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Is Sugar Killing Us?

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Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#161

Post by Periodic »

jerf wrote: post #133
TACIXAT wrote: post #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 re…

"caffeine (withdrawal symptoms)," Do you mean that the caffeine itself doesn't bother you (above its expected effect), but that the withdrawal is pretty rough? I'm curious, because I also have celiac, and I've also ended up dropping caffeine because it was getting to be too much of a pain to manage it whenever I had to do without for some reason (travel mostly). I've noticed I have no grace with it; if I drink a 20oz…

Caffeine is known to have withdrawal symptoms. Those headaches, for me in the face and forehead, seem to be a common symptom.

As I went through my 20s I experimented with abandoning coffee a few times. I had developed the habit in college and I wanted to ensure that I was continuing to drink coffee for the benefits and not simply because I was addicted to it. This meant that I did handful of experiments with not drinking coffee for 2-3 months. The first week or two would be rough. Headaches starting 24-30 hours after I stopped and persisting for about a week. After that I would just settle into what felt like a normal life, but a lot more groggy.

The main difference between my life with coffee and my life without seemed to just be how grumpy I was before noon. I still had insomnia, I still got tired after lunch. Those things seemed unconnected to the coffee.

Maybe I need to go off coffee for a long time to really see the benefits, e.g. give it 3-6 months for my body to recover and stabilize. I'm not sure, but at this point I have what I consider to be a healthy consumption level and I get the benefits of increased alertness and focus in the mornings. I'm focusing on other elements of my life to address any health concerns.

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#162

Post by orasis »

reactor wrote: post #68
chrismealy wrote: post #42

I quit sugar for two weeks and the runny nose and sinus headache I'd had my whole life went away. It wasn't hard. Everybody should try it.

Oh man, can you please shed more lights on this as I've exactly same problem, sinusitis and running nose (mostly because I'm allergic to cold and histamine is wreaking havoc). I'm trying all the possible way to control it, exercising regularly, taking lemon+honey everyday morning etc. But only an anti-histamine (xyzal or zyrtec) is working for me. It's interesting that to know if it has anything to do with Sugar, as…

Alcohol, especially beer is a real exacerbator for me. Try a temporary elimination diet like whole30.com. You'll be able to establish a baseline of how you feel with everything cut out then selectively add foods back in and see which ones negatively affect you.

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#163

Post by [deleted] »

amelius wrote: post #123
gtrubetskoy wrote: post #106

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…

I didnt' watch the video yet. But do you need to be "in ketosis" to benefit from this energy source? How difficult is it to incorporate this in your diet? And is it expensive?

[deleted]

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#164

Post by stevehawk »

jerf wrote: post #133
TACIXAT wrote: post #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 re…

"caffeine (withdrawal symptoms)," Do you mean that the caffeine itself doesn't bother you (above its expected effect), but that the withdrawal is pretty rough? I'm curious, because I also have celiac, and I've also ended up dropping caffeine because it was getting to be too much of a pain to manage it whenever I had to do without for some reason (travel mostly). I've noticed I have no grace with it; if I drink a 20oz…

I'm in this boat. I recently got advised to drop caffeine for heartburn/reflux reasons. It took me a bit to realize that I was repeatedly going through withdrawal because I would still have a can of something every other day as a 'reward' or whatever lie I would tell myself. I had to go cold turkey. No coffee, not even decaf tea.

Boy do I miss soda something fierce.

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#165

Post by Afton »

mads wrote: post #56
mgarfias wrote: post #43

Recently diagnosed diabetic here. Yes, I'm fat, but no excessively so. When I tell people I'm diabetic they're confused as I don't look the type. What I can say is that I can see the effects of cortisol (stress) on my fasting glucose levels. When my ex does something that causes strife, my glucose levels will be 20-30 pts higher for the next few days. In general, I ate fairly decently, and didn't consume mass amounts…

Maybe there is a relationship between sugar consumption and our ability to cope with stress? I found, that when I stopped eating sugar, it wasn't exactly a big revelation, but merely a subtle change (mentally), that made me somehow less anxious and when I had irrational anxiety "attacks", I was able to suppress them better. I don't have any better way to explain this psychological stuff, but for me there was a change…

In the interests of anecdata, I went ketogenic for about 18 months. One of my reasons for doing this that my sister described in glowing terms how eating this way had all sort of positive mental health efforts (more muted emotional responses, mental clarity, lack of anxiety).

