New cravings after weeks of low carb

[Kristin251]

Wow @Kristin251 - amazing story about the kid!

I don't feel like junk, BUT I do have an ongoing issue, cause unknown and treatment for which didn't work, which might possibly be explained, if I thought about it long enough, by consumption of artificial sweeteners. Might have to go cold turkey to see if it makes a difference........ it's something that I think about now and again, but never do quite manage to put aside the sugar-free squash, diet ginger beer or no-added sugar strawberry jelly with yoghurt and Splenda on top!

If it's intestinal related like IBS then you should notice a difference almost immediately.

No idea what sugar free squash is haha. Wine or spirits instead of ginger beer ( I know, not the same but a white wine might be closer) blueberrries instead of jelly. Cinnamon on top.

Get used to it !!! Hahaha.

Seriously, if it's the sweeteners ( well known for intestinal issues) you should notice after one day and only get better after. If you ditch it, then add it back and have the same issues you'll have your answer!

 

[Snapsy]

If it's intestinal related like IBS then you should notice a difference almost immediately.

Thankfully I've got a brilliant digestive system and am very grateful - friends of mine have issues of that ilk and I'm so glad I don't!

The issue I have is a persistent crawling sensation in my head but with no evidence as to what is causing it (I've been checked out, nothing came up, thankfully). I can cope with it. Some of the reading I did when it first started some years ago (thanks, Dr Google) made me think that artificial sweeteners might be an issue, but I haven't gone any further with it.

 

[Snapsy]

Wine or spirits instead of ginger beer ( I know, not the same but a white wine might be closer)

Ginger beer isn't alcoholic, but I like the direction you're going with this!!!

 

[Kristin251]

Ginger beer isn't alcoholic, but I like the direction you're going with this!!!

Lol.

I do know artificial sweeteners are linked to dementia and stroke. All brain related.

I would assume ditching them for a few days will give you some answers.

Lucky!!! My digestion stinks. It loves protein and fats but hates carbs. I can easily go without sugars, starches etc but I would love to eat more veggies. Actually it doesn't like a lot of anything !!! Sure makes the food bill affordable.

 

[Lampman]

Interesting thread. I have been very lucky and not had specific cravings. I do get hungry sometimes, and a small piece of cheese helps with that. I stopped drinking diet cola at first, but I drink it again now. No effects noticed, with or without. In fact there has only been one moment that I had a "normal" reaction to food that I used to like sometimes. I went to collect my wife from my daughters house after they had been out together. They were all eating fish and chips as I arrived, and the smell aroused that old feeling just for a moment. Ten seconds later, I was no longer interested. I had to explain what I was laughing about and I suspect nobody else understood!

 

[charliebarker]

I remember seeing a TV program some time ago when the divided people into 3 groups, the groups where given

• Water
• Coke
• Diat Coke

To drink before having access to a room with unlimited food, have had not eaten for a few hours. It was monitored how much each person ate.

• The people who drink the water ate the least,
• The people with the full sugar coke had the next highest intake of calories including the suger in the coke.
• The people who had the diat coke ate the most calories by a large amount.

The researchers think that that taste of sugar resulted in the brain expecting to get lots of carbs and the brain was not happy until it got all the carbs it was expecting…. It could even be that the taste of sugar results in insulin being released.

Yes, I think it might well have been that - as that's the only thing that changed - apart from the stinking cold - which is going. However, now have masses of stress and BS rising a bit, which is annoying me - (which of course is totally counterproductive !! as more stress is being caused by the fact that I'm stressed ! aaargh ! haven't had diet coke since I posted originally - can't say that cravings have totally gone, but could be diminished.

 

[charliebarker]

Having an infection can make BG go high. I find that even minor infections can cause high readings. As is the character of diabetes, different things affect people in different ways, but I wouldn't mind betting that the initial sugar spike has set off these carb desires.

Didn't have an initial spike, just the cravings.....

 

[ringi]

Try a 24hr fast, when you don't eat between dinner one day and dinner the next day, this may be enough to get you back on track.

 

[WackyJacky64]

I can't cope with the low carb diet i feel weak and tired . I eat carbs and my blood readings are always 6.4 -7.6 no matter how many carbs i eat . I've lost 2 stone since my diagnosis in March this year .
I don't know what my blood result will be but losing weight has to help and my blood readings are pretty good i would say .

