin orange, for instance. Lots of fiber attached to fructose which operates entirely differently in the body that the Oreo ingredients.

You may be right. The mindframe I’m coming from is, my own mother severely restricted treats growing up- she allowed 2 dessert items per week (so like, 2 Oreos for the week) and it made me insane for them. I’d eat sweets like crazy when I went to a friends house or at a party. The severe restriction of them made me think about them so much. I was always a thin child and a thin young adult so it wasn’t to help me lose weight it was just my own mothers strategy to teach healtny eating but it backfired

What you describe sounds very much like a person whose physiology makes her much more vulnerable to sugar than the average bear. Certainly your adult experience seems to bear that out (sorry couldn’t resist the pun). It is very likely but not entirely guaranteed that your kids will inherit this sensitivity from you.

Watch Dr. Lustig’s YT video Sugar: The Bitter Truth https://youtu.be/dBnniua6-oM?si=8Q7RxxNj2kxXWzLw

It is long and has some complex biochemistry discussion but it is entirely comprehensible by any person of average intelligence and it will, hopefully, motivate you to really want to tackle this beast for yourself and to change the habits your kids have been forming while they are still young and more easily adaptable.

They may still canoodle cookies from their friends at lunch. As they they get older they may spend their allowance on sugar laden treats on the sly, or stuff their faces at friend’s houses. But the habits they form daily in your sugar free home will have the greater impact and will certainly go a long way to preserve their metabolic health in their youth, which will help them even if they go off the rails in adulthood.

Sugar is highly addictive. Very seriously addictive. People hate to hear that because so many of us consume so much of it. But we are addicting our kids to a dangerous substance which has just as much potential to destroy their health as the drugs that parents don’t think twice about prohibiting and punishing use of.

Two other resources you might look at for motivation and education are the documentaries Fed Up and Fat Fiction.

There are different clean eating diets that work for people, some swear by Keto or Paleo, others by plant based or even full vegan, some swear by Mediterranean. What all of those diets have in common is that they are absent ultra processed foods and almost entirely absent refined sugar as well.

Sugar is a drug. You are an addict.

I am not shaming you, I am an addict too - and I got the genes from alcoholic parents and did you know that in the liver, alcohol and sugar are just about exactly the same? Dr. Lustig explains the biochemistry in his video I linked. Today in America there is more NAFLD than alcoholic fatty liver disease, because there are more sugar addicts than alcoholics. But both versions ultimately destroy health and cause premature death.

On some level you’ve got to deal with what’s in your head that drives the disease, but I know from experience that abstinence and recovery of metabolic health make it much easier to do the mental work. You cannot therapy your way out of sugar addiction, because the power of biochemistry is stronger than ‘willpower.’

Mental health begins in the gut, there is really no distinction between the two systems as all the newest obesity research is teaching us. A healthy gut fed with whole food and lots of fiber produces serotonin (the gut is the repository of 95% of serotonin production) and that lays the basis for better mental health which gives us much more strength to avoid the candy aisle and the bakery section and the table in the break room where all our kindly coworkers put their baked goods and other sweet treats.

Anyway sending you hugs and encouragement. Like other addictions, sugar addiction is never cured and over done with gone - especially not when we have to live in a toxic food environment. It’s a lifelong process to stay in recovery. But it is worth it, it really is. When you eat clean you feel better, and you also recognize more readily how much your body doesn’t really want sugar by how it feels when you fall off the wagon for a day or two or at the holidays etc.

Hang in there and keep trying.

Not pp but I'm interested in this. What does he say about carbs like pasta and bread?

Dr. Lustig is a pediatric endocrinologist who is highly esteemed and worked with patients suffering childhood obesity - in the video which is of a lecture to other medical professionals in 2013 he talks about how there is an epidemic of obesity in six month old babies, and that obesity is clearly not a choice but a result of metabolic disorders. He believes that sugar is a toxin and that the rise of sugar consumption since the 1980s when we were all told to eat low fat for heart health and food manufacturers replaced fat with sugar in processed foods is the primary cause of the obesity epidemic. To the extent that white breads and white pastas break down into sugar in the body, he would not be a fan. As he says, in nature where you find sugar it is packaged with the antidote - fiber. So whole fruit is healthy because while it has fructose it has fiber to slow the absorption - whereas fruit juice removes the fiber and dumps sugar straight into the liver.

The video is very educational - it is well worth taking the time to watch, maybe the next time you are food prepping or doing some other chore that you can play a YouTube in the background.

He also has three excellent books, the latest one called Metabolical which is an analysis and criticism of both the food system and the healthcare system in America.

Until recently he hasn’t been selling anything - he did just recently launch a company that makes fiber supplements for people who won’t eat fiber - but be doesn’t push this. He’s really all about trying to educate people to reclaim their own health and he’s definitely zealous about anti-sugar advocacy. He doesn’t endorse any diet approach because he recognizes we are all different, but cutting out all or nearly all added and refined sugars is his mantra.

