I say tomorrow because it’s too late for today; it’s already in there. I’m trying to be as carnivore as possible. Today I brought with me to work – hamburgers, ground beef, my one piece of 90% dark chocolate (nope, not giving that up yet, and it doesn’t seem to affect me negatively), and my coffee with cream… but I FORGOT to put my sweetener in it… took a sip, noticed right away… took a few more sips… and I was like, hmmm… this isn’t too bad. I could actually taste the coffee. hahaha… Black coffee, forget it. But this actually tasted ok. Then, I ruined it by telling myself “it’s still better with sweetener”, grabbed my travel dropper and put a few drops in. Now it tastes so sweet I actually wish I hadn’t done it. 
Oh well. I’m gonna drink it anyway, but tomorrow I think I’m gonna challenge myself to a non-sweetened cream coffee. I don’t think my sweetener affects me negatively, but I really want to challenge myself because if I don’t need it, then why ingest it? I guess I could say the same about coffee period. But a warm creamy coffee is such a comfort item for me in the morning, I’m not in the mood to go as far as banning it completely. 
Gonna challenge myself to coffee without the sweetener (tomorrow... lol)
I decided a while back to stop taking milk in my tea due to the effect on my blood glucose (I’m a Brit - I drink a LOT of tea) and the first few days of not having milk in it I really struggled!
But now, just a few weeks on, I absolutely love it! Years ago I used to take sweetener in it too - but I can’t imagine that now!
I guess we get used to things, right?
Good luck!
I guess I was lucky, because I never got used to drinking coffee with sweetener. I also can drink coffee with or without cream (about a teaspoon or so for me), but it’s better with cream in my opinion.
You can definitely get used to it. I’m a Brit too who drinks a lot of tea but haven’t had milk in my tea since the beginning of the year.
The first few days I could only cope with one black tea a day - first thing in the morning - and chose to not indulge more than that because I found it such a struggle! Now I’m used to it I’m back up to my normal bottomless all-day tea habit! 
wow guys, I cannot IMAGINE black coffee or tea 
it’s so bitter to me. I don’t know how people do it… but I guess I also didn’t know how ANYONE in their right mind could ever have given up ALL SUGARS including added and non-added sugars - just didn’t think it was at all possible - and here I am 2 years later on that !
even artificial sweeteners raise insulin, some more that sugar! Try a pinch of salt to reduce the bitterness in your coffee 
Not all artificial sweeteners raise everybody’s insulin. Everyone has to experiment to see which ones are safe and which aren’t, for them personally.
@KetoMomof2teens Good luck! It may take a bit of time, but your taste buds can adapt.
I’m not so sure it affects my insulin that much (if at all), personally, since it doesn’t seem to hinder weightless or maintenance (which are basically the only two reasons I do keto; being otherwise healthy ) but I do want to try to challenge myself to do without it if I can, so I can be even more % carnivore… because who knows, if I keep pushing myself, maybe one day I WILL give up the 90% dark c and coffee (I don’t see it now, but who knows, I guess I’ll never find out if I refuse to challenge myself). thank you for that tip though because if that ever becomes my next challenge (black coffee) then I will definitely try that!
I know where you’re coming from - I have the very occasional decaf coffee with cream - coffee without anything is too impossibly bitter for me to stomach! Ugh! Used to drink coffee with milk all the time though. 
And how would one know an artificial sweetener raises insulin? Unless you go to a lab and get several insulin tests done, you wouldn’t know. (Unless your blood sugar goes down, but maybe glucagon would come along and counteract that.) And even if you did that and got a positive result, you have to be careful about interpretation. For instance, what happens to your insulin level during a day when you just fast? And then you’d have to have several days of that, and then test the artificial sweetener.
Coffee with cream is easy (it was coffee with eggs/yolks for me for years, I totally avoided heavy cream, it’s pure luxury now but a few drops are enough). Black coffee, that was tougher. Well, it’s way better than black coffee with sweetener, I could never drink that. And when I was a kid, I ate a sugar cube with as much coffee as it absorbed… Weird… (Okay, I ate sugar with a spoon too, sometimes. Ancient times.)
So, one can get used to coffee and tea without anything. Probably most people can do that. I stopped drinking coffee in my fasting window first but now I’m fine with black. I don’t drink bitter things so my coffee is mild and weak. I will end up with hot water at some point I fear
I do use sweetener in certain things, I just like to skip it when it’s not needed. Like in coffee, hot chocolate (it’s still better if it’s a tad sweet though) and chocolate. It took years to reach this level, next will be unsweetened cake and ice cream Or maybe not. Coffee isn’t hard to drink and even enjoy without sweetener, maybe do it gradually. I missed sweetness first but now I can’t even imagine drinking it with sweetener (except in some cases when I use it as a sweet dessert type drink with cookies).
I drink tea plain since decades, that’s nothing new. Not bitter and not strong tea, of course. So that was the first step. Then I used less and less sweetener in coffee and in everything… I guess some individuals can do it pretty abruptly.
research is being done, but unless you can personally test your post prandial insulin after ingesting, I’d stay away from them all. https://blog.supplysideliberal.com/post/2018/10/16/which-nonsugar-sweeteners-are-ok
I so get what you said. You will taste any and all sugar you do ingest being on carnivore as such a sickening sweet icky taste.
