Culinary developments chez Excalibur.

[Excalibur]

Jeanette is now pursuing a sugar free diet with religious zeal. To that end, she's bought a new cookbook packed full of delicious sugar free recipes, raided Tesco for all manner of exotic ingredients ( or nearest alternatives ) and set about cooking up some treats for us this morning.

Things did not turn out like the pictures.

All her good work has bypassed the taste test, and gone straight to the bin.

We're binning this book, and Davina's will be here tomorrow in it's place. Let's see if that brings better results. I'll keep you posted.

P.S. If anyone else is already treading this path successfully, feel free to post links to recipes here.

[Benny Smyth]

I'll keep you posted.

How's it going?

Mrs. B is looking to go sugar free. God help me.

[Excalibur]

How's it going?

Poor to mixed. Jeanette spent an afternoon making recipes from the first book, and I never got to sample any! They all went straight to the bin. We then got Davina's book, and we've had moderate success with those recipes. Moderate.

The problem with all these " sugar free " recipes is that all they do do is substitute natural sugars for refined sugar.

[Benny Smyth]

Mrs. B is trying to lose weight and she's falling into the fads of 'six meals a day', 'only drink water before a morning run' etc. Last month it was no carbs. Now she wants no sugar.

If you're an athlete then yes, these things do make the world a difference the same way that a boxer walking to a ring wrapped in tin foil makes the difference to him/her. The thing is though, is that for the normal Joe public, we don't need this whole refinement level of training and such. The equation is very simple for a normal person who's not an athlete to lose weight - less food, more moving.

But will she listen to me?

[Excalibur]

But will she listen to me?

Rhetorical question?

[rth_discos]

There is definitely a strong argument for reducing sugar in our diets.

The fault lies at the "fat is bad" theory that came out in the 80s or 90s. So fat was replaced with sugar. Look a low-fat meals and see how high the sugar content is.

We need to go back to a high fat, low sugar diet.

The danger is, we'll end up with high fat, high sugar diets!

More does need to be done to remove refined sugar from foods.

I need to make more of an effort to stick to the natural sugars.

[Imagine]

Everything in moderation I say (hic!)

Let's face it, back in the 1970s and 1980s it was a different way of life. I grew up on stuff cooked in the frying pan and deep fat fryer (it's pretty much all my mother knew how to use)....BUT...

Work back then (not that I started work until the late 80s) was more manual. A lot less people spent their time in front of computer screens and hardly moving. A lot more people actually walked and cycled to get to places as well. Even things like housework and domestic chores involved a lot more manual labour than they do now.

As a kid, I did this thing called playing outside with my mates. I'd disappear early in the morning, and come home in time for dinner in the evening, unlike my own son who gets up, turns on X-Box, eats, plays more games and then goes back to bed.

Back then when we were eating more fat - we were also burning it off!

There is only one way to keep the weight off....and unfortunately that means putting in the effort and moving around

[CRAZY K]

Jeanette is now pursuing a sugar free diet with religious zeal. To that end, she's bought a new cookbook packed full of delicious sugar free recipes, raided Tesco for all manner of exotic ingredients ( or nearest alternatives ) and set about cooking up some treats for us this morning.

Things did not turn out like the pictures.

All her good work has bypassed the taste test, and gone straight to the bin.

We're binning this book, and Davina's will be here tomorrow in it's place. Let's see if that brings better results. I'll keep you posted.

P.S. If anyone else is already treading this path successfully, feel free to post links to recipes here.

The one thing everyone giving advice in this area forgets----you can take sugar out the products--

BUT THEY TASTE CRA...

I find actually eating less generally works--if you have WILLPOWER.

I WILL BE PRACTISING WHAT I PREACH NEXT WEEK when I get back from Hols and don't eat 3 meals a day and drink for England.

What can you expect on an all inclusive deal--doh!

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Mrs. B is trying to lose weight and she's falling into the fads of 'six meals a day', 'only drink water before a morning run' etc. Last month it was no carbs. Now she wants no sugar.

If you're an athlete then yes, these things do make the world a difference the same way that a boxer walking to a ring wrapped in tin foil makes the difference to him/her. The thing is though, is that for the normal Joe public, we don't need this whole refinement level of training and such. The equation is very simple for a normal person who's not an athlete to lose weight - less food, more moving.

But will she listen to me?

If she's trying to lose weight then get the "my fitness pal" app to track foods. I've lost two stone since January thanks to running and living off "City Kitchen" and an evening stir fry (chicken,turkey,pork) with beansprouts and some stir fry mix. I still "snack" and have a take away pizza once every two weeks so I don't feel like I'm living like a pigeon but getting results.

[Corabar Steve]

Get yourself a spiralizer &cookbook to go with it. You'll barely touch sugar apart from what occurs in the veg.