I had no effect of that sort. I can only assume that this is one of those 'some people respond well to this, others not so much'.

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#166

Post by tylershuster »

iopq wrote: post #31
kumarski wrote: 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"

Cheese contains morphine, so that's cheating.

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#167

Post by mataug »

stevehawk wrote: post #164
jerf wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"caffeine (withdrawal symptoms)," Do you mean that the caffeine itself doesn't bother you (above its expected effect), but that the withdrawal is pretty rough? I'm curious, because I also have celiac, and I've also ended up dropping caffeine because it was getting to be too much of a pain to manage it whenever I had to do without for some reason (travel mostly). I've noticed I have no grace with it; if I drink a 20oz…

I'm in this boat. I recently got advised to drop caffeine for heartburn/reflux reasons. It took me a bit to realize that I was repeatedly going through withdrawal because I would still have a can of something every other day as a 'reward' or whatever lie I would tell myself. I had to go cold turkey. No coffee, not even decaf tea. Boy do I miss soda something fierce.

I used love soda as well. I realized that the best way to avoid cravings is to reduce my refined sugar intake as much as possible.

After about a month my cravings completely disappeared and now when I taste soda its way too sweet and I just don't feel like drinking it anymore.

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#168

Post by kumarski »

DanBC wrote: post #103
kumarski wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's very true that in most scenarios it's entirely too easy to eat too much sugar in the foods we consume. I think most people with a nutritional chemistry background would agree, as well, most general medicine practitioners that eating less sugar is a proper direction for much of the population.

That's not the point you made though. You specifically said that it's hard to overconsume fat and protein. It really isn't. When we look at what obese people eat they aren't just eating too much sugar. They're eating too much of everything, including fat. Cutting out the sugar would help (especially because it's often a pointless addition with a painless substitution eg soda to non-sugar soda), but it would not be en…

P(harm your own nutrition | consumed sugar) > P(harm your own nutrition | consumed fats/proteins)

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#169

Post by bostonpete »

leshow wrote: post #156
spilk wrote: 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…

almost eliminating one of three macro nutrients probably led you to consume far fewer calories. the reduction is calories is what causes weight loss, this is not a magic effect of consuming less sugar. your body will not lose weight without a reduction in caloric intake, that you successfully lost weight is proof that your new diet was a caloric deficit. i'm glad you had such success, i just wanted to point out to ot…

There's a little magic -- by keeping your body in a state of ketosis, you end up with a lot less in the way of blood sugar fluctuations that can lead to cravings.

Re: Is Sugar Killing Us?

#170

Post by overgard »

calvano915 wrote: post #137
gtrubetskoy wrote: post #106

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…

I'm always skeptical when I hear "Nutrition recommendations" because it implies some sort of authority. Nutrition recommendations from who? The USDA?

It's worth reading the history of the food pyramid. Here's a quote from wikipedia:

"The first chart suggested to the USDA by nutritional experts in 1992 featured fruits and vegetables as the biggest group, not breads. This chart was overturned at the hand of special interests in the grain, meat, and dairy industries, all of which are heavily subsidized by the USDA.[10] If Americans followed the chart suggested, they would buy much less meat, milk, and bread. On the other hand, if they ate as the revised chart suggested, it "could lead to an epidemic of obesity and diabetes," as original composer of the food Pyramid, Louise Light warned. "

I know from a personal standpoint, once I removed refined carbohydrates from my diet I dropped 25 pounds in two months (without bothering to excersize.) So the idea that somehow the diet that made me fat is somehow the "good" diet because the USDA says so strikes me as being silly.

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