I think I figured out the sweets aspect for keto

#1

So I have a big sweet tooth and realized that I cannot make all of the delicious keto sweets recipes because I overeat them just like regular sweets. I think the answer for me is to not make any of these sweets and stick to a piece of dark chocolate. The thing I have figured out about the dark chocolate though is that I have to make sure it doesn’t taste really good. Like I tried 88% endangered species…it was too good. No more of that. Green and Blacks is just ok and I know I will not overeat it. What do you all think? Keto sweets recipes are a good idea but I just cannot control myself.

(bulkbiker) #2

Not sure where you are but I really dislike the Montezuma 100% dark choc so I can only have a square or two max. Otherwise if you are UK based the Marks and Spencer 100% is extremely vile so would heartily recommend as chocolate aversion therapy!

Edit to add I’m the same with bread like things… even keto seed bread triggers my addictions so I just gave it up completely and have a steak instead!

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #3

There was a time, even well after I started keto, when I found the taste of unsweetened chocolate too bitter to tolerate. These days I rather like the taste, and I find I don’t overeat it.

(Windmill Tilter) #4

Here’s my 2 cents. It probably would get a whole heck of a lot of down votes if we had such a button. That’s ok. Having struggled with addiction I’m just gonna put this out there.

If you’re craving something it means you’re addicted to it. If chocolate (or anything else) is satisfying your craving, it means you have successfully fed that addiction. Maybe you’re just feeding it a little, just a few grams of cane sugar a day, just to carry that little glowing ember. The world is a tinderbox of tempting food and that little ember can explode into a full blown inferno in the blink of an eye. Better to snuff it out altogether.

I think it’s 100% fine to eat dark chocolate or anything else for that matter, but not if you crave it. When you stop craving it, then try it again and see if the cravings come back. If not, enjoy it at your leisure.

Just as a thought experiment, try taking the euphemism “sweet tooth” out of your vocabulary. Don’t say, “I have a sweet tooth”, try saying “I’m a sugar addict”. It might change the food questions you ask yourself and keep you out of trouble. It works for me with my chemical addictions. That said, everybody is different, and should do whatever works for them sustainably. KCKO.

(Carl Keller) #5

I feel like eating artificially sweetened fat bombs, which mimic foods that put our health in jeopardy in the first place, is like trying to trick the brain into believing it’s getting something we quit for our own good. To me, it’s much the same as quitting beer because of alcoholism only to drink non-alcoholic beer.

I agree with this. I would first focus on getting a leash on your cravings. Maybe in a month or two, you can add some dark chocolate back into your diet as a treat, rather than a less harmful addiction.

(Bob M) #6

Agree with everything on here. I used to eat fat bombs, particularly sweet ones, and found I overate. Now, I just eat 85%+ chocolate. Sometimes with yogurt and some coconut chips (no sugar added), e.g., if others are having ice cream for a party/celebration. The coconut chips add a slight sweetness. Unfortunately, I always overeat yogurt, so that’s something else I only buy on rare occasions such as celebrations.

(Bob M) #7

You could say the same thing about fake keto breads and the like: why eat them? I also avoid eating these.

(*Tame Those Ghrelin Gremlins) #8

Personally I never had a sweet tooth. In the beginning of Keto I did peanut butter fat bombs but it was mostly because I was worried I wouldn’t get enough fat into my diet at the start. I have since then dropped them.

I do however like a piece of dark chocolate now and then. If you know a certain food will trigger unwanted responses I say don’t eat them at all. That is my opinion.

(Brian) #9

I have no issue with having keto sweets. I am pretty good a making them. But I also know that if a person abuses them, they become a food group, and most of them are not so healthy that they really should be that big of a part of our diet.

If it’s a matter of not being able to leave something alone until it’s gone, make single servings. If you’re eating with another person, make a dessert for two, not for ten or twelve. If you make a mug cake, that’s dessert for here and now and once you eat it, it’s gone, no more. I think I saw a chocolate chip cookie recipe that was a treat for two, no leftovers.

It’s kind of a pain making small amounts. You have just as many ingredients to deal with. But it is helpful to some not to have leftovers.

