My Centers program sent us off with the following rules:

No No's:
Liquids: No More than 25g of Carbs
Solids: No more than 10g of Sugar

I really think this is so we can avoid Dumping. But I am having a problem as I move into solids because most recipes don't list the sugar amount.

Any tips out there on how to stay under 10g of Sugar (per serving) without the Sugar content listed?

thanks!

Quick answer: don't eat any sugar at all. I've been living sugar free for 2 years now and it's not hard to do. I don't usually dump from small amounts of hidden sugar (like if it's in a sauce that I get at a restaurant for example). I'd say if you don't buy stuff with sugar and don't add it to anything, what little sugar you get in your diet probably won't hurt you at all.

Here's the rule that I learned from OA: no sugar or white flour in the first 5 ingredients (I'd add high fructose corn syrup or any sweetener to that list). They figure anything after the first 5 ingredients is pretty minimal anyway.

My rule: don't buy it. don't add it. don't eat it if you have a choice.

We're so fortunate to live in a time when we have so many options!

hope this helps give you some ideas of how to approach "real food"

Most of the things I've eaten that have a label, the sugar count is listed in the carb count. For foods that don't have a label i.e. fruits and vegetables, I'm still not suppose to have more than 15g of carb/per meal and nothing exceeding 5g of sugar/serving. For most stuff, this means about 2oz./meal.

Once, I'm at goal, I think the carb count goes to 20g/meal and no snacking.

I think if we stick with the simple rules here, we stay aok and the
no sugar, lowlowlow carbs thing takes care of itself

• Protein First (dense protein orefered at meals)
• No Slider Foods (stuff made with flour and sugar .... empty calories)
• No drinking 30 mins- 1 hour before or after meals
• Stay Hydrated (divide your weight by 1/2 & that is the number of ounces of water we should drink daily)
• Get movin'! Make it a Habit.

I think getting crazy about the nubers can be so frustrating to some of us that we can't focus
on the essentials.. IMOHO The neighborhood rules, as paraphrased above, ARE THE essentials.

Ditto to what has been said.

Thanks all!!

I've been trolling through the Recipes here, trying to prepare for my ack to work meals next week. I'm pretty scared about bringing the right foods to work. (don't want to screw up my plan or dump or find something my pouch hates!). Since I'm just starting solids, I'm trying to be extra careful.

hmmm Fuzz, as for going back to work,
I think my biggest piece of advice would be
make sure you take your time and really chew your food.
I get distracted and used to get kind of nervous around
folks at work and would start gulping... not a good plan...
If you're just starting solids, you might consider small
curd cottage cheese. I like it with the already made up
sugar free jello cups. A nice combo (unless you hate cottage cheese).
I know I returned to work without the benefit of the Neighborhood and
mid-morning I began my ill-fated romance with slider foods...
I always ate one of those pkgs of peanut-butter/ cheese crackers....
NONONONO! I came to find out... So now I fill that mid morning/ mid afternoon
food slot with a bit of an apple and peanut-butter or part of a nice soft pear
with some lovely white cheese. Creamed Cheese with an extra thin slice of
pkged Deli turkey or ham wrapped around it.
Just slow and easy does it. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

This was good reading, thank you.
Still in the prep stages for surgery at our house.
We took a significant step over this weekend, however, and emptied the sugar bowl, washed it, and stored it.
Although sugar is still in the house for our coffee drinking friends, there's only sugar substitute sitting out for the three of us to use.

I bought a sugar free cookbook with a lot of good recipes using fruit in its own juice as sweetener. Two taste tests and so far so good.