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My mother, from the age of 79 to 87, has not eaten anything except after adding sugar or honey or Sweet juice, it started out hidden from me, then I noticed it, and the sugar was disappearing in less than a week.
Sometimes she puts sugar in a cup of water and drink it may times during the day. 2 years ago i replaced regular sugar with healthy sugar. And she still consumes sugar horribly, and wants to eat sweets all the time.
Sometimes she doesn't notice herself that She puts a lot of sweets in her mouth.
At first, the blood sugar test was terrifying before changing the type of sugar in the kitchen , and now the blood sugar test is moderate..
I try to focus on her condition without eating sugar and with it. Without sugar, she remains sitting or sleeping a lot. With sugar, she seems more energetic.
It seems to give her energy to move.
But her desire to eat sweets scares me a lot.

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Does she have a regular doctor? Craving sugar can be as simple as being dehydrated or some simple/complex deficiency or...

What has the doctor said? Getting bloodwork done, seeing what the labs say, can provide a great deal of information and direct an appropriate course of action.
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Hmmmm. And she's 87? I am 81 and now wondering if I should go on a sugar and honey diet.
So far I concentrate on salts and chips.
I would discuss this with her doctor. Ask for a nutrition consult.
But do understand that we all die, and sounds like she's made it to 87 this way. And is quite satisfied.
I will say, watching Naked and Afraid, it is amazing how long the human body can sustain without much food. Elders eat less and less and sleep more and more.
Good luck to you.
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Moondancer Jun 24, 2024
Your answer made me laugh so hard I'll bet you could hear it all the way from here in Sonoma County to SF!
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She's 87. Let her eat whatever she wants. She earned it.
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Does she have Dementia? People who suffer from Dementia loose their taste and smell. Sugar they can taste. If your substituting a sugar substitute for the sugar be careful. Some will cause diarrhea. Aspartame will cause seizures.
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Hibash Jul 2, 2024
No she hasn't..I'll thank you
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At 87 let her eat what ever she wants. I get how disturbing it must be and you are doing good trying to keep the sugar habit down.

It could be a lot worse, alcohol, smoking.

Your doing a great job, let her have her sweets if that's what makes her happy.

I am wondering if you could try adding more fruit or eve. Fruit juice to help her craving.
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Hibash Jun 25, 2024
I let her eat what she wants, but she seems to be out of control when it comes to sweets. She takes a lot of quantities, she might finish a large bag with 50 pieces in just two days... so I find that scary. As for fruits, yes, I mix them for her and she eats them. She loves any sweet fruit and sometimes she puts sugar and honey as well.
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Curious what you call a "healthy sugar"

Has she had other testing done to determine if all her bloodwork is within normal range?

Is mom living alone?
What would happen if she "ran out" of sugar?
Sweet is one of the sensations that hit the taste buds first and they last the longest so as other flavors fad salty, bitter the sweet will remain. It is one of the indications that "we", as humans have that let us know a potential food source is edible, safe and just like the hummingbirds it gives us energy.
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Hibash Jun 25, 2024
I live with her..
Her blood sugar tests are all good after changing the type of sugar from regular white to sugar extracted from fruits and vegetables.
And she still eating sweets 🍬 and honey 🍯 and sugar
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Sounds like you two love in the same house. It must be exhausting being the sugar police all the time. I’d have less sugar available and stop monitoring the consumption in some of that age
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She refuses to go to the doctor, so we seek help from our family doctors to visit her..
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JoAnn29 Jun 25, 2024
Family doctors do not visit. The may have a nurse practioner that does.
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There's no such thing as "healthy" sugar. Her taste may be affected because of her age too.

She may also be addicted to sugar. Many people are.
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She's old. If eating sugar makes her happy, let her eat it. Let her have some happiness because there is not much left to be happy about at the age of 87. There are so many losses in later life, just getting up every day is damn depressing.. Don't steal all the joy out of her last years, there isn't much left to look forward to happily.
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As we age, so do our taste buds. My mother extremely over salted and over sweetened EVERYTHING she ate for the last 10 years of her life. I replaced salt with No Salt and sugar with Truvia and kept my mouth shut. Her blood work was adequate but I didn’t care about it anymore. She recently passed away at age 91. This isn’t a situation you can change so just roll with it.
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This reminds me of my BIL who died of pancreatic cancer. Stunningly he lived with it for six years. He had the same oncologist for five of those years and when that doctor moved to another practice he had to see a different doctor. The new oncologist told him not to eat sweets, dairy products, red meat and a host of other foods. He had metastatic pancreatic cancer with no hope of surviving. BIL was so disgusted he asked “why, will I die.” He ate anything and everything he wanted for the rest of his life. The lesson I learned was that we shouldn’t put up unnecessary roadblocks to the happiness of our LO’s at the end of their lives.
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Grandma1954 Jul 2, 2024
👋👋👋 for your brothers response!
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If I’m 87 , I hope nobody takes my cake away .
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BurntCaregiver Jul 3, 2024
@way

If I live past 75 I'm not only going to resume my former love affair with cheeseburgers and fries, but also with bourbon whiskey and hot fudge sundaes. I also plan on taking up smoking again at that age. How I LOVED smoking!
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At 87 she’s way past the point of caring about healthy food choices. She’ll soon be dead regardless of what she eats, let her enjoy her remaining time eating whatever she wants.
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