Concentrate on being full with your core keto foods. If you’re full and you’re not hungry, the treats aren’t so tempting. If you’re always hungry, the treats never stop calling and if you’re always hungry, something isn’t happening right with keto. For me, that meant making sure I get my protein as for me, that’s the food that makes me feel full… meat or eggs or fish, the real thing, with the real fat associated with it.

I’m into keto about 1.5 years. Do I still eat keto treats? You betcha, yes I do. Do I eat them at every meal? No. Do I eat them every day? No. Do I eat a bunch of them when I eat them? No. They are not a food group. They are not a requirement to end a meal. They are not a snack, I do not snack. I eat a full meal or I don’t eat, there is no “snack”, one or two meals a day, usually.

Probably not that helpful but sharing from here. Just my take…

Good luck!

(David Rawe) #10

I guess I’m kind of an odd bird because I LOVE 100% dark Chocolate. Maybe melt some and put in some crushed Macadamia nuts and some pure Monkfruit sweetener.

But the key here is control (can be a major challenge).

If you can’t control cravings the best way is to find an alternative that is something that does not trigger a “meanies” attack.

(John) #11

I knew from past experience that I would overeat the “hyper-palatable” sweet foods. Not so bad with most candies, but baked goods - pastries, donuts, and especially cookies - were my downfall.

So when I started keto, I specifically decided I was going to eradicate the sweet taste from my palate. This may be completely unnecessary for some people, and may even be unnecessary for me. But it’s the approach I took when I started. I cut out diet colas (which I drank a lot of), any artificial sweetener, and never experimented with allulose, erythritol, or stevia as alternatives.

I had long ago developed an appreciation for darker chocolate, because it’s actually a health food with many positive benefits, eaten in small quantities. I had slowly worked my way up the percentages from 70% up to the 90% range. I would eat a couple of small squares with coffee, wine, or bourbon. However, most all of it did include some sugar.

I do still eat chocolate, in small quantities and not every day. I found the Montezuma’s 100% Absolute Dark to be quite acceptable in this role. Zero sugar, zero sweet taste, very strong chocolate flavor but not at all bitter. Because it is not sweet, it does not trigger overeating of it, or desire for other sweet foods.

I will usually have two to four squares of it at a time, a couple of days a week. Or will grate some as a topping for nuts and berries with whipped cream. One 3.5 oz bar tends to last me a full month.

Others may not like it, but I was already into the darker, 90+ chocolate anyway so it wasn’t a big step for me.

#12

There are sweet alternatives (keto friendly) at home as my husband likes them occasionally. I just don’t. I don’t even entertain them and they are not appealing. It took about 6 months to wean off the psychological dependency of sweet snacks. Prior I was really battling those cravings. I just don’t find them appealing at all anymore. As I said they are in our home and I see them in the pantry every day. I just have totally no desire to touch them. The smell of anything sweet doesn’t do anything for me anymore. The memory of having it in my mouth or tasting chocolates doesn’t appeal to me at all either.

(Mother of Puppies ) #13

I’m with you.

Cut it completely. If that seems harsh or difficult, it’s an addiction (for me).

I used to like [spoiler]Ghirardelli’s sea Salt soirée bars[/spoiler], but the fact that I thought about them weekly shows me in retrospect that it was a problem.

The power of Keto is that when I think or plan to cook something, I don’t even care what I cook… it takes me days to settle on something. Even the slightest leaning in one direction is an issue, since I suspect I’m one of those whose insulin response is extremely high.

Walking around with no food thoughts/preferences is amazing. I’m not reaching for snacks all the time. I’m just thinking what Keto meal can I get conveniently.

(John) #14

It took me about 3 months to get to where I didn’t still have wistful desires / cravings for “just one” and now after 5 months, I can say that I am immune to them (still not going to risk it just to prove it :smiley: ).

I did make a deal with myself, though, that if I am at or below my goal weight on my birthday in 2020, I am going to have some cake and ice cream. So I have that to look forward to. 21 months and 80 75 pounds to go. :rofl:

(Cindy) #15

I don’t really agree because I think of addiction as being something more serious. Yes, it’s semantics, but I’m not going to destroy my life due to a craving.

