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Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?

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Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?

#151

Post by cycrutchfield »

Mirioron wrote: post #136
ardit33 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The number of "Obese People" far outweighs the number of chronic alcoholics... we are talking about almost 1/3rd of the population being obese (i.e. not just a bit fat, or chubby, just straight out obese).

Sugar isn't the cause of obesity though. I think people that try to blame it all on sugar are simply looking for a scapegoat. It's easier to actually over eat on fat than on sugar because of a higher caloric density. Carbs are just cheaper so they get added to everything as bulk.

You get satiated much faster eating fat than eating sugar. How much butter can you eat? How much fruit juice can you drink?

Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?

#152

Post by nitwit005 »

zanny wrote: post #105
_bxg1 wrote: post #58

It'd be much harder than cigarettes to define and enforce, and more prone to loopholes. What's a "sugary food"? Grams of sugar? They'd just sell fun-sized. Percentage mass? That could impact fruit. Added sugar? What is "non-added sugar"? Specific product categories like soda and candy? They'd just walk the line with things like "sweetened sparkling water". I support the idea in principle, and I hope they figure out a…

If I eat a strawberry thats non-added sugar. If I sprinkle sugar on the strawberry, thats added sugar. It would be pretty easy to deduce the distinction between added and not sugars - if you put a sugar in your food and list it in the ingredients it has added sugar. If the thing as its grown has sugar then its not an added sugar. If that leads to the GMO modification of crops even further to produce more sugars thats…

It's less clear than you might think. Food producers have already adjusted to parents rejecting high sugar products by producing foods that are similar, but use fruit or fruit juice as the sweetener. They often advertise that there is no added sugar.

Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?

#153

Post by Mirioron »

buzzerbetrayed wrote: post #72
teamski wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exercise is important especially for your brain but bad nutrition has a much higher impact than no exercise.

Out of curiosity, how did you become so knowledgeable about nutrition? This comment, and your other (now deleted) comment make it seem like you are really confident that you know more than everyone else. My biggest complaint about learning about nutrition is that everyone says opposing things, and it is really difficult for me to know what is right and what is snake oil. Any tips on learning the “right” way to be hea…

I would recommend getting a variety of sources of information while staying very skeptical of any outlandish claims. However, the reason why diet is more important than exercise is that exercise doesn't burn many calories compared to how many calories you need for your body's upkeep during a day.[0]

Look at those numbers and keep in mind that a daily recommended caloric intake is at 2000 kcal. Now look at caloric values of food - carbs and protein are at around 4 kcal per gram and fat is 9 kcal per gram. Take pineapple juice for instance - it has around 60 kcal per 100 ml. If you drink 2 glasses of that (400ml) then that's already more than 10% of your daily calories. People often drink an entire liter per day though.

[0] https://www.health.harvard.edu/diet-and-weight-loss/calories...

Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?

#154

Post by jammygit »

Mirioron wrote: post #146
impatient_bacon wrote: post #95

God I hope so. I grew up obese and am now about halfway through undoing the damage using a ketogenic diet. I really do think sugar sweetened drinks should be banned for sale to children under 18, as that causes the most damage.

So, they're only allowed water? Because you're also banning juice and milk with they ban.

“Sweetened” in the verb form, as in added sugar I think s/he meant

Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?

#155

Post by orwin »

fwip wrote: post #127
ardit33 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The number of "Obese People" far outweighs the number of chronic alcoholics... we are talking about almost 1/3rd of the population being obese (i.e. not just a bit fat, or chubby, just straight out obese).

But a BMI in the low 30's is better for you than alcoholism. If you're six foot and 230lbs, that's a BMI of 31, which is obese. Here's some pictures of guys with that build: https://www.height-weight-chart.com/600-230.html They're not very fit, but they look "a bit fat/chubby" to my eyes - not dangerously unhealthy like your comment seems to imply.

31 BMI is highly unhealthy, i know it was mine 2 years ago. You don't look "obese", but when fat start to show on your cheeks, you have to stop eating that much sugar immediatly. I'm less than 30 and i my ankle/knees are hurting like i was 40. I couldn't run, and running is still really, really hard on my ankles (after 40 minute i start to feel lot of pain). Even walking too much (more than ~7/8 kilometers) hurts. It's not beause you don't "look" obese than you are not. And i have freaking hearth issue (it's not genetic, none of my grandparent ever had heart issues, and most of my great-grandparent lived to 100 yo or near that.

