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

aeon.co

81–90 of 221 posts

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

#81
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…

You must mean "stop having anything with added sugar" because humans need sugars to survive, nearly all food has natural sugars in it, and if you ate 0 grams of sugar for more than a couple of weeks you would die. I'm being a bit pedantic because it's important to understand that moderation is the key, not trying to completely eliminate one family of molecules from your diet.

if you ate 0 grams of sugar for more than a couple of weeks you would die

No you absolutely would not. Your body can synthesize glucose from protein and fat, you can survive indefinitely on zero sugar. This is called ketogenic diet.

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

#82
post #36
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

https://www.ncbi.nqlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10435117

For most people high fiber foods are better.

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

#83
post #75
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?!

Imagine somebody whose favourite snack is a nice slice of baguette with butter slathered on it. By cutting butter, he's also effectively cut an unnecessary carb-heavy between-meal snack, since he doesn't want the baguette without the butter.

It sounds like they learned to enjoy the plain bagel.

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

#84
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…

damn, you short niqqa.

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

#85
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…

> I continued to take other natural sweeteners like jaggery and honey. ...which are also 80+% sugar.

Therefore you cannot look at each component in isolation.

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

#86
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds very interesting as another metric (like weight on a scale, as you put it) for someone trying to be conscious about their health. Is this something that a person could do cheaply at home with over-the-counter diabetic testing supplies? Could you be more specific or link to something about a protocol for e.g. measuring the effect of a meal on blood glucose and how to interpret those results?

Disclaimer: This is not medical advice and I'm not very knowledgeable, I'm just a data and public health geek. If you believe you may have diabetes or pre-diabetes, contact a doctor. Yes, it's doable with over-the-counter products. You need a meter and lancet device, and then for each test, a single-use lancet insert (tiny needle) and test strip. These are usually bundled together in a pharmacy for $25-$75. However,…

My mother and her sisters are all diabetic and while my yearly blood work always comes out fine, I've always wanted to do some additional testing because I've noticed my mood is affected by meals.

Thank you for taking the time to write out your comment, I will be buying the testing supplies in the coming days.

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

#88
post #70
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…

I'm 17x cm and weigh 7x kg. I run (mostly 10K, completed a half-marathon recently) and lift weights semi-regularly. I have a relatively low sugar intake. I don't feel energetic at all. I get home from work and more or less lay down until I fall asleep. Gabriel Iglesias seems to be way more energetic than me. Jaggery seems to be 50% sucrose, and honey is mostly glucose and fructose. Shouldn't it have the same effect o…

Had the same, was diagnosed with sleep apnea.

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

#89
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear these anecdotes in many forms, and in my experience the real shared causative factor is making a decision to change, and acting on it. I don't know if it matters what that change is, as long as it's healthy and changes the math of caloriesin - caloriesout. In other words, I wonder if it's the decision and willingness to make hard changes, rather than the specific nature of those changes, which is the real acti…

Here's an anecdote the other direction. One of our employees decided to cut out fast food completely. Total weight loss in over 6 months of doing this? 0 pounds. Why? Because his at-home diet was still full of sugar and carbs (and he admitted as much..."I'll never give up bread!") Meanwhile, I did a low-carb "lazy Keto" diet where all I did was keep carbs under 20g net per day. I continued to eat fast food at least a…

low-carb "lazy Keto" diet where all I did was keep carbs under 20g net per day

Looks like a strict keto to me, anything under 30g net carbs per day will put you into ketosis.

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

#90
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must mean "stop having anything with added sugar" because humans need sugars to survive, nearly all food has natural sugars in it, and if you ate 0 grams of sugar for more than a couple of weeks you would die. I'm being a bit pedantic because it's important to understand that moderation is the key, not trying to completely eliminate one family of molecules from your diet.

if you ate 0 grams of sugar for more than a couple of weeks you would die No you absolutely would not. Your body can synthesize glucose from protein and fat, you can survive indefinitely on zero sugar. This is called ketogenic diet.

Considering that many essential nutrients are provided by plants which also provide sugars, you'd have to eat synthetic 'food' in order to avoid all sugars.
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