I have this intense craving for sugar. Before diabetes sugar never bothered me, I never ate cookies, cake, icecream or anything sugary sweet, but since going low carb I really really crave sugar. I don’t like to eat the sugar substitutes nor Stevia because they don’t taste like sugar. Is this something anyone else suffers from? Oh, I am T2.
Try fruit? Anything but bananas should be ok. A little watermelon or cantelope may help (about 1 scoop from a melon baller) (they’re low glycemic load). Did you try: crystalized fructose, agave nectar, or xylitol? Those are all sugar substitutes that are natural and ok in small amounts. (Xylitol is supposed to be good for your teeth, too). When I get sugar cravings, I usually go overboard and binge on candy. Eating fruit may help reduce sugar cravings (I’m not guaranteeing anything, though). Let me know if you need other suggestions.
I have been finding fruit so sour, but I have found out what it is, I have high blood calcium and apparently one of the symptoms is a craving for sugar. Since I never used to crave sugar or sweet things this threw me a bit. Thanks for your helpful answer.
If everything tastes sour, what you should try is a plant called miracle berry. If you coat the juice of this fruit on your tongue, everything is supposed to taste sweet for 1 1/2-2 hours (even lemons). Just order some seeds or a plant, and if you have a green thumb, this might help. I’ve never tried it, but that’s what people say.
I find that the xylitol taste the most like real sugar. I also get a diabetic sugar sub at Whole foods - its kind of pricey but it works well in my coffee. Haven’t tried making any treats with it. You can get a big bag of xylitol at most health food stores.
I don’t really have a sweet tooth either and never did. I think it because I can’t have that stuff now that i want to have some everyonce and while and I get a bad craving. A few pieces of chocolate usually help me to kick it. Even a small piece of candy (which I savor for quite a long time going nom, nom, nom.) I was very bad about a week ago and I actually had a shake! In my defense, I NEVER do this - but I swear I felt like I was drunk after. I could tell my BG was high (no point in checking I knew it was - why shock myself?) But damn, was that shake good (it was favorite flavor Creamsicile!). It was like drinking sugar drug or something! LOL! I felt like I had a few beers except i was more anxious and nervous than sleepy. 
Anyhow, that totally satisfied my sugar craving (I had a teeny cupcake too) but the consequences of dealing with the high number is enough to make me not do it very often. It is a pain to get that number down. (the shake was more worth it than the little cupcake!).
I have heard about the miracle berry. I never got a chance to try it though. I wonder if it is high in carbs?
I get that way sometimes. For me though, I think it is because I tell myself “I can’t have that” or “I shouldn’t have that” and then the more I deny myself the more likely I am to binge on it.
So- the moral of my post is: eat a little, enough to satisfy- adjust the rest of your meals to help even out (ie: Dove chocolates at 10 am snack= grilled chicken and salad for lunch) and then get right back on track.
Could it be you think you are missing out on something and that is where the craving or the INTENSITY is coming from? Something to ponder I guess…
Erythritol is the closest thing I’ve found to sugar & it doesn’t have the gastric & BG raising potential of other sugar alcohols. None of that bitter, artificial after taste either. Xylitol & malitol have a strange cooling effect taste. Agave has a higher high fructose corn syrpup profile that the sweetener in soda. What marketing bs that overpriced stuff is. Nothing natural or healthy about agave or fructose in general.
Have you tried magnesium supplements to help balance your serum calcium? Did your doc mention any reason for your high calcium?
This is going to sound odd, but when I had sugar cravings shortly after going low carb I ate dill pickles. The kind that make you pucker up. Can’t say why this worked, but it did. Don’t know how long you’ve been low carb, but my carb cravings went away after 2-3 weeks. I rarely ate anything sweet before T1. My weakness was bread & pasta.
thanks all, I will try erythritol, may have it in my local health food shop. I don’t crave carbs any more, I got over that one by reminding myself that I don’t really like potato, bread, pasta, rice. But oh! chips and curry with rice…I’ll get over that! I eat Lindt dark chocolate for the choc needs, but that is not sweet. I will try dill pickles, it does sound odd but maybe that is just what I need. Yesterday at lunch out I had a teeny tiny slice of pavlova, it was delicious and so sweetly perfect. Glad to say my blood sugars withstood the shock admirably.
Gerri my doctor did more blood and urine tests this morning, still waiting to know what it means. He says I can come next week or leave it till the week after, but I can’t wait for 2 weeks.
Curry with rice, heaven. That would do me in. Glad you got to enjoy pavlova. Bet pavlova could be turned in a low carb version. Have no idea why garlic dill pickles worked for me. Opposite of what we crave.
Erythritol is available at www.netrition.com, if your health food store doesn’t have it. It tends to clump a little, so I shake it through a small strainer. It looks like powdered sugar. If you order from netrition (flat shipping rate), Monin sugar free syrups are delicious. They’re sweetened with erythritol & Splenda & taste like the real deal. I’ve tried the blackberry & the chocolate. Most sugar free syrups taste like chemicals, but not Monin.
I’m working on chip recipes. So far, the ones I’ve made aren’t crispy enough to satisfy the crunchy need. If I hit on a good one, I’ll let you know. The parmesan & other cheese ones are easy to make, but they’re so salty.