 

[Deakint]

Diagnosed with type 2 just under three months ago. Doc suggested I try 3 months of diet and exercise. Started low carb diet immediately, testing on average eight times a day. weight started to drop off, but bs didn't start to drop until I started skipping breakfast and keeping my carb intake to about 30g a day. Anyway, everything was going swimmingly until about a week ago....masses of energy, lost 25 lbs, BS averages down from the 13's to the high 6's (still a way to go!). Suddenly, after not feeling overly hungry or craving carbs at all, I'm suddenly thinking about food all the time again and craving sugar!! Help!! My willpower is rubbish and I was so thrilled that the low carb diet wasn't leaving me hungry! Haven't changed my diet and can't think what's causing the change.

In my experience cravings can occur when people reduce the carbs but don't increase the fats. Very low carb (<50g/day) can only be sustainable if you eat fat to fullness e.g. butter on veg, olive oil on salad, fatty meats, eggs, cheese and cream. Another thing that reduces sugar cravings is adding more salt to your food. When doing low carb you take in less salt and also excrete more in the urine - therefore you do need to add more to the food you eat. Enjoy more natural fats and salt and this should help the sugar cravings to disappear - enjoy!

 

[nannoo_bird]

All my life my downfall has been my sweet tooth. I low carb now, but have tried without success to halt the sweet cravings. I know they go hand in hand with anxiety, and I eat sugar free sweets when I need them. I know I should cut them out, but my anxiety prevents me ... I am trying though.

 

[Dollydimple55]

There have been hints on this thread that your cravings may stem from supposedly healthy sugar free foods and that would be 100% correct!

I have suffered the last 4 + years with the following symptoms which I found out was due to consuming sweeteners - mainly aspartame in Vit C tablets, sweetener in tea/coffee, diet yoghurts, diet soda (it's in most full fat stuff too!), diluting juices (most of them have it even full sugar ones as we move closer to sugar tax being introduced into UK in April 2018!) ;

Nasal congestion
Lack of taste
Very dry mouth
Raging thirst
Numbness and tingling in legs and fingers
Brain Fog
Severe memory loss
Severe joint pain
Severe foot pain
Losing vision
Mood swings
Inability to cope with smallest of things.
Depression
Weight gain
Voracious appetite for sweet things
Nausea
Tiredness
Fatigue
Dizziness
Hearing loss

I thought I was losing my mind and was basically dying a very slow death to which I thought no one could help me as the doctors did lots of tests including being tested for dementia. All my bloods were fine. Losing my eyesight was scary too and I knew something strange was going on! I started to do some homework myself and came across a post on Facebook which was a total light bulb moment and made me tally the amount of aspartame I was consuming! I always had a sweet tooth but the amount of sweet stuff I craved and for eating lots of diet (no sugar! products) stuff I kept piling on the weight! Why was that?!

I went cold turkey and back to a little sugar to ease the pain and my eyesight came back clearer, my memory returned and my joints were SOOOO much better. I have since done a lot of research on this topic and it is scary that this **** is peddled to us all as being a healthy alternative.

I can't post a link on here as I've not completed 3 posts but please check out the 'Aspartame Sweet Misery -A poisoned world movie' on YouTube and Google Janet Starr Hulls website and check out all the symptoms that these sweeteners cause.

I'm not a gullible believer per se but I have experienced this first hand, my kids have had breathing problems due to consuming lucozade sport during training sessions and had to get an inhaler which they haven't needed since removing this poison. I have assisted a friend with tinnitus who once drank Diet Pepsi and this was cured after stopping! Another used to have a jag every two weeks which cost NHS £330 each time and since stopping Diet Coke she has not needed. Another had constant headaches which disappeared after stopping her daily fix of Diet Coke! Sadly I found out this information too late before the effects of taking sweeteners in coffee etc for many years was the cause of my mother's recent death. But if I can inform as many people as possible as to the dangers of this stuff then that's my mission from now on.

If you also want to appreciate the political angle behind keeping us all fat and unhealthy then another documentary to watch is “Fed Up,” narrated by Katie Couric - well worth it I promise!

