Refined beet sugar is okay, if you can find a brand that specifies whether it is cane or beet sugar. Also, there's a list somewhere on PETA that lists brands of cane sugar that do not use bone char, but I don't remember exactly where it is.
Still, white sugar is refined so much of chemicals that makes it unhealthy too.Did you ever see color of Cane Juice ? And this sugar cane juice is converted in to white crystals.
I do not eat it because of processing/health ground.
Bone char is also used for cleaning of Water/Purification of Water.
Excessive use of Bonechar has lead to slaughterring of animals for obtaining Bones.
A few questions about sugar (I know it's not good for you).
First, how do you tell if a sugar was processed using bone char?
Second, where do they get the bone char?
Third, is it like eating organic fruits that grew in soil fertilized with animal blood?
Fourth, if you're going to eat sugar, is Turbinado better for you?
It's a bit easier to avoid in the UK, as the majority of white sugar is from sugar beet over here. Depends on where you live in the US as to what sort of sugar is most common.
Arg. Why do animal products have to be used for every freaking thing? I've accepted organic plants grown with animal blood and manure as a nessasary evil (better than dumping into the water supply) but think I'll stick to unrefined sugars for use in my kitchen. So vegans don't look nuts to outsiders, I'll claim the health benifit.
Edit: I just read all the stuff about added sugars. YIKES! I didn't know they were THAT bad for you. From now on it's fruit juice instead of soda (which I don't drink too often anyway) and maple crystals for tea and baking.
I think that starter of thread is wrong. All those problems he associates with sugar are form laziness, not from sugar which is just concentrated source of calories.
You must do something with your laziness instead of blaming all your problems on sugar. Go to a gym, swimming pool, or just a ride on bike, don’t seat in front of computer or TV and think that eliminating sugar from your diet will solve all your problems.
We as vegans must show example of healthiness, so other people will follow us and there will be less suffering, but this healthiness can not be achieved only through diet, you must have more active lifestyle, this also will bring you in contact with more people and will help you spread veganism even more.
i couldnt find any, but i finally found unrefined molasses sugar
was it on here, or somewhere else? (i cant remember) but basically, i read that eating sugar is worse than eating nothing, cos sugar leeches energy off your body, or something.
i've stopped using white sugar. and i dont even have sugar with anything, apart from when i make porridge in the morning, cos its not sweet enough for me. i was using maple syrup, but i ran out and its too expensive to keep buying :P (£3 for a medium sized organic bottle!)
was it on here, or somewhere else? (i cant remember) but basically, i read that eating sugar is worse than eating nothing, cos sugar leeches energy off your body, or something.
I don't think that's entirely true. Sugar does give you energy, as it has calories and such but it doesn't last long. Eventually you have to come down from all the sugar, making some people feel worse than before they ate the sugar. Personally (and luckily) for me I never experienced that.
although, in saying that, i used to drink coffee before i went to bed, and i found myself staying up til, say 4am, running around tidying up etc. and my boyfriend would be half asleep in bed, telling me to come to bed! heh.
I've decided I can live without sugar. A couple of my friends have been saying how much better they feel after cutting sugar from their diet so I decided to try it. I started to cut down about 10 days ago and now have been completely sugar free for about 5 days. Its amazing! All my cravings for the wrong foods have gone, I have more energy and motivation, my skin has improved and I'm losing weight. When I lapsed and ate some biscuits last week I felt really ill so now I feel its not worth feeling like that for a few moments pleasure. No sugar for me again ever!
Am I the only one who can't eat sugary things without getting sick?
I have never been too big on sweets, and one of the reasons is if I eat them on an empty stomach, expecially in the morning, I will get really dizzy, sweaty and throw up!
I tried to explain it to some work colleagues who brought donuts in for a morning snack...and they looked at me like I was crazy so I have started worrying this reaction isn't normal.
Despite being like this my entire life (expecially as a really little kid), does having such an intollerance to sweets mean I am hypoglycemic or pre diabetic or something?
Or maybe I never got used to them? My mom was one of those health nuts - feeding us sugar free whole wheat muffins and stuff like that. She cut out sugar completely when she was pregnant with me, and ate a little with my sister. My sister looooves sweets, but I have to eat some protein with them to keep them down.
