Is it time to treat sugar like smoking? • Hacker News Board

Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?

#191

Post by rsanek » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 8:52 PM UTC

novok wrote: post #122

zanny wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Any dish that is a prepared composite will quickly get into gray areas. “I didn’t add sugar, i just put this highly sweet blended fruit in the dish!”

The new version of the nutrition label specifically calls out added sugars [1], so it sounds like if there are gray areas the FDA has been able to decide on a standard.

[1] https://healthcare.utah.edu/healthfeed/postings/2018/05/nutr...

Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?

#192

Post by rtyuiop » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 8:57 PM UTC

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #156

rtyuiop wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

[flagged]

Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?

#193

Post by buu700 » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 9:09 PM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #134

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the demonisation of fat might be partly a linguistic problem. “fat” is a derogatory term for someone who is overweight, but it also happens to describe an important component of food, so the (incorrect) connection forms itself: eating fat = getting fat. This isn't the case in all languages, though I don't know if that actually has meant Germany or wherever cares less about fat content.

Maybe we should call it "lipids"? Not sure if that's the same.

I've always preferred the French nomenclature: carbohydrates are glucides and fats are lipides.

Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?

#194

Post by kovrik » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 9:11 PM UTC

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…

My wife and I are doing IF (OMAD - One Meal A Day). And obviously don't eat junk food, sugar etc.

For me the biggest surprise was how little food we actually need. I remember myself few years ago eating a breakfast in the morning, then coffee with a muffin or donut first thing at work, then huge lunch, then another snack, then huge dinner at home (of course! just came from work - need to treat myself) and then maybe another snack before going to bed. Can't even imagine how many calories and sugars we were consuming each day. We were literally overeating every single day.

Now we eat only once a day, avoid junk food and sugars, feel awesome, look and feel much better. And it works for us even with quite intensive hiking trips and with gym/exercises.

Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?

#195

Post by kazinator » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 9:15 PM UTC

lm28469 wrote: post #180

kazinator wrote: post #107

I'm not harmed if I'm sitting next to a someone who is consuming sugar. What we should have is health insurance premiums based on risk factors such as obesity, even in public systems.

> What we should have is health insurance premiums based on risk factors such as obesity, even in public systems. Next thing we know we're all constantly monitored for every single health metrics and pay more for every one that is slightly off. "Bacon every morning ? Well sorry sir but that'll be $30 more per year. Oh and you drive to work instead of cycling, that's another $60. Our tracking system tells us that you…

To avoid these complexities, insurance companies use past claims history as an estimate of future claims and hence premiums.

Of course, that apply very well for one-time items like life insurance.

Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?

#196

Post by JMTQp8lwXL » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 9:16 PM UTC

jniedrauer wrote: post #128

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…

I think it should be made clear that we simply don't know enough about keto yet to call it "healthy." More healthy than sugar over-consumption? Almost certainly. I will say that it allowed me to cut to under 10% bodyfat with almost no effort, so for that I think it is a valuable tool. But I also found that I was not making progress in my athletic hobbies until I stopped eating keto. My progress visibly accelerated af…

After some back-and-forth, I've found that Keto is best for short periods of time, e.g., 1-3 month periods. Physical activity can feel quite strenuous, especially when you first start Keto, and your body isn't adapted to using fat as a fuel source.

It's an incredibly effective tool to help you re-imagine the composition of your diet. For example, after my first time doing Keto, I seriously considered which carb sources I wanted to re-introduce to my diet.

On one end, you have short-chained carbs (sugars), and on the other end, complex carbs. You also have processed foods (which have fortified micronutrients), and whole foods (naturally occurring micronutrients). I now stick to whole foods with complex carbs. You'll get more fiber this way, and complex carbs are a slower-burning food source that keep you feeling fuller, longer. I've re-introduced carbohydrates from things like beans, quinoa, and the occasional potato.

Like anything, Keto is a tool. It should not be considered a silver bullet since we don't know the long-term health consequences of long periods of Ketogenesis.

Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?

#197

Post by tomjen3 » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 9:21 PM UTC

_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…

Any items which contains more than 1g sugar per 100 gram, and contains any amount of product that has been process or mixed with something else not found in nature (so no on apples, yes on apple juice, yes on anything that has added sugar).

Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?

#198

Post by JMTQp8lwXL » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 9:25 PM UTC

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #119

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…

I think the demonisation of fat might be partly a linguistic problem. “fat” is a derogatory term for someone who is overweight, but it also happens to describe an important component of food, so the (incorrect) connection forms itself: eating fat = getting fat. This isn't the case in all languages, though I don't know if that actually has meant Germany or wherever cares less about fat content.

There seems to be two major camps when it comes to weight loss: this confused thinking of lowering fats to lose weight (as you mention), and conversely, CICO (calories-in, calories-out).

In Western diets, it is all too easy to binge on processed carbs. For people struggling to manage weight, that is usually the main issue. Diets such as Keto or Paleo tend to restrict processed foods which make it hard or nearly impossible to consume processed carbs.

Restrictions from these diets naturally lead to CICO. The body only cares to consume so much whole foods -- you can eat a very large quantity of vegetables before hitting an equivalent amount of calories from processed foods (like potato chips, etc). These diets are essentially an "easy" framework (easy conceptually, challenging in practice for some due to cravings) for following CICO and reducing calories.

Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?

#199

Post by tomjen3 » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 9:28 PM UTC

elil17 wrote: post #160

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 c…

Eating disorders can be some of the most dangerous things you can suffer from (anorexia has a mortality of 30% if I remember correctly); however on a population scale the damage is dwafted buy the damage from obesity because so many more people are seriously fat.

Re: Is it time to treat sugar like smoking?

#200

Post by JMTQp8lwXL » Sun, Jun 09, 2019, 9:31 PM UTC

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.

I feel fortunate to genuine enjoy sugar-free carbonated beverages (from plain carbonated water to the varieties with mild flavorings, e.g., La Croix). So many people can't appreciate the subtleties of these beverages because their high-sugar diets.

I forget what exactly caused me to switch, but I realized in college that buying soda with a meal made it significantly more expensive (e.g., $7.50 meal was now $9.50). Tight on money, it's a quick way to squeeze an extra meal or two. Still wanted something more than water, so I tried the soda machine's carbonated soda water tab. Now, it's my go-to! (Sidenote: a good number of restaurants do not have soda water tabs on their machines. I find it to be a slight annoyance).

Folks that only enjoy sweetened carbonated beverages, I think, can't even imagine enjoyed unsweetened carbonated. But it is totally possible to eventually reach that state.