In general, a craving is just a craving. You’d LIKE to have it, you might even indulge more than you really should, but a craving probably won’t send you to a counselor, a 12-step program, rehab, cause you to kill someone, etc.

So I don’t describe what I feel for sweets as an addiction because I don’t want to belittle (what I consider are) true addictions such as alcohol, meth, heroin, and such.

#16

I went cold turkey on sweets, thought I’d struggle, but crossed some sort of bridge into a land of savery food.

First week or two of keto I ate like I had never eaten food before, mostly protein and fat but there was no “calorie restriction” (okay I pigged out big time). I experienced “satiety”. Finally brain goes - “now that’s what I’m talking about.”

Once your body draws satisfaction from non sweet food it’ll develop desires for those new things.

Or at least that’s how it all worked for me.

I reckon if I play with sweets I’ll get sucked back into their grip

(Full Metal KETO AF) #17

I have paused at the chocolate bar section of the store since I started 5 months ago. I like chocolate. However I have not been able to justify it in my mind using a significant amount of my daily carb allowance on a couple of squares of chocolate. I have made a few chocolate keto cakes (mostly for a friend) cookies once and coconut flour pancakes about 8 times during that five months. Not a trigger for me, just a break from everything tasting salty!

(Windmill Tilter) #18

If the reason sugar addiction isn’t deemed serious is because “I can stop anytime I want”, well that seems a lot like some other chemical addictions I’m familiar with…

I guess it depends on how you look at it. 100 million Americans have Type II diabetes or prediabetes and the rate of increase is growing. That’s the CDC estimate. The total cost of diabetes treatment in the US is over $327 billion dollars, that’s from the American Diabetes Association. To me, that’s sounds very serious.

I watched my great aunt cling to candy and sugar as she went blind from her type II diabetes. Then she had to be put in a wheelchair. Then they had to amputate her left foot. Then she lost her right foot. Then she died. She ate candy the whole way down. She couldn’t stop. That seemed pretty serious to me.

She was a sweet, generous, wonderful woman and she deserved better. If sugar isn’t the most serious chemical addiction in the US, I’m not sure what is. It depends on how you look at it though I guess.

(Jeremiah) #19

Speaking from my own experience so far (1 month in, 21lbs lost) here is my take on things like chocolate and treats. I’m treating my switch to Keto like quitting an addiction, which I definitely had with food. If regular food (carbs) is smoking cigarettes, and keto is quitting, then things like diet pop\chocolate\keto pizza are like non-nicotine inhalers. Yes they don’t have the addiction chemical in them (or at least not much) but they continue the mental addiction of bringing something to your mouth and inhaling. (I’m an ex-smoker, off for 14yrs now so this is very real to me)

What I did was put some Coke Zero in my fridge the first week I was on keto, I never drank diet before but I wanted something as a “dessert” because I felt the need for a sweet fix after eating. I drank 3 of the four over a period of a week and left the last can. I kept it there because I started to realize I needed to get over the addiction to a sweet taste regardless of carb content in the diet drink. Everytime I wanted something sweet I knew it was in the fridge but I forced myself to wait it out, drink some water first, etc, until the craving passed. Knowing it was there for some reason was comforting, but each time I talked the craving down in my head I felt a small win. The can is still there and will go untouched.

Like I said, for me it wasn’t just the carbs themselves, but the mental addiction I’m trying to shake. I do the same with snacks now too (keto snacks). I know they are there which is comforting, but everytime I think I want one I ask myself “Am I thirsty?” “Am I bored?” and I remedy those two things before hitting the snacks and 9 times out of 10 it works.

I have 30 more pounds to go in my journey, but keto has left me feeling so good overall I doubt I will ever go back to regular carb life ever again, I might as well stop dragging memories of it with me out of habit.

(John) #20

Oddly enough, I still had 5 Diet Cokes sitting on top of the fridge, where they have been for about 5 months. Today I decided I was never going to drink them and it’s too much hassle finding someone to give them to, so I just poured them all down the drain.

Even though that seems wasteful to me, it was about what I would tend to drink on a single weekend day, which would have made them disappear just as surely, but with no benefit to me.