 

[Deleted member 371625]

I didn't go to very low carb, but kept to about 100g/day (c.1600 Cal) with plenty of exercise while weight and BG came down. I lost 5 stones in 5 months and FBG fell from 14 to under 5 at the same time.
I had no cravings at all until my weight hit 12 stones (i.e. after losing 5 stones), then all of a sudden with no changes at all I was hungry all the time. I took this to mean that my fat stores were low/empty and I do now look quite lean.
Since then I have upped calories and carbs gradually (180ish and 2000ish) without affecting BG (so far) as I don't want to lose any more weight.

Is it possible that you have reached a suitable weight and that is why your cravings have begun?

 

[Kristin251]

There have been hints on this thread that your cravings may stem from supposedly healthy sugar free foods and that would be 100% correct!

I have suffered the last 4 + years with the following symptoms which I found out was due to consuming sweeteners - mainly aspartame in Vit C tablets, sweetener in tea/coffee, diet yoghurts, diet soda (it's in most full fat stuff too!), diluting juices (most of them have it even full sugar ones as we move closer to sugar tax being introduced into UK in April 2018!) ;

Nasal congestion
Lack of taste
Very dry mouth
Raging thirst
Numbness and tingling in legs and fingers
Brain Fog
Severe memory loss
Severe joint pain
Severe foot pain
Losing vision
Mood swings
Inability to cope with smallest of things.
Depression
Weight gain
Voracious appetite for sweet things
Nausea
Tiredness
Fatigue
Dizziness
Hearing loss

I thought I was losing my mind and was basically dying a very slow death to which I thought no one could help me as the doctors did lots of tests including being tested for dementia. All my bloods were fine. Losing my eyesight was scary too and I knew something strange was going on! I started to do some homework myself and came across a post on Facebook which was a total light bulb moment and made me tally the amount of aspartame I was consuming! I always had a sweet tooth but the amount of sweet stuff I craved and for eating lots of diet (no sugar! products) stuff I kept piling on the weight! Why was that?!

I went cold turkey and back to a little sugar to ease the pain and my eyesight came back clearer, my memory returned and my joints were SOOOO much better. I have since done a lot of research on this topic and it is scary that this **** is peddled to us all as being a healthy alternative.

I can't post a link on here as I've not completed 3 posts but please check out the 'Aspartame Sweet Misery -A poisoned world movie' on YouTube and Google Janet Starr Hulls website and check out all the symptoms that these sweeteners cause.

I'm not a gullible believer per se but I have experienced this first hand, my kids have had breathing problems due to consuming lucozade sport during training sessions and had to get an inhaler which they haven't needed since removing this poison. I have assisted a friend with tinnitus who once drank Diet Pepsi and this was cured after stopping! Another used to have a jag every two weeks which cost NHS £330 each time and since stopping Diet Coke she has not needed. Another had constant headaches which disappeared after stopping her daily fix of Diet Coke! Sadly I found out this information too late before the effects of taking sweeteners in coffee etc for many years was the cause of my mother's recent death. But if I can inform as many people as possible as to the dangers of this stuff then that's my mission from now on.

If you also want to appreciate the political angle behind keeping us all fat and unhealthy then another documentary to watch is “Fed Up,” narrated by Katie Couric - well worth it I promise!

Ah yea. Foods can be poison. Glad you figured it out!! Anything with corn does that to me and I mean corn flour, corn starch etc. I would always be moody and cry the NEXT day. So it was never obvious. Same with wheat and gluten so just stopped all grains.

 

[landofoz]

I have been having sugar cravings ,for years and i was drinking diet Tonic water ,untill i heard on TV that diet drinks can be the cause of dementia. i have now stopped and when i am thirsty i drink sparkling water,
i find drinking any of these diet drinks make your cravings worse, along with the thirst.

 

[Vidgren]

I have been drinking diet sodas all my life. I am drinking and eating aspartam/sorbitol whenever i want to i get no symtoms at all.

I get sugarcravings when i eat to little fat or to much sugar. (Tomatoes and carrots gives me cravings)

I have never ever felt anything negative linked to me drinking a diet soda.

my advice is to add more fat to your diet. Lower your carb increase fat.

