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Is Sugar Killing Us?

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141–150 of 274 posts

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#141
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFalla... They are equal, as anybody with rudimentary knowledge of biochemistry can tell. Modern processed food have the added benefit of micronutrient fortification so your need of vitamins should be met mostly in case you actually plan to follow that diet. The appeal of a "balanced and natural" diet has a mostly puritan origin but its benefits are far from clear…

You claim they are equal but also benefit from added nutrients, which hinges on them not being equal.

As I said in a sibling post, restricting calories works. But, so does restricting grams. The same way not writing code prevents bugs. It also prevents features, so is a somewhat worthless endeavor.

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#142
post #120
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

I agree, and the focus should be a on a varied diet. So multiple complex carb sources (potatoes, whole grains, beans, etc).

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#143
post #31
post #9

Increase fats? No biggie, you'll get satiated too fast to overconsume. Increase proteins? You satiate even faster. Increase sugar? You will eat a lot more and your leptin signal gets all sorts of messed up.

That's not true, some people can eat a lot of cheese. http://www.irkitated.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/eat-bloc... Things are not as simple as "don't eat sugar"

Wholly unhelpful meme. What's his daily macro comp?

Things are really that easy. Sure there are many potential solutions, but that one definitely works.

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#144
post #98

Third year nutrition undergrad. Simple sugar consumption as a high percentage of carbohydrates/calories has the effect of chronic inflammation via oxidative stress, which is a factor of diabetes and other chronic disease. This article briefly discusses inflammation and has mostly sound nutritional advice: http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/what-you-eat-c... This lecture by Dr. Robert Lustig has been very p…

As a layman who got into nutrition for weight training purposes I want to ask you: why have I seen an uptick in the use of "inflammation" more broadly in nutrition from an year or so ago? You may be well aware of the whole broscience that runs in fitness forums and it's very hard sometimes to find good and scientifically accurate sources and until now I've been lumping most of those "inflammation" articles together w…

You can almost think of, "inflammation" as a synonym for, "detrimental reaction". The inflammation is going to be a wholly different thing, depending on what you're talking about. But it usually causes response in the body that then becomes a different, chronic problem.

Example: too much sugar -> inflammation of arteries (because reasons) -> buildup of cholesterol -> heart attack.

It's not the sugar that cause the heart attack, it's the inflammation from the sugar and the body's response to it. This may seem like a small detail, but remember the theory was that it was the buildup of dietary cholesterol that caused clogged arteries. That was an easy narrative to follow, since, "(because reasons)" wasn't something you can market easily. Fat-free food usually doesn't have cholesterol either so it's good for you, if you're worried about having a heart attack!

This is the same falisty of thinking that merely eating fat makes you fat.

Excessive sugar causing Type 2 Diabetes is much less a theory than the above (insulin resistance)

Anyways, different inflammation is the pain I feel in my wrists typing this, or the pain my ankle from an accident last year. That inflammation is Not Good, and could lead to other Bad Things, like perhaps cancer (so I'm told by an MD)

So it is a very broad term, but it does def. have meaning.

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#145
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 changed my diet a few years ago and also removed sugar. It has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. But I do love chocolate and still like to indulge.

Try the premium chocolate bars that are 80%-90% cocoa. The whole bar might be 10g of sugar, but the cocoa is so rich there’s no way you could even eat more than 1-2 tabs in one sitting. Compare that to a Snickers or whatever, which is 40-50g of sugar for the whole bar.

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#146
post #124

Article is paywalled, but anecdotally, last year I inched past that magic A1C reading where the doctor tells you you are Type 2 Diabetic. I switched to a low-carb/high-fat diet ( https://reddit.com/r/keto ) and fairly rapidly lost 30 pounds while eating things like avocados, eggs, cheese, butter, coconut oil and bacon. Several months of this diet and my A1C has dipped back to almost-normal, not even "pre-diabetic" le…

While keto seems promising in the short term, there isn't much data to validate whether it would be best for "most people". There is a definite concern long term with organ failure associated with ketoacidosis.

I don't think you are right. The long term impact of ketogenic diets have been study, especially in kids that have been on them for 10+ years to control seizures. (https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e...)

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#147

What's interesting is that most of the population of this planet does not even realize that glucose is not the only source of energy and that we can be powered entirely by beta-hydroxybutyrate (which comes from fats); our carbohydrate requirement is zero because our body can synthesize all the glucose it needs. Here is a pretty good and scientific talk about what is happening (warning > 1 hour long): https://www.yout…

There are costs to gluconeogenesis (glucose via protein catabolism), kidney issues to name one (deamination producing ammonia). The body does not synthesize glucose from fatty acids (beta-oxidation occurs producing aceytl-coA in the mitochondria, thus producing energy, but aceytl-CoA cannot be converted upwards in the pathway to glucose). A small amount of glucose can/does get created from glycerol. Nutrition recomme…

So you're saying HN comments are not a good source of my daily nutritional information?

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#148
post #95
post #84

Cutting out sugar causes anxiety, headache, and depression for me. Sugar is by far my most reliable therapist. Yes, I'm very very fat and have diabeetus. In a life characterized by struggle, this has been the one that challenges me most. Privately I feel very strongly that I am an addict, though I don't know if my condition matches the clinical definition.

Have you ever checked out Reddit's https://Reddit.com/r/keto keto subreddit? The keto-flu is a known & expected phase that matches the "anxiety and headache" thing. If you quit sugar "cold turkey" about 4 days in your body essentially switches from a carbs-for-fuel system to a fats-for-fuel one. It feel pretty wretched for a day. Afterwards you feel great, virtually never hungry, & weight melts off.

Can confirm that. The very first time I attempted a keto like diet (was actually a PSMF if I recall correctly), I felt so shitty and lightheaded in the first couple days that I bailed and tore into a small pack of cookies.

It gets a lot easier though. After going in and out of keto a couple more times, it completely stops being an issue.

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#149
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a layman who got into nutrition for weight training purposes I want to ask you: why have I seen an uptick in the use of "inflammation" more broadly in nutrition from an year or so ago? You may be well aware of the whole broscience that runs in fitness forums and it's very hard sometimes to find good and scientifically accurate sources and until now I've been lumping most of those "inflammation" articles together w…

You can almost think of, "inflammation" as a synonym for, "detrimental reaction". The inflammation is going to be a wholly different thing, depending on what you're talking about. But it usually causes response in the body that then becomes a different, chronic problem. Example: too much sugar -> inflammation of arteries (because reasons) -> buildup of cholesterol -> heart attack. It's not the sugar that cause the he…

Inflammation = immune response, and isn't always detrimental (immune response to a foreign body, or healing from trauma are good responses) but can be a bad thing (arthritis from antibody complexes, or artery inflammation as we are focusing on for this discussion).

Otherwise the parent's comment is pretty on point.

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ketoacidosis and ketosis are two different things.

Ketoacidosis is a definite concern with ketosis. Perhaps "common effect" was a bit overstated :/

It's only common for diabetics or people with impaired kidneys. It's perfectly safe otherwise. Ten minutes of research would show that.
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