Whole grain breads and pastas can be part of a healthy diet, assuming you can tolerate them without being triggered to overconsumption. We are all different and some of us have more psychological issues with food than others.

Today I started my day with a bowl of my curry, the last serving of the batch. My curry is tomato sauce based and has a little bit of chicken but is mostly onions, sweet peppers, dark chickpeas, spinach, garlic and tons of healthy spices including lots of cayenne and arbol chilis - capsaicin fuels metabolism and has other health benefits and I love heat in my food anyway. I have my curry over whole grain brown rice which is cooked then cooled and reheated, which increases the resistant starch and feeds a happy gut biome.

Typically a bowl of my curry keeps me satiated for hours and hours - if I have a large serving, it can be my OMAD and I just supplement with nuts and fruit for snacks.

I was still full from my curry when I took a nice walk at the park with my dog a few hours later. But an hour or two after that, I found myself picking up an online order from Burger King and eating that, even though I knew it would make me feel gross and I would stop enjoying it before I was even done eating it and then I would suffer acid reflux and some self loathing in the aftermath.

I typically do better, but I sometimes really struggle because I live in a very obesegenic environment - my home is just a few blocks from a commercial area with no fewer than a dozen fast food and pizza and bbq joints and also convenience stores with all the candy. If I get an urge which nowadays is entirely emotional, it is far too easy to indulge.

I’m working on it and tomorrow I will do better than I did today. At least my gut and brain got one really good serving of healthy foods today. Now my goal is to eat clean the rest of the week, one day at a time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t have it in the house. Why do your kids need Oreos for their lunches?

I mean they are in K and 3rd, they take PBJ and a piece of fruit and 2 Oreos for lunch each day. I don’t want to deprive them of a normal age appropriate school lunch because their mother can’t control herself.

PB&J and a piece of fruit is an appropriate school lunch, minus the Oreos.

Normalizing daily consumption of UPFs in the form of sugar laden treats isn't a gift to your kids. Their bodies might be able to tolerate it in youth, but as they age it will be more and more of an issue. Instead of them struggling years from now to overcome a years long addiction to refined sugar laden treats, help them to establish clean eating habits now. Put two pieces of different fruits in the lunchbox - an apple and a mandarin orange, for instance. Lots of fiber attached to fructose which operates entirely differently in the body that the Oreo ingredients.

You may be right. The mindframe I’m coming from is, my own mother severely restricted treats growing up- she allowed 2 dessert items per week (so like, 2 Oreos for the week) and it made me insane for them. I’d eat sweets like crazy when I went to a friends house or at a party. The severe restriction of them made me think about them so much. I was always a thin child and a thin young adult so it wasn’t to help me lose weight it was just my own mothers strategy to teach healtny eating but it backfired

What you describe sounds very much like a person whose physiology makes her much more vulnerable to sugar than the average bear. Certainly your adult experience seems to bear that out (sorry couldn’t resist the pun). It is very likely but not entirely guaranteed that your kids will inherit this sensitivity from you.

Watch Dr. Lustig’s YT video Sugar: The Bitter Truth https://youtu.be/dBnniua6-oM?si=8Q7RxxNj2kxXWzLw

It is long and has some complex biochemistry discussion but it is entirely comprehensible by any person of average intelligence and it will, hopefully, motivate you to really want to tackle this beast for yourself and to change the habits your kids have been forming while they are still young and more easily adaptable.

They may still canoodle cookies from their friends at lunch. As they they get older they may spend their allowance on sugar laden treats on the sly, or stuff their faces at friend’s houses. But the habits they form daily in your sugar free home will have the greater impact and will certainly go a long way to preserve their metabolic health in their youth, which will help them even if they go off the rails in adulthood.

Sugar is highly addictive. Very seriously addictive. People hate to hear that because so many of us consume so much of it. But we are addicting our kids to a dangerous substance which has just as much potential to destroy their health as the drugs that parents don’t think twice about prohibiting and punishing use of.

Two other resources you might look at for motivation and education are the documentaries Fed Up and Fat Fiction.

There are different clean eating diets that work for people, some swear by Keto or Paleo, others by plant based or even full vegan, some swear by Mediterranean. What all of those diets have in common is that they are absent ultra processed foods and almost entirely absent refined sugar as well.

Sugar is a drug. You are an addict.

I am not shaming you, I am an addict too - and I got the genes from alcoholic parents and did you know that in the liver, alcohol and sugar are just about exactly the same? Dr. Lustig explains the biochemistry in his video I linked. Today in America there is more NAFLD than alcoholic fatty liver disease, because there are more sugar addicts than alcoholics. But both versions ultimately destroy health and cause premature death.

On some level you’ve got to deal with what’s in your head that drives the disease, but I know from experience that abstinence and recovery of metabolic health make it much easier to do the mental work. You cannot therapy your way out of sugar addiction, because the power of biochemistry is stronger than ‘willpower.’

