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Sugar-sweetened beverage intake and serum testosterone levels in adult males (2018)

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

11–20 of 126 posts

Re: Sugar-sweetened beverage intake and serum testosterone levels in adult males (2018)

#12
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd think you can compare that by also looking at artificial sweeteners.

Agreed. I am not saying that full-sugar soda is healthy, but it seems in the past people ate a lot of sugar and seemed to have less endocrine problems than they do today.

Even 50 years ago even white collar people did a lot more physical work then they do now.

Re: Sugar-sweetened beverage intake and serum testosterone levels in adult males (2018)

#13
post #7

Too many confounding variables that can't be removed by a mathematical magic wand. What about obesity, what about body fat percentage? Yeah, fat men have lower testosterone levels. Yeah, non-smokers have lower testosterone levels. I drink a bunch of HFCS and sugar sweetened beverages. Don't feel like it affects my weightlifting, maybe teeth mostly.

If you stick to fountain sodas, it won't wreck your teeth for decades. The acid in the can (and 2liters, small bottles, etc) is very hard on them.

Re: Sugar-sweetened beverage intake and serum testosterone levels in adult males (2018)

#14
post #9
post #5

For anyone wondering, this is not an experiment, it's an epidemiological study. I've commented about it on HN before [1], but nutritional epidemiology is in its own league of shady science. If you didn't know, 80% of things you eat give you cancer [2]. That being said, sugar is bad. Main-lining sugar by drinking it in huge concentrations seems even worse! Edit: that being said, if you are doing nutritional epidemiolo…

Sugar is not bad. Just like meat or bacon is not bad. Why would sugar on its own be bad? Obviously it's the whole lifestyle and diet that is bad. There are cyclist that carb load by eatig raw sugar and have no metabolic issues like some of the overweight diabetics do when they drink their second gallon of sugary coca cola.

I think you can make a solid case that, for most people, fructose and therefore sucrose is bad in any significant quantity. Sure, fructose can help replenish liver energy stores if you're an athlete, but most people aren't.

Re: Sugar-sweetened beverage intake and serum testosterone levels in adult males (2018)

#15
post #3

Is it the sugar or BPA lined cans? Also do they mean "sugar" or high fructose corn syrup? Seems like men had higher test levels in the era of glass bottles and real sugar soda.

In the era of glass bottles and real-sugar soda, we drank a hell of a lot less soda. The era of free refills on sodas not just existing but being expected, and 32-ounce "medium" size soft drinks is quite recent.

Also, I'm unconvinced a small difference in the balance between glucose and fructose is worth treating HFCS as different from beet or cane sugar. Its effect on the price of sugar is a different matter, however.

[EDIT] see the 1989 skate film Gleaming the Cube for an example from a few years before free refills started being advertised fairly frequently, and a solid decade before they became the overwhelming norm: there's a Pizza Hut in it with an advertisement posted on the side of the building for a special on pitchers... of soda, not of beer.

Re: Sugar-sweetened beverage intake and serum testosterone levels in adult males (2018)

#16
post #7

Too many confounding variables that can't be removed by a mathematical magic wand. What about obesity, what about body fat percentage? Yeah, fat men have lower testosterone levels. Yeah, non-smokers have lower testosterone levels. I drink a bunch of HFCS and sugar sweetened beverages. Don't feel like it affects my weightlifting, maybe teeth mostly.

The study considered BMI.

Re: Sugar-sweetened beverage intake and serum testosterone levels in adult males (2018)

#17
post #7

Too many confounding variables that can't be removed by a mathematical magic wand. What about obesity, what about body fat percentage? Yeah, fat men have lower testosterone levels. Yeah, non-smokers have lower testosterone levels. I drink a bunch of HFCS and sugar sweetened beverages. Don't feel like it affects my weightlifting, maybe teeth mostly.

> Yeah, non-smokers have lower testosterone levels.

Wait, is this true? Non-smokers have lower testosterone levels. That's weird.

Re: Sugar-sweetened beverage intake and serum testosterone levels in adult males (2018)

#18
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd think you can compare that by also looking at artificial sweeteners.

Agreed. I am not saying that full-sugar soda is healthy, but it seems in the past people ate a lot of sugar and seemed to have less endocrine problems than they do today.

That's unquestionably what the observational evidence shows. (Just look at pictures of soldiers and other men from WWII (wiry and rail-thin, but strong), Vietnam (still skinny, but getting heavier), and Iraq/Afghanistan (a surprising number of guts and much more flabbiness).

My guess is that there's more to both HFCS vs. sugar and the continuous exposure to endocrine disruptors in food, food packaging, etc. Think about it - how little of your life are you not in contact with plastics anymore? (If you're typing a reply, you're rubbing on those plasticizers again...)

Re: Sugar-sweetened beverage intake and serum testosterone levels in adult males (2018)

#19
""" After adjusting for possible confounding variables, BMI was an independent risk factor for low testosterone level """

So after adjusting for BMI, sugary beverage consumption had nothing to do with T. But BMI is correlated with T which is (very) old news, and sugary drink consumption is presumably correlated with BMI. Yawn.

Re: Sugar-sweetened beverage intake and serum testosterone levels in adult males (2018)

#20
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sugar is not bad. Just like meat or bacon is not bad. Why would sugar on its own be bad? Obviously it's the whole lifestyle and diet that is bad. There are cyclist that carb load by eatig raw sugar and have no metabolic issues like some of the overweight diabetics do when they drink their second gallon of sugary coca cola.

I think you can make a solid case that, for most people, fructose and therefore sucrose is bad in any significant quantity. Sure, fructose can help replenish liver energy stores if you're an athlete, but most people aren't.

This always confused me. Why does the WHO only have guidelines on "added sugar", why not all sugar?

Based on a naive reading of things, I removed fruit from my diet as well, but that's against WHO guidelines: I used to eat like 3 Fuji/Envy a day (haha).

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