I used to be completely addicted to sugar before going vegan. However, since I went vegan I've found that my sugar cravings only come about once a month now (I'll give you three guesses as to when lol). I think it's because I just naturally crave the healthier foods now. Now when I get a sweet craving I have some fruit and that totally takes care of it. I do indulge in homemade ricemilk chocolate made with turbinado now and then though.
i never eat white sugar. i try not to eat foods with added sugar, unless its a food that contains a lot of good things, like a healthy cereal, but the sugar is "raw sugar" - cos its really hard to find cereal without sugar in.
and if/when i do add sugar (ie. if i am baking), i use demerara brown sugar.
I've just joined and I try to avoid sugar as I have a poor immune system and I definately feel worse if I eat it.
I haven't read all this thread (sorry!) but has anyone tried xylitol (made from birch trees) its supposed to be good for your teeth and not affect your blood sugar levels etc?
It tastes just like sugar! I keep thinking there must be a catch as it tastes so nice!!
Like probably most people, I was a sugar addict for most of my life. Sugar in breakfast cereal or jam for breakfast, sugar in the bread... then I would come home from school and eat a packet of biscuits and fall asleep in front of the TV. Great! A few years ago I spent some months in a macrobiotic community in France where they don't eat sugar at all. After I got back I ate a slice of cake and it made me feel really dizzy, a bit like my first cigarette. I ate no sugar at all for years after that. Now I'm not totally strict. I never buy anything with sugar in but I might have the odd bit of tofu cheesecake or something like mango chutney with an Indian meal. For as long as I can remember I have had an energy crash in the afternoon combined with sugar cravings. If I give in and fall asleep, I feel awful for the rest of the evening. I used to keep going with caffeine and sugar but now I don't have that. I've discovered if I nap for no more than 20 minutes I can get through the crash without feeling drowsy. I think my body is still a bit unbalanced from the sugar addiction and I am a little hypoglycaemic.
I would say from my experience that cravings for anything very sweet, like dried fruit or processed fruit juices, are to do with this problem.
I've been studying the effects of Sugar for some time, it really fascinates me. I have a very sweet tooth, sadly . As a baby I would often refuse to eat/drink, and my mother was told to give me chocolate . We were given a lot of sweet stuff as children in my family.
I feel sure that Sugar can really crush your immune system aswell as causing many symptomatic diseases (maybe that's why you have similar health problems to me, Mango?? ).
I'm so frightened at the thought of completely giving up Sugar for some reason - anyone got any useful tips?? .
I for one avoid products with sugar in them because I can rarely be sure if the sugar has been processed using bone char. I don't avoid them for personal health reasons.
The brand of sugar I use, Redpath, does not use bone char to process its sugar, which is great.
I think all this stuff about how sugar is dangerous / unhealthy is all waffle. Everything is unhealthy if you eat too much of it! Of course you'll get sick if you eat nothing but foods with sugar in them, but if you eat a healthy diet and slip in a little sugar now and then, it's not going to wind up hurting you.
I eat very little sugar, and I'm by no means addicted to it. But I do enjoy it. I use it when a recipe calls for it, and I will eat vegan candies if the sugar hasn't been processed using bone char (obviously, the candies weren't very vegan to begin with if they've been processed with it).
While I'm certainly impressed with people who have cut sugar entirely out of their diet, I also don't think it's going to kill you as long as you don't overindulge.
Finally, keep in mind that while there are a lot of scientific studies telling you what foods might kill you (and remember, those may sometimes just be wrong, look at all the articles saying soy is going to kill you!), in the end, you can cut out the sugar and concentrate on eating just all the healthy things, and you'll wind up getting hit by a bus. Healthy food will help you feel good about yourself, but don't expect it to let you live forever. Of course keeping healthy is important (and I do keep reasonably healthy myself) but in my opinion, when your number's up, your number's up. Don't sweat the little stuff. Some people who ate sugar died at 30, others ate it and died at 100.
Try to avoid the bone char sugar for the cows' sake, but I personally don't think that having that muffin for breakfast once in a while will give you a heart attack if you eat healthy food for the rest of the day.
I don't think we have much of bone char problem in the UK - I use unrefined Sugar anyway - but the point is that Sugar has absolutely no nutritious value to it. What else would we choose to eat that is so empty of goodness, yet so damaging - fattening, damaging to teeth, upsetting the body's natural blood sugar balance, exhausting the Adrenals and the Pancreas - it's ridiculous really! .
I'm quite cross that I should feel so overwhelmed by the thought of giving the stuff up, even though I am convinced that doing so would be very beneficial.