Mental health begins in the gut, there is really no distinction between the two systems as all the newest obesity research is teaching us. A healthy gut fed with whole food and lots of fiber produces serotonin (the gut is the repository of 95% of serotonin production) and that lays the basis for better mental health which gives us much more strength to avoid the candy aisle and the bakery section and the table in the break room where all our kindly coworkers put their baked goods and other sweet treats.

Anyway sending you hugs and encouragement. Like other addictions, sugar addiction is never cured and over done with gone - especially not when we have to live in a toxic food environment. It’s a lifelong process to stay in recovery. But it is worth it, it really is. When you eat clean you feel better, and you also recognize more readily how much your body doesn’t really want sugar by how it feels when you fall off the wagon for a day or two or at the holidays etc.

Hang in there and keep trying.

Not pp but I'm interested in this. What does he say about carbs like pasta and bread?

That's candy bowl, lol. Gotta love autofill.

I have had an eating disorder from childhood.
Who knows why.
Sure sweets are fun to binge on and then restrict, but I will do that with cabbage too.
I found Eating Disorders Anonymous to be a reasonable approach to ending my binges for the most part.
Trying to control stuff like with Weight Watchers or OA made me crazier. Trying to be intuitive left me serenely face down in the canyon bowl.
Your mileage may vary. EDA is on Zoom.
I wish you all the best.

Anonymous wrote:Read Glucose Revolution. You are having cravings due to glucose rollercoaster.

More likely she is having cravings for sugar because her diet lacks an appropriate amount of carbohydrates to function.

Anonymous wrote:Read Glucose Revolution. You are having cravings due to glucose rollercoaster.

Her instagram is super helpful (Glucose Goddess). I implemented her hacks this week as I’m trying to reduce my sugar.

Read Glucose Revolution. You are having cravings due to glucose rollercoaster.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t have it in the house. Why do your kids need Oreos for their lunches?

I mean they are in K and 3rd, they take PBJ and a piece of fruit and 2 Oreos for lunch each day. I don’t want to deprive them of a normal age appropriate school lunch because their mother can’t control herself.

They can have a few grapes. Oreos are not a right.

Thanks for the support everyone. I was in a very low place yesterday. Today I’ve eaten the nuts/ dates, a full fat plain Greek yogurt, half a cup of blackberries, a cauliflower thin with 2 laughing cows and I feel full and fine and normal. Helps that I’m at work I think. And no candies sitting out today. Fingers crossed I can get through the evening too.

Anonymous wrote:Ok guys, well I ate a handful of nuts and 2 dates for breakfast (I know the dates are high in natural sugar but I had to rush to work after the morning school drop off and didn’t have time to sit for the plain Greek yogurt I was hoping to have). Packed food for my whole shift- plain Greek yogurt, blackberries, cauliflower thins from TJs with some laughing cow cheese, more nuts, and some raisins. Realizing now I should have packed more fiber. But my shift is only 8 hours so I plan to have dinner at home…. Hoping I can control myself and eat the salad with tuna on top I have planned

Best of luck to you OP! I struggle with the same issue of craving sugar and appreciate your willingness to post about it. I’ve been trying to cut it back/out and feel like a failure every time I over indulge.

Thank you to the poster who responded nicely with all the info about sugar addiction. It was eye opening and hopefully change my mindset to help me through the next 2 months.

They are always tough for me as we have lot of birthdays so there’s always cake and extra sweets around. I’m not going to skip having a small piece of cake during the party, but hope to resist the temptation to eat the leftovers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t have it in the house. Why do your kids need Oreos for their lunches?

I mean they are in K and 3rd, they take PBJ and a piece of fruit and 2 Oreos for lunch each day. I don’t want to deprive them of a normal age appropriate school lunch because their mother can’t control herself.

My kids are normal and they don't get oreos at lunch. They get junk food for sure and we are not strict, but oreos at lunch isn't necessary or even normal at their school.

OP, I've been there. I can't keep it in the house. I sometimes drink bubbly water, chew gum, etc. WRT candy at work, I just have to make a rule that I can't eat any at all. If I let myself have one, then I eat it all, all day long.

Also, my parents didn't really restrict treats, but I still went crazy and I still eat and drink whatever is in the house if it's good. It's just my personality. My ADHD may or may not have something to do with that (probably definitely yes).

Something that has helped me is keeping moderate versions of treats around. For me, a yogurt with a smattering of chocolate chips gives me the sweet taste I need, while having protein. I buy individual servings, which are more expensive, so that I can control it better.

For salty treats, I do the same thing, but individual servings of popcorn with salt. Or yogurt dip which I have with veggies.

Ok guys, well I ate a handful of nuts and 2 dates for breakfast (I know the dates are high in natural sugar but I had to rush to work after the morning school drop off and didn’t have time to sit for the plain Greek yogurt I was hoping to have). Packed food for my whole shift- plain Greek yogurt, blackberries, cauliflower thins from TJs with some laughing cow cheese, more nuts, and some raisins. Realizing now I should have packed more fiber. But my shift is only 8 hours so I plan to have dinner at home…. Hoping I can control myself and eat the salad with tuna on top I have planned