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Is Sugar Killing Us?

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111–120 of 274 posts

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#111
I'm celiac, so my body has some crazy responses to food. I get withdrawal symptoms from a couple of foods and have cut them out because of it. Sugar was the most recent. When I stop eating it I get a sinus headache, I get the shakes (like drinking too much caffeine), and if it's bad, I throw up. What blew my mind in giving up sugar was that I lost 5 lbs. I'm was lean at 155 lbs and 6'1, I dropped below 150 now. It really opened my eyes to how much sugar is converted to fat.

I gave up gluten (withdrawal symptoms), high fructose foods (digestive issues, celiacs wrecks your small intestine lining), caffeine (withdrawal symptoms), sodium nitrites (withdrawal symptoms, but I don't know much about this one, it's in bacon and deli meats as a preservative / cure), and now sugar (withdrawal symptoms). I feel so good. My nose used to be stuffy all the time, I used to have awful digestion, cutting out these foods totally changed my life.

I'm honestly really grateful that I'm celiac, I think it magnifies all the shittiness that these foods bring. It got me to realize all the garbage I was sustaining myself on. I'm now incredibly healthy despite being 'sick'. One of the stranger realizations was that I now only drink water, and that I used to live mostly off of soda.

All these industries have huge interests in selling people addicting food (caffeine, sugar) and maintaining their market positions. They put out so much misinformation on what is healthy.

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#112
post #104
post #70

I've really cut down on sugar from august to november. I didn't really notice anything except loosing a lot of weight (mind that I already was under weight, but I should probably build some muscle anyway) So in comes December. And there is candy and chocolate everywhere. In just a single week our house filled up with it and here I am, stuffing my face full of sugar. I think the struggle just goes on, right?

I cut sugar for 40 days in April and lost weight, too (having normal weight). After a while, I was back to old habits. Thought about trying the same thing in mid-November. Worked alright. Then came December and while I'm eating a cookie here and there, it's way less than previous years. I think the struggle just goes on, right? To some extend: Yes. But something flipped in my head this time. The struggle is less seri…

Ditto. I have been trying to stop eating sugar since I was a teenager. Tried many times. But this time (over summer) it was like a switch was flipped. Went from eating a couple of chocolate bars every week, plus assorted biscuits (cookies) to nothing.

The struggle goes on if you keep getting little triggers which wake up the green-eyed monster that always wants more sugar. If you avoid slightly sugary things it will help avoiding very sugary things.

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#113
post #7

Pro tip: you need a balanced diet. Despite all the recent conspiracy theories, getting rid of sugar while e.g. eating loads of fat is not going to do you good. Downvoters: show me academic papers. Not some tabloid mis-quoting some paper, but the actual paper or at least an abstract. Otherwise you're just being dietary fanboys "SV kids getting healthy thanks to one weird trick"

>>show me academic papers

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2012/11/19/ask-...

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#114
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The human body have an amazing ability to adapt to the environment and we will survive as long as energy intake match energy expenditure. The only category that need some attention is protein where having too little or too much can lead to issues. An Inuit from Greenland is no more or less healthy than an American or farmer from Brazil because of what they eat.

Thanks for the heads up, since you've told me that all food is equal I'm going to switch my diet to only include Soda, Doritos and Hotpockets. I'm sure my body will adapt amazingly.

What do you honestly think would happen if you did, assuming that your calories were limited to an amount that kept you at a consistent healthy weight for your size?

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#115
post #86
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you gotten tested for sleep apnea?

I'm interested, what is the relevance of sleep apnea in this context?

The exact nature of the relationship hasn't been figured out, but there is definitely some nexus of chronic stress, sleep disruption, and metabolic syndrome/prediabetes. Sleep apnea is fairly common but often goes undiagnosed. People aren't routinely screened for it, and even when they are screened, the questionnaires are heavily biased toward people who present with drowsiness as their primary symptom.

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#116
post #74

Paywall Is it a matter of dosage? Because if it is, how do you make people consume less? Of course you can set a limit for grams of sugar per gram of food sold, I guess it could make people eat less sugar.

With WSJ if you google the title of the article you can get in from the search result link.

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#117
post #7

Pro tip: you need a balanced diet. Despite all the recent conspiracy theories, getting rid of sugar while e.g. eating loads of fat is not going to do you good. Downvoters: show me academic papers. Not some tabloid mis-quoting some paper, but the actual paper or at least an abstract. Otherwise you're just being dietary fanboys "SV kids getting healthy thanks to one weird trick"

"Current dietary advice says foods containing high levels of saturated fats such as cream, butter, red meat, eggs and cheese should be avoided because they increase the risk of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and cancer. "But a study published in a leading medical journal has found the opposite is true, with a diet full of natural fats improving the health of people taking part." "The study, published in the American…

You do realize that you are quoting science from the Daily Express.

They once published a short article on the benefits of a new drug being created by genetic modification (they have a very heavy anti GM stance in all their articles), but this time it was OK, because the gene was from a potato and not from a test tube.

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#118

First they thought it was fat killing us, now that they know that's not really true they think it's sugar killing us. I wonder if I'll live to see the day the headlines read "protein is killing us!"

I think that is something that various vegan doctors have asserted. Or at least, that dairy-based proteins are particularly damaging. See the oft-derided China study folks.

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#120
post #88
post #45

I firmly believe that sugar not only makes us fat, but also has an effect on the psychological state of certain people (e.g. people with anxiety problems). In my own experience, cutting out sugar (from anything else but fruit) and wheat from my diet has made a big difference.

I've been told my whole life that wheat (or whole-grained and fibrous foods in general) is healthy -- can you elaborate some more?

Well, in the US, the USDA promoted grains as the base of the food pyramid[1]. But this turned out to be at the behest of grain industries.

Whole grains are much better for you than white or processed breads, but they should still only be a small part of your diet, not the base.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_USDA_nutrition_guid...

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