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Comment by dataviz1000 | Hacker News Reader

As a joke, I boycotted sugar for nearly 1 year protesting the mismanagement of land and water resources in South Florida by the sugar industry and the environmental destruction they cause. I doubt I changed anything other than my health in noticeable beneficial ways including weight loss and lower blood pressure. Like recent deadly spikes in covid transmission in Louisiana and Florida, people in both states don't care about the death caused by unmanaged agricultural runoff from the sugar industry either. Last year Louisiana was hit by several hurricanes which oxygenated the coastal waters so the dead zone decreased[0]. This is an odd benefit if climate change causes stronger or more frequent storms, although I read somewhere that there is an equilibrium for the maximum intensity and possible frequency for large storms.

https://www.nola.com/news/environment/article_02d39f24-d66c-...

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I cut out sugar about two years ago. I recently had blood work for a yearly physical (almost 2 years later than it should have been). All my levels (cholesterol, triglycerides, etc.) were significantly better than before.

Highly recommended.

I've mostly cut out processed sugar, with a few holdouts. It was hard at first to give up sweet tea, but now that I've done it I just found sweet tea tastes weird.

The last (big) holdout I have is with protein bars. I can't seem to find any, let alone any with decent amounts of protein, without sugar or even more sugar alcohols. So right now I stick to a set of pure protein that has only 2g of added sugars and 2g of sugar proteins. All the rest of my sugar is natural (usually from bananas or other fruit), and I still manage to keep it under 30g a day for the most part.

It's made a tremendous difference not only in my health, but also my body shape I've found. I'm still getting the same amount of exercise as I used to, but as the weight falls off it seems to be more fat than muscle. It's also forced me to eat somewhat better, though I still do too much processed stuff (I just check it for sugar first).

Search for keto bars. A big explosion of selection in the last couple of years.

Have you looked into Quest protein bars? Lots of protein and no sugar.

I haven't heard of those. I'll look into them and see if any are at my local Kroger. But I'm fixing to move countries so I hope I can find better options there. I know other stuff has less sugar than America (bread was a real pain in the ass to find without sugar!)

I dream of cutting out sugar - but it would ruin most coffees for me! I measure my sugar to coffee ratios in seconds poured. I like my sugar with coffee and cream!

If you are interested in cutting sugar out of your coffee, I would suggest maximizing the quality of your coffee while you adjust. I would recommend trying single origin coffee from Central America. These have fruity and sweet flavors, and are a good place to start with black coffee. It also helps to have some to help explain what you should be tasting.

This is at least how I (accidentally) ended up switching to black coffee. Ymmv.

Likewise. After falling into the coffee rabbit hole in the pandemic, I’ve accidentally discovered coffee does in fact taste good. You don’t need to go as deep as I did with an espresso machine and roasting my own beans, but having freshly roasted beans and a v60 dripper is a cheap, sub-$40 way to get good coffee that is sweet enough on its own that it doesn’t need to be balanced with milk and sugar.

I second this — I love the taste of quality black coffee but the bad stuff really does need help (for me some cream). It can be a huge difference. Also the origin — this is a subjective thing, but I agree with the parent that single origin Central American is ideal by my tastes. Nicaraguan medium-dark roast, freshly roasted and ground. (Freshness is also very important).

I am the opposite. Sugar or cream in my coffee ruins the coffee for me.

Give it a try maybe, you'll find that a lot of coffee has really rich flavour that you're burying under the sweet sugar.

You don't need to do all or nothing. Even if you just cut it out everywhere except your coffee you'll already be making a significant and healthy change for the better.

The first step is the hardest. It will not take long to get used to it.

This is very easy to fix. Just taper off over a long period of time. I’ve quit coffee temporarily (reset) many times this way.

I’ll benchmark my current consumption on a scale. Then I’ll make a spreadsheet that reduces it over a period of two weeks gradually, until hitting zero.

You can adjust the duration to a month or whatever you feel comfortable with.

From a health perspective, simply use allulose instead of sucrose. It tastes exactly the same but is non digestible.

Same here, but with tea. I drink tea with milk and 1 sugar. I keep trying without sugar but its just undrinkable.

High quality loose leaf teas taste great on their own.

If you get your tea from a grocery store, chances are you're getting the lowest grade of tea (tea dust).

Seconds poured? That sounds terribly unhealthy. Not as bad as drinking soda, but close.

Once you go black, you won't want to go back. How are you brewing your coffee?

Try it for 30 days.

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