 

[ickihun]

Diagnosed with type 2 just under three months ago. Doc suggested I try 3 months of diet and exercise. Started low carb diet immediately, testing on average eight times a day. weight started to drop off, but bs didn't start to drop until I started skipping breakfast and keeping my carb intake to about 30g a day. Anyway, everything was going swimmingly until about a week ago....masses of energy, lost 25 lbs, BS averages down from the 13's to the high 6's (still a way to go!). Suddenly, after not feeling overly hungry or craving carbs at all, I'm suddenly thinking about food all the time again and craving sugar!! Help!! My willpower is rubbish and I was so thrilled that the low carb diet wasn't leaving me hungry! Haven't changed my diet and can't think what's causing the change.

I had the same and found I was eating too much protein. The more protein I ate the more I craved.
I now have a happy level of carbs and protein. With sufficient good insulin too.

 

[covknit]

There have been hints on this thread that your cravings may stem from supposedly healthy sugar free foods and that would be 100% correct!

I have suffered the last 4 + years with the following symptoms which I found out was due to consuming sweeteners - mainly aspartame in Vit C tablets, sweetener in tea/coffee, diet yoghurts, diet soda (it's in most full fat stuff too!), diluting juices (most of them have it even full sugar ones as we move closer to sugar tax being introduced into UK in April 2018!) ;

Nasal congestion
Lack of taste
Very dry mouth
Raging thirst
Numbness and tingling in legs and fingers
Brain Fog
Severe memory loss
Severe joint pain
Severe foot pain
Losing vision
Mood swings
Inability to cope with smallest of things.
Depression
Weight gain
Voracious appetite for sweet things
Nausea
Tiredness
Fatigue
Dizziness
Hearing loss

I thought I was losing my mind and was basically dying a very slow death to which I thought no one could help me as the doctors did lots of tests including being tested for dementia. All my bloods were fine. Losing my eyesight was scary too and I knew something strange was going on! I started to do some homework myself and came across a post on Facebook which was a total light bulb moment and made me tally the amount of aspartame I was consuming! I always had a sweet tooth but the amount of sweet stuff I craved and for eating lots of diet (no sugar! products) stuff I kept piling on the weight! Why was that?!

I went cold turkey and back to a little sugar to ease the pain and my eyesight came back clearer, my memory returned and my joints were SOOOO much better. I have since done a lot of research on this topic and it is scary that this **** is peddled to us all as being a healthy alternative.

I can't post a link on here as I've not completed 3 posts but please check out the 'Aspartame Sweet Misery -A poisoned world movie' on YouTube and Google Janet Starr Hulls website and check out all the symptoms that these sweeteners cause.

I'm not a gullible believer per se but I have experienced this first hand, my kids have had breathing problems due to consuming lucozade sport during training sessions and had to get an inhaler which they haven't needed since removing this poison. I have assisted a friend with tinnitus who once drank Diet Pepsi and this was cured after stopping! Another used to have a jag every two weeks which cost NHS £330 each time and since stopping Diet Coke she has not needed. Another had constant headaches which disappeared after stopping her daily fix of Diet Coke! Sadly I found out this information too late before the effects of taking sweeteners in coffee etc for many years was the cause of my mother's recent death. But if I can inform as many people as possible as to the dangers of this stuff then that's my mission from now on.

If you also want to appreciate the political angle behind keeping us all fat and unhealthy then another documentary to watch is “Fed Up,” narrated by Katie Couric - well worth it I promise!

Some years ago the son of a friend of mine was very seriously ill with aspartamine poisoning. I do not know the details but I understand he was lucky to pull through. He was diagnosed t1 in his teens.

 

[letstalk1]

I have been drinking diet sodas all my life. I am drinking and eating aspartam/sorbitol whenever i want to i get no symtoms at all.

I get sugarcravings when i eat to little fat or to much sugar. (Tomatoes and carrots gives me cravings)

I have never ever felt anything negative linked to me drinking a diet soda.

my advice is to add more fat to your diet. Lower your carb increase fat.

Any fruit gives me cravings I have to stay away from it it gets a hold on me, I have never had a diet soda problem either.

 

[songbiredsan]

I shall ditch it and see, and no it was not affecting my BS.

My doctor told me that if I wanted to drink coke then diet coke wouldn't affect my blood sugar but might make it hard to kick the sugar habit. He advised against it and recommended water or plain soda water with a slice of lemon or lime. So it seems that your cravings could well be connected to the diet coke. As others have suggested - ditch it and see what happens. Congratulations, by the way, on the great progress you have made.