My doc told me I could loose weight or be on medicine the rest of my life and still feel like crap. I chose to give up on my love for sugar. Started out with Atkins because it is easy and always worked for me, always dropped weight fast but would rebound almost as fast. Now I get all my carbs from fruit, eat very little processed food, enjoy meat and fish, gave up on diet drinks so water and coffee black are my drink of choice. Still dropping weight and feel much better. I actually think we are sugar junkies.
Just a note my niece is teaching in China again this year, 3rd year, she is a health junkie and is very regimented about her portions and her diet. She gained ten pounds here over the summer before going back. The only difference she saw was that in China all the food is fresh and they eat very little processed or preserved foods. She also commented on how they eat every part of an animal and the funny thing is parts we discard they treat as delicacies, like tongue and fish heads, , , I still remember my grandparents used to make cow brain, tongue, mountain oysters. . . and I think how we have become spoiled as a people.
U make home made bread and it goes bad in a couple days if not eaten, store bought can stay good for weeks, there is just something wrong with that. I know two officers who were having medical issues, one was a Mountain Dew fanatic and it turned out he has a yellow dye problem and another has a red dye allergy. When you stop and look at the foods that add die to make them appeal to us it starts to make you wonder what all we are shoving in our pie wholes.
I personally don't think the artificial preservatives and sweeteners are very good for you and since changing my diet, my tastes have changed also.
Happy eating