Oddly enough, I have noticed for many years, long before I became diabetic, that if I got enough protein, I did not crave sweets. Whenever I get a craving for sweets nowadays, I make sure to eat some protein, and the craving goes away. I think, but am not sure, that it has something to do with the way protein is digested – and if there is too much sugar floating around, the protein will use it up (Krebs cycle, I think, but don’t quote me – I hope someone can explain it in more detail)
Low carb does not necessarily mean high-protein – many people are veggie lovers (not me!), and get most of their nutrition from them. Maybe you need to increase the protein?
Pavlova Recipe
All the ingredients are low carb except the sugar. The whole recipe is 20.2 carbs substituting the sugar. More carbs, of course, if you add fruit. Berries would work without adding a ton of carbs. You could have far more than a skinny slice. It won’t brown like meringue because artificial sweeteners don’t carmelize like sugar, but the taste would be close. If you use erythritol, it’s 70% as sweet as sugar. Sift before adding it to the egg whites so it will mix in evenly. I’d use Splenda & erythritol to get the right degree of sweetness.
4 large egg whites, at room temp
pinch of cream of tartar
Equivalent of 1 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 pint heavy cream (for whipped topping)
.Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Cut out a 9 " circle from parchment paper & place in 9" round baking pan. (I’d use a springform pan.)
.In a large bowl, beat egg whites & cream of tartar until stiff but not dry. Gradually add in sweetener a little at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat until thick and glossy. Overbeaten egg whites lose volume and deflate when folded into other ingredients. Be absolutely sure not a particle of grease or egg yolk gets into the whites. Gently fold in vanilla extract, lemon juice and cornstarch.
Gently spoon mixture into baking pan. Working from the center, spread mixture toward the outside edge, building edge slightly to leave. a slight depression in the center.
Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a wire rack. Remove from pan when cooled.
Beat heavy cream with sweetener & 1 tsp vanilla until stiff peaks form. Fill the center of the meringue with whipped cream.
What do you use your Monin syrups in??
Probably has something to do with that fact that you aren’t supposed to have it! We all want what we can’t have right!?lol Try some sugar free jello with tbsp of whip cream, thats what I eat, only 1 carb. I also eat the Carbsmart ice cream bars, HEAVENLY and only 9 carbs (5 “net” carbs) but I count them as 9 carbs.
Please start GENTLY with the sugar alcohols – anything that ends in -ol gives some folks wicked gastric upset.
Sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol, erythritol…they’re all a formula for disaster for me and lots of other people.
I might as well be eating an entire box of Ex-lax (sorry to be indelicate, but it’s true.)
Look up info about erythritol. It doesn’t cause gastric distress. I’ve been using it for a while & have no reaction. I can’t handle xylitol, malitol or sorbitol.
I use the blackberry swirled in cheesecake, in muffins & on almond flour pancakes. Really tastes like blackberries. I added seltzer to some syrup & it was good. I’m going to try the strawberry next for protein shakes. The chocolate isn’t as thick as something like Hershey’s syrup, but it’s got a rich chocolate flavor. I make chocolate sodas with seltzer & some cream. Called an egg cream in NYC, where I’m from. I use the chocolate syrup in any recipe that calls for chocolate in addition to cocoa powder or unsweetened baker’s chocolate for more flavor. I tried Da Vinci syrups. They taste like flavored water. Horrible.
I won’t bring xylitol into the house because it kills dogs. My dogs manage one way or another to get a bite of most things we eat, and I can’t take the chance. (I keep the chocolate locked away.)
This is gonna sound weird but I swear the xylitol (and the other diabetic sweeteners) lowers my BG numbers. Ever since I started drinking coffee again in the morning (decaf) and I have used xylitol and a few other diabetic sweetners in it my numbers are lower at 2 -3 hours than they were before when I wasn’t having the coffe with the sweetener - and I am eating the same old boring stuff for breakfast.
This is the stuff from Whole Foods I buy that I use right now:
http://www.wholesomesweeteners.com/brands/Wholesome_Sweeteners/Orga…
I like the xylitol too but the local health food shop that sells it doesn’t take Food Stamps which I am using right now. So even though this is more expensive I can at least buy it with my stamps.
None of the sugar alchohols give me stomach upset.
That said I bought the Truvia stuff to try because it was on sale and I HATE it. It has a gross aftertaste and totally ruins my coffee. Unfortunatley now I am stuck with a small box of it. bleech.
Sweetleaf and Suncrystals are other forms of stevia that you may want to try. Suncrystals has 1 gram sugar per packet and doesn’t have as strong of an aftertaste because it’s made of stevia mixed with cane sugar.
I have actually used the Sweetleaf one before and I didn’t care for it. I had to add alot of it to get a sweetness. The one they sell by me is a smaller container and it is actually kind of expensive compared to the other stuff I get which has a pretty sweet taste. The Sweetleaf one I used was like powdery and the Wholesome one I use now look and feel just like sugar. Haven’t tried the Suncrystals yet. I have seen it though. I think I remember that the carbs were higher than some of the others? Can’t remember for sure though. I know Walmart has one that is by the same people who make “Sugar in the Raw” which was the sugar I used to eat before I was dx’d - It is supposed to be a stevia one I think. Anyone seen or tried that one?