on going to unsweetened coffee
Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2015 3:10 am
Hi everybody, I don't post often but try to visit once a week.
I do have a cool discovery to share. I've noticed something interesting about switching to unsweetened coffee-- I thought I would mind very much but it actually tastes fine and, shocking to me, IT LASTS LONGER/SATISFIES MORE.
Earlier in the year I thought I might give up sugar in my coffee for Lent-- I associate coffee with my afternoon break and thus an indulgence. I realized I was pretty anxious about giving up my sweet milky coffee treat and made myself try it sans sugar or flavoring syrup a couple of times when I was in a hurry anyway, long before Lent.
As I said already, I was stunned. The coffee tasted more like... coffee. I didn't drink it down as fast (as mindlessly?!) as when it's sweet. Even though it cooled before I finished it, it still tasted fine to sip. (If my sweetened coffee lasted long enough to cool, it always tasted better warmed up). The Dove chocolate I occasionally had with my coffee tasted better. And I didn't get that fuzzy-teeth feeling I get after a sweet drink. I stopped sweetening my coffee... and found other penances for Lent! (I do think giving up the whole milk in there would be a penance, but, like others, I find it helps tide me over between meals.)
Your mileage may vary depending on your habits. I almost always only have one cup a day since I started "using" coffee again just a couple years ago, when I succumbed to the influx of quality coffee product in the house from my barista daughter. I'm guessing I thought part of what I liked about the prepared drinks my daughter was bringing home and I was tasting was the sweetness. Yet many years ago when I was way too tough and cool I drank lots of straight black coffee which I dropped when I quit cigarettes. I've never otherwise liked sweet drinks--I'd rather eat those soda and juice calories as sweets or fruit.
I've probably gone on too long but posted in case this helps someone else. I don't think there's anything inherently evil in a sweetened coffee-- but I know for myself, sugar on an empty stomach can lead to the blood sugar spike and plummet that turn into the slippery slope of raging hunger!
I do have a cool discovery to share. I've noticed something interesting about switching to unsweetened coffee-- I thought I would mind very much but it actually tastes fine and, shocking to me, IT LASTS LONGER/SATISFIES MORE.
Earlier in the year I thought I might give up sugar in my coffee for Lent-- I associate coffee with my afternoon break and thus an indulgence. I realized I was pretty anxious about giving up my sweet milky coffee treat and made myself try it sans sugar or flavoring syrup a couple of times when I was in a hurry anyway, long before Lent.
As I said already, I was stunned. The coffee tasted more like... coffee. I didn't drink it down as fast (as mindlessly?!) as when it's sweet. Even though it cooled before I finished it, it still tasted fine to sip. (If my sweetened coffee lasted long enough to cool, it always tasted better warmed up). The Dove chocolate I occasionally had with my coffee tasted better. And I didn't get that fuzzy-teeth feeling I get after a sweet drink. I stopped sweetening my coffee... and found other penances for Lent! (I do think giving up the whole milk in there would be a penance, but, like others, I find it helps tide me over between meals.)
Your mileage may vary depending on your habits. I almost always only have one cup a day since I started "using" coffee again just a couple years ago, when I succumbed to the influx of quality coffee product in the house from my barista daughter. I'm guessing I thought part of what I liked about the prepared drinks my daughter was bringing home and I was tasting was the sweetness. Yet many years ago when I was way too tough and cool I drank lots of straight black coffee which I dropped when I quit cigarettes. I've never otherwise liked sweet drinks--I'd rather eat those soda and juice calories as sweets or fruit.
I've probably gone on too long but posted in case this helps someone else. I don't think there's anything inherently evil in a sweetened coffee-- but I know for myself, sugar on an empty stomach can lead to the blood sugar spike and plummet that turn into the slippery slope of raging hunger!