Live data from Hacker News

Is Sugar Toxic?

nytimes.com

1–10 of 144 posts

Re: Is Sugar Toxic?

#3
"Officially I’m not supposed to worry because the evidence isn’t conclusive, but I do."

Wow, that was a content-free article, borderline scare-mongering, eg. "when you bake your children a birthday cake or give them lemonade on a hot summer day, you may be doing them more harm than good". There's no information about what sort of doses are really bad at all, and so nothing useful to learn from it. I have 2 kids who will eat as much sugar as we give them, so this is a serious issue for me, and I'm disappointed by such articles.

Re: Is Sugar Toxic?

#4

"Officially I’m not supposed to worry because the evidence isn’t conclusive, but I do." Wow, that was a content-free article, borderline scare-mongering, eg. "when you bake your children a birthday cake or give them lemonade on a hot summer day, you may be doing them more harm than good". There's no information about what sort of doses are really bad at all, and so nothing useful to learn from it. I have 2 kids who w…

Being tentative about drawing conclusions is not the same as being content free. Considering how often past dietary advice has been wrong, it seems like this topic could use a little more tentativeness.

Re: Is Sugar Toxic?

#5
I can't find a link now, but I remember some research being done that had runners in a lab swish a sucrose solution in their mouths and then spit it out. They ran longer than the control group who got artificial sweetener. So something happens to your metabolism before the sugar is digested, and no one has studied how tasting sucrose might be different from tasting HFCS. It's just weird and complicated :)

Edit: here's a quick explanation of some of those studies: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/fitness/exercise/...

Edit2 I found the research, but it's behind a paywall. http://journals.lww.com/co-clinicalnutrition/Abstract/2010/0...

Re: Is Sugar Toxic?

#7

"Officially I’m not supposed to worry because the evidence isn’t conclusive, but I do." Wow, that was a content-free article, borderline scare-mongering, eg. "when you bake your children a birthday cake or give them lemonade on a hot summer day, you may be doing them more harm than good". There's no information about what sort of doses are really bad at all, and so nothing useful to learn from it. I have 2 kids who w…

These articles are important because he makes a persuasive argument that this is a very important issue that badly needs more study. You can't learn very much from it, but the studies will not be funded unless a horde of concerned parents starts pressuring the FDA, the USDA, Universities and others who could fund such studies. Also pressure is needed to counter the very influential corn growers associations who will try and kill such studies.

Re: Is Sugar Toxic?

#9

"Officially I’m not supposed to worry because the evidence isn’t conclusive, but I do." Wow, that was a content-free article, borderline scare-mongering, eg. "when you bake your children a birthday cake or give them lemonade on a hot summer day, you may be doing them more harm than good". There's no information about what sort of doses are really bad at all, and so nothing useful to learn from it. I have 2 kids who w…

The headline says "Is Sugar Toxic?" That's not just a hook to get you to read the article, it's a description of what the article is about. This article asks the question, "Is Sugar Toxic?". It helps you think about that question from chemical and physiological perspectives, gives an overview of research, describes political and economic interests of the major players (so you can consider how those might influence their actions), and so on.

If anyone's wondering what a liberal arts degree is good for, this article is an excellent example.

Re: Is Sugar Toxic?

#10
Toxicity as a concept is entirely defined by dose. Bleach is not toxic if you take a small enough dose. Conversely, water is toxic if you drink too much of it.

Unfortunately toxic, like so many other of our perfectly good scientific words, has been hijacked by quacks trying to deprive the credulous of their money.

Post reply on HN