I still have 26.8 BMI and i'm aiming 23-24 as i'm not a very muscular guy.

I'll have to agree though, alcoolism is worst than low obesity. Etanol is as bad as fructose for the liver, and worst for everything else too.

Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?

#156

Post by AnimalMuppet »

rtyuiop wrote: post #64
negativeions wrote: post #16

More importantly how about eating meat like smoking? That is a much more closer comparison. Don't believe me? Get educated, peon.

Why do you consider smoking is bad for you? You get lithium from smoking tobacco and lithium increases the production of white blood cells like neutrophils which destroy bacteria and debris in the body. Lithium also helps to stabilise the mood probably because some studies suggest bacteria can affect mood in humans, an area the medical profession largely ignore. Neutrophils also consume sugar before consuming bacteri…

Why do we consider smoking to be bad for you? Because, while you may get lithium, you also get things that can and do cause cancer. If I give you "lithium plus carcinogens", the lithium doesn't make it "healthy".

Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?

#157

Post by mtoddsmith »

gregmac wrote: post #60

I started eating keto over a year ago, and found that I totally lost my appetite for sugary and other carb-based foods, so have just kept it up. One thing that was eye opening to me was from paying close attention to food labels. I used to try to mostly eat "healthy", so I'd tend to buy the "low calorie" options. What surprised me was how basically they just substitute fat for sugar. Ceasar dressing normal has 1g car…

Sugars affect your gut biome which in turn affect the hormones your body produces which affect your insulin, cravings and hunger.

Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?

#158

Post by Alex3917 »

bunderbunder wrote: post #81
Alex3917 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For most people, alcohol isn’t addictive in the same way that smoking or sugar is. If you eat stuff with a lot of sugar it makes things without sugar actually taste worse. Whereas drinking alcohol doesn’t make water taste worse or whatever. Also alcohol only kills 80k or so Americans per year, way less than smoking or sugar.

If you're referring to the CDC figure, then I doubt you're making an apples-to-apples comparison. That figure's based on the deaths that are easily attributable to serious alcohol over-consumption, like cirrhosis or car wrecks. It doesn't include things like increased cancer or heart disease risk. Whereas the oft-quoted figures for smoking and sugar are pretty much all about things like increased cancer or heart dise…

Fair enough, even if it kills 5% of Americans instead of 3.6% though, I doubt that more advertising restrictions would make much difference. I’d much rather reinstate the ban on DTC prescription drug ads.

Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?

#159

Post by samsonradu »

llamathrowaway wrote: post #79
Alex3917 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For most people, alcohol isn’t addictive in the same way that smoking or sugar is. If you eat stuff with a lot of sugar it makes things without sugar actually taste worse. Whereas drinking alcohol doesn’t make water taste worse or whatever. Also alcohol only kills 80k or so Americans per year, way less than smoking or sugar.

Is there any reliable source to back up the claim that sugar is more addictive than alcohol? I am suspicious about this claim because there are plenty of people and families ruined directly as a result of alcoholism. I don’t think sugar addiction is causing nearly as much trouble as alcoholism, despite being a more widely consumed and easily available substance.

Just a sidenote, sugar addiction starts way earlier fe. 6-7 year old kids are much more likely to eat too much sugar. Alcohol kicks in quite later and likely causes more damage to people around the subject, I agree with that.

Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?

#160

Post by elil17 »

Should we trust the government to decide what food is “healthy”? Absolutely not. Just look at how many times the “recommenced diet” has changed in the past few decades. There’s no reason to expect that the current evidence against sugar is more correct than previous (now debunked) evidence against fat.

What’s more, what’s healthy depends on who you are. People with eating disorders, for example, need easy access to caloric foods, including sugary foods, to weight restore and eat healthily.

Instead of focusing on trying to figure out what is and isn’t good for you, we should focus on making sure people have access to foods we already know are healthy by eliminating urban food deserts.

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