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Comment by msabalau | Hacker News Reader

The author identifies "resetting sugar-addled taste buds" and becoming mindful of how many foods have added sugar as benefits. Having gone without sugar for a month, I can affirm that both of these things were true. And, of course, willing abstinence from certain foods is a part of many spiritual traditions.

Given that the author is suggesting that interested people undertake this as a month long exercise, and only claims to have undertaken this exercise twice, it is not clear why you are characterizing this as an extreme diet.

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The resetting the taste buds effect is amazing. Several months ago, I started trimming back my sugar intake, with a goal of putting almost none of it in food I make myself, and generally avoiding dessert-type items.

What I've found is that restaurant food all tastes incredibly sweet. All of it. There has to be so much sugar they're putting in food, and I just used to be used to eating that much.

Getting a chai-type beverage, if they add sweetener at all, it's wayyyyyy too much. I've started requesting no sweetener in my chais, and that now tastes normal to me.

I still eat fruit, but no more than one piece a day. Even a whole apple often feels like a little too much sweet for me.

The biggest take-away I have from all this is just how easy it is to get accustomed to foods, one way or another.

The biggest benefit has been weight loss and having my energy throughout the day feel almost totally steady and even now. Even when I get hungry, it's a sensation I can mostly delay gratification of, where I used to get crazy and distracted from hunger.

Salt is another big one - if you go on a low-sodium diet for a while, many "normal" (American, at least) foods start to taste super salty.

My wife and I cook quite a lot at home, and tend to under-sweeten and under-salt things compared to the status quo, and my perception is that we're both much more sensitive to salt and sugar levels in foods we don't prepare as a result.

Unless your home cooking involves processed foods or you get your sodium elsewhere, you would need to add salt to what you cook, otherwise you're going to harm yourself.

Sodium is essential to being healthy; the reason it's made out to be a big deal is due to how much processed food the average person eats. It's almost as though it's assumed that people are going to eat processed food regularly.

We add salt, we just don't add as much as "normal". We generally cut salt from a recipe about in half, or skip it if we're adding another salted component (ie, salted butter, bullion, etc). Salt is generally added as a finisher to the recipe to enhance the flavor profile, rather than just throwing a bunch of it in to start out with. We're definitely aware of the value of electrolytes.

We're not anti-salt or anything, we just tend to use less of it than recipes call for, and the effects has been that we notice oversalting more in other foods.

This sounds like a bad way to salt, depending on what you're cooking. I think it's better to salt parts of the dish independently during cooking. That brings out flavors individually like the dish intends. Salting at the end tends to make something taste salty rather than just enhance flavor.

Apparent saltiness increases when you use it to finish because it's usually consumed before it's dissolved into or been absorbed by the media. If you salt very much at the end of cooking, especially for liquids, use less than you think is needed, and give it good time to mingle and meld.

We still use salt in the cooking process, just less than usually indicated. It's easy to make something saltier, but it's pretty hard to take it out once it's in there. :)

Exactly, its very important to get enough sodium. Cook your own meals and add salt.

For anyone who works out or is starting to its good to remember you lose salts while you sweat as well.

I throw a pinch of salt into my post-workout protein shakes exactly for that reason - replenishing lost electrolytes is really important for recovery.

Sodium is normally in protein shake, and certainly in sports drinks.

The body needs around 1/4 of a teaspoon of salt every day. Most people get that without adding any salt to their food.

Y'know, I wish one of these personalised biometrics startups would come up with a good way of telling me whether I'm getting enough X or too much Y personally, rather than just as a statistical artefact. Because I have a "salt tooth" and occasionally wonder if this represents some mineral deficiency.

Indeed, I've had a similar experience. Almost a year ago, I decided to eliminate butter from my diet. I'm now capable of enjoying a nice piece of plain toast (on homemade bread), which I never thought I would. My family has always cooked with relatively little fat, salt, and sugar.

As a result of that, and some other dietary changes, I'm also 25 pounds lighter.

Today, almost all restaurant food tastes way too salty and sweet, with the worst offender being pizza. I've noticed that one by one, even the independent or local pizza places have added more and more sugar to the crust and sauce.

I've had the same experience. I am Type 2 diabetic, officially diagnosed a few years ago (I'll be 40 in a few months), and six months ago I cut out any added sugar. Now the slightest bit of added sugar gives me a stomach ache and a feeling of nausea.

I don't crave it at all any more, and my doc said I probably added ten years to my life just doing that. I also lost over 20 pounds the first month and with exercise I could probably convert another 10-20 to muscle and bone weight.