Doesn’t matter what it is You will know that sugar hit instantly and longer you go without caving into any fake sweetener or avoiding foods with some sugar in them………wow you will be like a robot with sugar radar on guard all the time LOL
Hubby and I hit a BBQ joint. I said dry rub only and did it have sugar in it, well, maybe a little the waitress said and I could tell not to batter her longer with my questioning, so I got the ribs and they looked fab…one bite of that meat and it was like I took a spoonful of sugar directly.
I have eaten many a dry rub from places and I could most times tell very little sugar was used and the other spice took center stage…but this rub. Wow. I said nope. Can’t do it. Sicky sweet meat. I can’t do it so I boxed it up and hubby ate it later at home as leftovers.
So it is one of those things…your sugar radar is on now I bet you start to love your coffee without sweetener.
And you are so smart, if you truly like it the other way and do well, why ingest it? I get that.
Can’t wait to hear how you do!!!
thank you! I will definitely keep ya posted!
It’s funny, I really don’t crave the sweets in general, and that’s so amazing to me how the brain works. A friend brought over some keto cupcakes when we invited them over for dinner about 9 days ago, and we had 6 cupcakes leftover to put in fridge. I ate one that night they came over (the day before I re-set myself to “mostly carnivore”), and yeah, it tasted good, but the leftovers didn’t tempt me at all in the fridge. My husband ended up eating all of them (1 a day) by himself… lol…
after I wrote that last reply, I started questioning myself… If I don’t crave the sweets in general, why am I unwilling to give up my one square of 90% chocolate? lol… is it a stubborn rebellious thing in my mind? It actually doesn’t taste that sweet. Hmm. I have to analyze this. When I get done with a plate of beef, I honestly don’t feel like I crave the square, I just do it out of ritual. Wow. I’m learning a lot about myself.
It is weird and I get all that you are saying.
I think that little square of chocolate is a life line. We give up SO much literally in the food world I think our brains overload…like --not ALL foods–old favs-- come on here…so we keep one little thing. A life line of some sort we do need for a while.
Linus had his security blanket forever HAHA some of did just what you are doing.
My one go to on a ‘dirty carnivore day’ is 3 squares of very dark chocolate. Why do I need it…I don’t but it is like some hold from my old menu saying my change is good but I didn’t have to give it ALL up to be improve my health. I can keep a little of what I did enjoy.
My littles squares of chocolate are gone right now…I am doing that 100% carnivore challenge that Cheryl started.
and my mind is give it up forever cause I am doing fine without it but my ‘other mind’ is saying hey you deserve a taste of chocolate a few times a year, you can’t give it all up.
It is a mind game for me I guess
but nice thing is we sure learn a lot more about ourselves. I sure have. Now I have to decide what to do with all this good info and see what extra changes I want to make in my life and work my plan etc.
All good for all of us. A journey. As long as we learn and grow we do well.
wow yes, spot on, it is definitely not only a mind thing, but also an entitlement thing… I deserve to keep SOMETHING… lol… and I guess there’s really nothing wrong with that as long as it works for the person. The only person I’m accountable to here is me. I wonder if it would actually be better for my mental health to keep the square, rather than give it up only to scold myself when I do eat one, ya know? Something for me to think about. I need to set rules for myself only if they have a purpose. Giving up the sweet coffee for me does have a purpose because it turns out I might (might— I’m trying again tomorrow) like it without. Thanks for your insight @Fangs !
Even if these raise insulin (and I see no actual studies at that page), it might be meaningless. Something that raises insulin is not always bad. To classify it as such means one does not understand metabolism.
Here’s a meal of mine described as such:
Lunch on 11/21/17, started slightly before 10am, ended 10:16am
37 hours fasting, Body by Science in the morning around 5:30-6am
I can anchovies (drained): 50 calories, 2g fat, 8 g protein, 600 mg O3
1 can sardines (drained): 200 calories, 9.4g fat, 28 g protein, 1,300 mg O3
1 can pink salmon (no bones, skin) (drained), 5.3 ounces: 159 calories, 2.7 g fat, 32 g protein, 954 mg O3
Mussels, 8.2 ounces: 187 calories, 4.7 g fat, 35 g protein, (3g carbs)
Shrimp, 10.4 ounces: 243 calories, 0g fat, 59 g protein
Totals: 839 calories, 18.8 g fat (169.2 calories, 20% by cals), 162 g protein (648 cals, 77% calories)
162 grams of protein in one meal. Do you think that raised my insulin levels? Abso-freaking-lutely. But here’s my blood sugar:
Effectively no blood sugar rise or fall, even though there was an increase in insulin. Why?
The same could be said for anything that raises insulin. If you are pulsatile about it (infrequent during the day), it should be fine. Even if that “thing” raises insulin temporarily.
It’s when there’s a constant rise in insulin all day long that’s an issue. Assuming you don’t constantly eat these products, they should be OK, regardless of what they do to insulin.