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Sugar alters hormones and metabolism, sets stage for obesity and diabetes

aeon.co

31–40 of 221 posts

Re: Sugar alters hormones and metabolism, sets stage for obesity and diabetes

#31
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oddly enough, I can share an anecdote too. After a health scare, I decided to change my diet. I didn't think that I was self disciplined enough to count calories, so I arbitrarily eliminated certain things from my diet, most notably butter. My exercise didn't change much: Cycling to work every day. I got a new bike, but it didn't make me go that much faster. Within a few months, I went from 175 to 150 pounds (about 7…

If butter is the only thing you removed from your diet, you must have been eating an incredible amount of it?!

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Re: Sugar alters hormones and metabolism, sets stage for obesity and diabetes

#32
post #10

I would like to share an anecdote. In March 2016, I was weighing 96 kilograms (211.64 pounds). I made just one change during that time which is to stop having anything with sugar. I continued to take other natural sweeteners like jaggery and honey. The rest of my diet remained the same and my activity level remained the same ( I work in IT as a network engineer in a desk job) In October 2016, I was weighing 72 kilos…

Oddly enough, I can share an anecdote too. After a health scare, I decided to change my diet. I didn't think that I was self disciplined enough to count calories, so I arbitrarily eliminated certain things from my diet, most notably butter. My exercise didn't change much: Cycling to work every day. I got a new bike, but it didn't make me go that much faster. Within a few months, I went from 175 to 150 pounds (about 7…

[deleted]

Re: Sugar alters hormones and metabolism, sets stage for obesity and diabetes

#33
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is _no_ amount of butter (or fat, in general) that you can eat that will make you gain weight, provided there is no sugar in your diet. You will physically not be able to eat more than your body can deal with, this is because fat, unlike sugar, triggers the i-am-full hormones which make food impossible to eat.

No, that is plain wrong. Calories count, no matter where they are from. Ketogenic diets might increase your metabolism and reduce your appetite and hunger, which makes weight loss easier, but you'll still gain weight if you eat too many fat calories each day. Even if you cut out carbs entirely.

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Re: Sugar alters hormones and metabolism, sets stage for obesity and diabetes

#34
post #10

I would like to share an anecdote. In March 2016, I was weighing 96 kilograms (211.64 pounds). I made just one change during that time which is to stop having anything with sugar. I continued to take other natural sweeteners like jaggery and honey. The rest of my diet remained the same and my activity level remained the same ( I work in IT as a network engineer in a desk job) In October 2016, I was weighing 72 kilos…

Oddly enough, I can share an anecdote too. After a health scare, I decided to change my diet. I didn't think that I was self disciplined enough to count calories, so I arbitrarily eliminated certain things from my diet, most notably butter. My exercise didn't change much: Cycling to work every day. I got a new bike, but it didn't make me go that much faster. Within a few months, I went from 175 to 150 pounds (about 7…

> So it probably was a reduction in carbs

No, it was a reduction in calories, quite simply. If anything, butter is very heavy on fats and low on carbs...

Re: Sugar alters hormones and metabolism, sets stage for obesity and diabetes

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t you see the trend? “Recommended amounts” may be a large part of the issue. Doesn’t the US recommend 325 grams of sugar (carbohydrates) a day?

Fiber has 0 calories, which implies people in the US in general barely eat fruit and vegetables. No one overdosed on fiber. It's quite silly to claim that 2000kcal of legume carbohydrate (more than 300 grams of carbs) will alter my hormones or metabolism in a negative way, so demonizing a macronutrient is bad science.

> Fiber has 0 calories, which implies people in the US in general barely eat fruit and vegetables

This is true. The vast majority of Americans do not eat sufficient fruit and vegetables. This 2015 CDC study [1] concluded that only 13.1% of the population consumes enough fruit, and only 8.9% eat enough veggies.

> It's quite silly to claim that 2000kcal of legume carbohydrate (more than 300 grams of carbs) will alter my hormones or metabolism in a negative way, so demonizing a macronutrient is bad science.

Nobody claims that. You obviously haven't read the article.

The excess of carbohydrates in today's diets doesn't come from fruit and vegetables (as [1] clearly shows), but from added sugar and refined grains. The article explains the critical role a chronically high level of insulin in the bloodstream plays in throwing the body's metabolic processes out of balance, leading to both obesity and type-2 diabetes.

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6426a1.htm

Re: Sugar alters hormones and metabolism, sets stage for obesity and diabetes

#36
post #28
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If butter is the only thing you removed from your diet, you must have been eating an incredible amount of it?!

No, butter makes the other stuff more delicious, making you eat just a little more each time.

Doesn't fat make food more satisfying, making you feel fulfilled sooner?

Needs a citation I guess.

Re: Sugar alters hormones and metabolism, sets stage for obesity and diabetes

#37
How Big Business Got Brazil Hooked on Junk Food[1]. "As their growth slows in the wealthiest countries, multinational food companies like Nestlé, PepsiCo and General Mills have been aggressively expanding their presence in developing nations, unleashing a marketing juggernaut that is upending traditional diets from Brazil to Ghana to India." "a growing number of people are both overweight and undernourished." "The diet is killing us." Nestlé: "We didn’t expect what the impact would be".

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/16/health/brazil... , about: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/17/insider/as-global-obesity...

Re: Sugar alters hormones and metabolism, sets stage for obesity and diabetes

#38
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honey has a lower glycemic index/insulin response than sucrose.

It's a bit better than sugar, yes, and I suppose you would tend to eat less honey than sugar. Jaggery though... I can't imagine it has a GI much different from sugar?

I think it's not just about GI, jaggery would have more GI, I am not sure, but you could think of another angle - jaggery is unrefined sugar retaining the dietary fibre - that could result in a lower GI also some other benefits which we might be still discovering.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2730183

Re: Sugar alters hormones and metabolism, sets stage for obesity and diabetes

#39
Ever notice how since the 1980 the mantras changed from 'eat less, exercise more' to 'fad' diets whose one common theme was 'don't consume less, but eat different'. Subsequently obesity skyrocketed and the fat-lobby made sure that anyone who even pointed out the problem got demonized. Meanwhile 'food-scientists' silently made designer drugs out of daily consumables leading to a feeding frenzy and an obesity pandemic.

Re: Sugar alters hormones and metabolism, sets stage for obesity and diabetes

#40
post #10

I would like to share an anecdote. In March 2016, I was weighing 96 kilograms (211.64 pounds). I made just one change during that time which is to stop having anything with sugar. I continued to take other natural sweeteners like jaggery and honey. The rest of my diet remained the same and my activity level remained the same ( I work in IT as a network engineer in a desk job) In October 2016, I was weighing 72 kilos…

Oddly enough, I can share an anecdote too. After a health scare, I decided to change my diet. I didn't think that I was self disciplined enough to count calories, so I arbitrarily eliminated certain things from my diet, most notably butter. My exercise didn't change much: Cycling to work every day. I got a new bike, but it didn't make me go that much faster. Within a few months, I went from 175 to 150 pounds (about 7…

FYI: The butter in my fridge has 743kcal per 100g.

Could you share how much butter you bought per month and what the package size was?

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