I also don't get "sick" as often, as in I've had only one chest cold since I started this diet, whereas in the past I'd have had two or three at least by now. Anecdotal, I know, but it's been a huge boost to my quality of life.

Type 2 here, as well. Care to share your experience with this, offline? This is a huge struggle for me.

Type I diabetic.

I am convinced that a real change is a lot more realistic when it is part of a larger lifestyle change. Habits are hard to break one by one because they reinforce eachother.

I suggest that you collect all your bad habits together and break them all at once. Or, with the next change in your life (new city, new job, marriage, first child) also change your diet.

It sounds harder but I think it's easier. Baby waking you up three times in one night, and you won't care how food tastes anyway.

I think a big enough change triggers something in your mind that says "this is how life is now".

Another tip is that embarassment and disgust are powerful emotions, so use them. When I got married I was literally too embarrassed to keep my old diet. And if you think about it the right way, sugar everywhere is disgusting. It makes your mouth sticky causes rapid bacterial growth and bad breath.

There's not much more to say, other than the worst part for me was giving up coffee. I'm a coffee fiend, and right about the time I started grinding my own beans and getting into some really good brands, I made the decision to cut out sugar. I have tried using artificial sweeteners but it's just not the same; it kills the natural flavor of the coffee and most artificial sweeteners don't agree with me (not to be gross but severe gastrointestinal issues with every sweetener I've tried).

I do occasionally still have black coffee or with just half and half, but that is too much temptation to put "just one spoonful of sugar" in there, and I have to make myself stop.

It has also been difficult giving up cooking desserts; I love to bake and I also enjoy cooking Asian cuisine, which (depending on the dish) can be very sugar-dependent. There are a few fruit-based desserts that don't require much or any added sugar, but when you're diabetic even the natural sugars from fruit can be harmful.

I've never liked sugar in my coffee. H&H is enough to make it smooth. I think, like everything, it take a few tries until you get used to the new taste, and forget the sugar-coffee taste.

> Even a whole apple often feels like a little too much sweet for me.

I had to switch to Granny Smith and similar. If you don't mind the acidity, they are a real treat :)

A lot of Europeans have this reaction on coming to the US, that all the food is way too sweet.

I legitimately puckered and my chest felt tight when I had some drinks in SFO. Even the iced tea tasted like pure sugar. I stuck to tap water after that.

Coming back to the US for a conference a few years ago we got some "fresh lemonade" type drinks at the San Francisco airport. They were so sweet they made my teeth hurt, I couldn't have more than a sip. I had a hard time believing people drink this stuff on a regular basis, but there were lots of people in the store drinking larger cups of what looked like the same drink!

Drinks like lemonade in the US are bad :( I just drink unsweetened ice tea most of the time, almost everything else you get from restaurants/fast food outlets would be way over-sweetened. Fortunately more and more place started having unsweetened ice tea. There are other drinks that can be made with minimal or no sugar but it's hit-or-miss.

I've had this experience with candy. Like Snickers and Butterfingers... They're so sweet there's a burning sensation in my mouth whenever I've tried eating them. I swear they're _much_ sweeter than they were when I was a kid. The only candy I can eat these days without the burning sensation are the relatively low sugar types of chocolate. But all the mainstream stuff is totally unappealing because it's too sweet.

I've reduced carbs/sugar in the early part of the day (I'm not quite so rigorous at dinner), because I was getting really sleepy in the middle of the afternoon. Fixed that problem, but also had the unexpected benefit you mentioned-- no more "hangry", just my body gently telling me to eat at some point.

Years ago when I was 320lbs the first step toward living healthier was cutting out sugar drinks. I lost 20lbs within 3-6 months without making any other changes. On the rare occasion I drink a sugary drink now I never finish it because I find the sugar to be overwhelming and too sweet.

Abstaining from sugar really does help reset your preferences; give it a try.

(I made other subsequent changes and got down to 250; moving to SF meant walking more and I got down to 220, though I switched jobs to a South Bay tech company and have started creeping back up since it is far less walkable down there.)

Agree, I've eliminated most sugar-added food and it's easier than you think once you get over initial short period. I still eat sugar-added foods sometimes - mainly sweets, I really love sweets :) but do it rarely and consciously. Just as one would consume any other substance that is not good for you but can be enjoyed in moderation if you are careful - alcohol, etc...

It is fascinating how much sugar some foods have - if you imagine making them yourself and putting like two tablespoons of sugar into a cup... now that just sounds weird and somewhat disgusting. Some over-sugared foods I just can't eat. But it's not a big loss. For many foods there are substitutes that taste even better (at least once your brain is over the "good = sugar" mindset), others you can just do without. Nothing extreme here.

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