Yes, Nibelwolf, I do take your point about obsessing over health, and I don't want to live forever - what frightens me is the last 20 - 30 years of my life (if I don't get knocked down by a bus!) being a burden to others, feeling very unwell, and being unable to enjoy life, all because I can't eat properly now!!. In my book that makes me a Moron!! .
PygmyGoat: Well, the reason we consume things that have no nutritional value, is that sometimes they can taste pretty good And I don't think it's a big deal if one balances it out with lots of nutritional food.
I'm no nutritionist. Maybe I'm wrong. I go by what works for me. I have a healthy body, despite eating a bit of sugar every now and again. It hasn't fattened me, my teeth are fine, my blood sugar levels are fine, my doctor tells me I'm in great shape, all despite eating sugar. I can live with that. And yes, I'm still absolutely convinced I'll probably die of something completely unrelated anyway.
Working on fighting your sweet tooth a bit is a great goal, though, and I wish you all the best with it. Like I said, it's excess intake of sugar, if at all, that could be dangerous in the long term. Good luck with it, you can do it!
^ I think you're probably right, it's just that I don't eat that much food but a high percentage of it contains sugar at the moment and I can feel how horrible that is - so why do I do it? .
I think it's like you said, it's something you've been used to since childhood, it's definitely hard to overcome!
What helps me personally is this: Since I only buy products containing sugar from companies who I know don't process their sugar through bone char, I wind up buying very little products containing sugar in the store. Most of the sugary foods I do eat are things I make myself, it makes me more comfortable because I know exactly what goes into them
The result of making your own treats is that you actually wind up making / eating less (or that has been my experience), because everytime you feel like eating these foods, you have to make them yourself, which takes a lot of time and energy; oftentimes I decide against making them because I'm too busy or too lazy Also, when you make them yourself, I find it's easier to regulate portions. You can make cookie sizes as big or as little as you want, and I find it easier to keep track of the food. For instance, for this week, I baked little cupcake-size banana walnut muffins, but I basically put them in the freezer and only take out one everyday to eat.
That does make sense and is a good idea - trouble is my mini sized muffins get gobbled up by me and my son in no time - they don't make it to the freezer .
Yes, It's just like sugar. No aftertaste and its pure white and texture is just like sugar.
I'm very suspicious too and I even emailed one of the companies who make it to check it was definately vegan & non animal tested.
I hope your little one likes it.
Eeek I didn't know all this! I've been vegan a good while and using regular Silver Spoon white sugar all along. Bone char?!?????????! Yeurgh.
But we have some maple sugar in the house, so maybe I'll put that in my coffee instead ...
You say animal rights extremist like it's a bad thing.
Eeek I didn't know all this! I've been vegan a good while and using regular Silver Spoon white sugar all along. Bone char?!?????????! Yeurgh.
But we have some maple sugar in the house, so maybe I'll put that in my coffee instead ...
Okay, so I sort of wanted to cut down on my refined sugar. I am just at a loss. My body "craves" a dessert every day and fruit really doesn't cut it. In fact, eating some fruit for a dessert craving will only make the craving worse. I end up going overboard and eating 15 cookies in 5 minutes.
I don't know what to use in my tea. I tried stevia and it tates gross. I'm going to start using agave nectar although that's still a sugar but not as "horrible" as white refined sugar.
My body "craves" a dessert every day and fruit really doesn't cut it.
I know it will probably be hard but try to just stop eating the desserts. Sometimes it can become a habit which is hard to break. Once you've broken the habit though, you'll be OK. Try cleaning your teeth if you feel like something sweet, it's supposed to help.
"Do what you can with what you have where you are."
- Theodore Roosevelt
Yeah, but the house is always full of desserts. I don't know how to stop. I sound really whiney but how can I stop when my cupboards are full of cookies that my mom buys (and makes sure are vegan).
I wish there was like an addictions program for people with sweet addictions.
Tell her to lock them away in a cupboard Why can't you tell her it's hard for you to resist temptation? I'm sure most people are the same, that's why I never have biscuits in the house
Re: Vegan sugar?
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lozza
. We were given a lot of sweet stuff as children in my family.
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And I don't think it's a big deal if one balances it out with lots of nutritional food. 
Why can't you tell her it's hard for you to resist temptation? I'm sure most people are the same, that's why I never have biscuits in the house 
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