Sugar free chewing gum - but not sugar free lollies

[anniem]

Hi everyone

Just wondering if anyone out there knows the reason why you can have sugar free gum but not sugar free lollies is it just so you get out of the habit of having lollies or is there another reason. Do no worry i am not having any but i know there are great Double D sugar free mints and fruit drops.

Thanks Anniem

[Kristine..]

Hi Anniem

Even with chewing gum, there will still be some ingredients from the coating which will be swallowed.

If you actually eat something, you will be swallowing the whole thing.

There is more to a 'sugar free' sweet than just the fact that it has no cane or beet sugar.

This program is, as far as possible, for 'pure' food. Fresh, not processed, with clearly identifiable ingredients. All the ingredients trigger certain responses in the body, and the program is designed to moderate the responses and to retrain the responses.

Personally, I cannot understand why people use artifical sweeteners, add stuff to the yoghurt, etc. Part of the opportunity of this program is to also retrain our tastes. Why perpetuate the concept that everything has to taste sweet? Why perpetuate the concept that we 'have' to nibble, or that some types of food are 'treats' or 'rewards'. I appreciate that humans tend to 'kill the fatted calf' for celebrations and that food has historical significance particularly for feast days and special days in the religious or community calendar. That is fair enough and foods such as Christmas puddings or other once a year foods do have importance and certainly would have had particular importance in medieval times.

However, in modern civilisations, with food as close as the supermarket or 7-11, surely it is the continual grazing, nibbling and added sweeteners which have spawned a generation of obese people. In Australia, childhood obesity is reaching endemic proportions. Perhaps not as bad yet as in the USA, but we are not far behind. It is all the 'little' things which add up, and with Cohen's there are no 'little things'.

But if we continue to try and find ways of keeping up with the 'little things' then who are we kidding? As soon as we are off the program, it will be back to sugar in teas and coffees (plus the milk) and sauces on this and that and lollies and food will be squarely back on the agenda as a 'treat'.

Amanda has made a few references to the 'work' she has done on herself regarding her emotional connection to food. I think this is really important for all of us. Why do we see food as a reward or as a treat? Are we so emotionally deprived that we self-medicate by putting something in our mouths, which we know is actually detrimental to the rest of our bodies, and also to our self-esteem? While we are busy 'treating' ourselves does our ever-watchful sub-conscious whisper 'loser' in our ear?

I don't think there has been near enough research done in to the influences behind obesity. When I was obese I hated it. Now that I have been slim for more than twelve months, and the 'seven day wonder' impact has long gone and I am left to my own devices, it would be easy to return to my previous patterns, habits and tastes and I know with all certainty that the weight would start to creep back on and the obesity would return.

So why are sugar free lollies and other placebo foods not on the program? There are no grey areas with Cohens. A food is either on the shopping liist or it is not. If it is there, then it has been included for a very good reason. If it is not, then it simply does not contribute to the mechanics of the program, and there is no room for passengers.

The food is our medicine. We take it as directed. At the end of the program we will be slim, yes, but hopefully our relationship with food will also have changed, and perhaps our subordinate position to food will have changed as well.

It is our food. We are not it's human.

Cheers

Kristine

[Pudge]

Kristine
I can't speak for everyone but the reason I use the artificial sweetner in my yoghurt and the diet orange soda is so that it makes it eatable for me. I tried a spoonful of it at the begining of my program it was so bitter I nearly threw up. I was one to eat sugery things one reason I needed to lose weight. So going totaly off anything sweet was very tuff for me.
I don't use the 5 packets of spenda a day (I use maybe 2) and I limit my diet soda to one a day. (I drink the rest of the one I open for brekky.)
The little bit of sweet I get from doing those things helps me make it on this program.

I did taste (a spoonful) of the blueberry pie I made for the hubby. It did not even taste good. So I know my taste's have surely changed. 3 months ago I could have eaten half of it in no time.

I don't feel I will go back to the old ways after I am done with the program. Why number 1 I don't want to be fat again. Number 2 knowing things don't taste good like they did before I won't care if I have them. Number 3 I don't ever want to be so stuffed I have to undo the top button of my pants.
Pudge