Do you guys worry about the serving sizes of certain zero calorie sauces you use when in a deficit or zero calorie sodas I know if it says zero calorie there is still calories because usually the serving size is really small but is this something I need to worry about or is it such a small amount it’s just overanalyzing and not worth stressing about ?
I worry about them in that there’s no way I’m putting them in my body. Read the label on many of these things: they’re full on science experiments and gut bombs.
And if you’re using so much of them that you’re throwing your calories out of whack, you’re definitely setting yourself up for some issues.
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I agree. I avoid anything labled zero-calorie.
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It’s usually not truly 0 calorie, but it’s also usually pretty negligible… so unless you’re flooding your plate with it, you don’t have much to worry about.
It may have other “health” tradeoffs, but I’ll use a 0cal sauce in a cut without hesitation. Pick your battles; theres always tradeoffs.
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Which ones are we talking about?
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An excellent way to summarise my feelings on the zero sugar thing
I refuse to believe the tiny servings of sugar alcohols, stabilisers and colours etc. in sugar-free alternatives are worse for my health than sugar overconsumption
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I believe the argument is against the overconsumption of either.
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I tend to stay away from processed foods that rely on sucralose, artificial colors, and the like, but I also don’t care for the taste of them so it’s easy. That said, like most things in life this is not an all-or-none situation. I will occasionally have Met-Rx bar from 7-11 while on a road trip, some Hot Tamales while at a movie theater, or grab an artificially sweetened protein shake off the shelf at AM PM in a pinch. I just don’t make any of them part of my regular diet.
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Good point - I am misrepresenting the argument a bit there. Regardless, I’m personally hard-pressed to believe that a single serving of sugar-free product is equally or more damaging than an equivalent single serving of full sugar product
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I appreciate that perspective. I hold an opposite view. I feel our bodies have been processing sugar for about as long as we have existed, and we have the biological and metabolic processes in place for that. The newer stuff, not as much.
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I appreciate where you’re coming from with that. However, it’s also a classic appeal to nature argument.
I think substituting full sugar for sugar free is a pragmatic approach to reduce excess caloric intake for the majority of people, even if our gut microbiota aren’t necessarily chronically adapted for high consumptions of these products.
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I feel like its hard to hold this view across multiple spectrums of what we put in our bodies.
Unless we’re on team “literally no medications ever” too.
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I think there is a difference between medication and food though.
I’d rather have a calorie bomb slice of full-fat real sugar cheesecake once a week, instead of a diet coke everyday, just like I’d rather take a round of oxycodine after an injury instead of taking tylenol daily.
I know it’s a bad anology, but the point stands.
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And in my diet, your cheesecake would blow up my entire week, whereas the diet coke would not.
Which is where I go back to the
position
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That would be the case if I was presenting it as a logical argument. Instead: I am presenting my perspective.
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Yeah, it all comes down to goals.
I’d just ditch the cheesecake and diet coke to enjoy the suffering.
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I enjoy this - it’s cool to see the thoughts.
I actually land with @Andrewgen_Receptors and @j4gga2 here. I think most of us are more likely to better protect our health by controlling our calories through some of these “hacks”.
That said, I do believe our Frankenfoods are at the center of our chronic illness epidemic and we’d be wise to avoid them.
I also think many of our medicines actually are more harmful than helpful, but I realize that wasn’t the crux of this debate.
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Is the defecit working? Are you losing fat?
If so, the amount of “Phantom Calories” in your zero cal foods must be pretty small. No need to count them.
If not, and the defecit is not working, and you’re not losing weight, even though you’re strict with everything else there is a problem. And you should be concerned.
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I’d just ditch the cheesecake and diet coke to enjoy the suffering.
And, from what I’ve discovered, when you ditch them both, you no longer miss them. It’s when you keep that sweet tooth humming with little reminders that the monkey stays on your back. Hell, I had a gum chewing habit like a smoker: a pack or 2 a day. I was just trying to keep that sweet flavor in my life. Cutting it out, I don’t miss it.
Which is another reason I avoid these things. Trying to replicate the things that got us in trouble in the first place by making them “better” is just keeping us in the same hole. Protein Poptarts and the like are just switching addictions. We’re blessed to have so much good REAL food available to us all the time: let’s celebrate that blessing.
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Thank you all for the information. I am very interested in this topic right now.