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

aeon.co

121–130 of 221 posts

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

#121
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?!

I was just eating a lot less food overall because it was less pleasant. So it probably was a reduction in carbs.

It literally says in the text that he ate less overall.

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

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 IIRC both combat divers and people with certain kinds of epilepsy benefit from carb free diets as it reduces risk of passing out (for combat divers with rebreathers) and epileptic attacks (for epileptics).

What do you think a 'carb free' diet excludes? What does it include? I'm asking, because I'm genuinely confused by the fact that all plant (veggies, fruits, seeds/grains, all of it) matter contains sugars. Do a lot of folks really sustain themselves on meat alone? Hell, not even my 100lb german shepherd can live on only meat (IIRC carnivores frequently eat stomach contents of herbivores they kill/find to get nutrient…

A carb-free diet eliminates plant sugars as well, yes. Many survive & thrive on meat alone.

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

#123
This is the truth. There's a lot more to this - so much so that I decided to make a documentary about it. I don't mean to promote it (there is nothing to promote yet, for now it's just a website), but here it is if anyone is interested http://FoodLies.org

I have one of these thought leader doctors on board. Would love any feedback or help from the community to get this made.

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

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In that sense, a calorie is a calorie. This has been thoroughly disproven for ages -- starting with the naive assumption that you can just eat X amounts of anything and it doesn't affect anything else in your health/apetite/metabolism.

I know we like to one up each other on HN, but you're just talking past the main point. Calories matter. If you eat too many, you get fat. Some calories might be "better" than others, but they are a standard of unit of energy for a reason. A calorie is a calorie. Would you like to try the butter diet? I can guarantee you you'll get fat.

>Calories matter. If you eat too many, you get fat. Some calories might be "better" than others, but they are a standard of unit of energy for a reason. A calorie is a calorie.

That's quite irrelevant though (besides tautological), as we don't just eat calories, we eat food that has calories and tons of other stuff in different arrangements.

A calorie being a calorie doesn't cover whether the food you got the calorie from makes you satiated, or conversely makes you eat more, or makes you feel more energetic, or makes you store it as fat, or brings hormonal changes, etc.

A "milligram is a milligram" too, a standard unit of weight, but 1mg of cyanide can kill a person, and 1mg of water won't do anything to them.

>Would you like to try the butter diet? I can guarantee you you'll get fat.

Again this presumes that people can just eat, regardless of what they eat -- and continue to eat it without that affecting anything else. I guarantee you if I ate just butter, I'd threw up after several hundred grams, and feel quite bad and stop the diet after some days.

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

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know we like to one up each other on HN, but you're just talking past the main point. Calories matter. If you eat too many, you get fat. Some calories might be "better" than others, but they are a standard of unit of energy for a reason. A calorie is a calorie. Would you like to try the butter diet? I can guarantee you you'll get fat.

> Calories matter. If you eat too many, you get fat. Some calories might be "better" than others, but they are a standard of unit of energy for a reason. A calorie is a calorie. That's quite irrelevant though (besides tautological), as we don't just eat calories, we eat food that has calories and tons of other stuff in different arrangements. A calorie being a calorie doesn't cover whether the food you got the calori…

We're not disagreeing, just talking about different things.

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

#126
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…

Can you elaborate how much sugar you consumed on a daily basis?

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

#127
I've been on a ketogenic (very low carb, no sugar) diet for a little over a year. At the beginning of the diet, I started eating MORE than I used to, and tracking calories religiously, including weighing my food. I never miss a meal now and eat breakfast every day. The biggest thing I cut out was sugar.

In that time, I lost 45 lbs, going from 210 to 165. I didn't exercise or do anything else. That weight came off in about 3 months.

I am now commuting 11mi by bicycle most days, I feel better than I ever have. I fit perfectly into a few things I owned in HS (I'm in my 40s and was a skinny kid).

Sugar is the worst.

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

#128
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…

In other words you eliminated a significant portion of your daily calories, resulting in a net loss of calories per day.

Had you been overeating something other than sugar (eg fried food) and eliminated that instead the outcome would have been the same.

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

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 IIRC both combat divers and people with certain kinds of epilepsy benefit from carb free diets as it reduces risk of passing out (for combat divers with rebreathers) and epileptic attacks (for epileptics).

What do you think a 'carb free' diet excludes? What does it include? I'm asking, because I'm genuinely confused by the fact that all plant (veggies, fruits, seeds/grains, all of it) matter contains sugars. Do a lot of folks really sustain themselves on meat alone? Hell, not even my 100lb german shepherd can live on only meat (IIRC carnivores frequently eat stomach contents of herbivores they kill/find to get nutrient…

I am vegetarian on a very low carb diet. No fruit, no high starch vegetables. It is possible to eat zero added sugar and almost zero natural sugar. As mentioned above your body can synthesize glucose from protein, to the extent that on a keto diet you must be sure not to consume too much protein, lest your body convert it to glucose.

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

#130
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"

This is completely false. Indeed, depending on your body composition, you can do a water fast for two weeks and be completely fine. I've done it, I know.

Getting this stuff right can change lives; please think twice about engaging in uninformed pedantry and FUD.

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