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How the world's heaviest man lost it all (2017)

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Re: How the world's heaviest man lost it all (2017)

#11
post #9
post #5

"He had a proper dietary routine now, he said. [...], made oatmeal for breakfast, ate a banana as a snack, had a salad or PB&J for lunch, and some pasta for dinner." Ah yes, the proper diet of carbs and sugar, little protein and even less fat. PB&J for lunch for a diabetic, seriously? We're still a few decades away before the common populace and your GPs learns that sugar, especially fructose, is one of the biggest c…

Totally. Sugar is the Cigarettes of our time, no doubt. My mother's gastric bypass at 50 saved her life. She took artifical sweateners for 20yrs thinking they would help her control her weight but in reality all they do is keep you conditioned to the rush. She regained weight after her initial surgury but has finally been able to kick the sugar and has kept it off long term - now 67. She has the same problems with sk…

> Sugar is the Cigarettes of our time, no doubt.

People have been saying this for the past 15-20 years, yet it keeps not being true. The difference is pretty obvious with just a little thought. Sugars are part of a balanced diet, it's perfectly healthy to consume some amount of sugars during a normal day. Cigarettes have NO health benefits, they only serve to kill you. Cutting out all cigarettes is a pretty minimal sacrifice compared to avoiding large swaths of foodstuffs.

Comparing the two only makes normal people rolls their eyes at you and ignore anything you have to say from your ivory tower.

Re: How the world's heaviest man lost it all (2017)

#12
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally. Sugar is the Cigarettes of our time, no doubt. My mother's gastric bypass at 50 saved her life. She took artifical sweateners for 20yrs thinking they would help her control her weight but in reality all they do is keep you conditioned to the rush. She regained weight after her initial surgury but has finally been able to kick the sugar and has kept it off long term - now 67. She has the same problems with sk…

> Sugar is the Cigarettes of our time, no doubt. People have been saying this for the past 15-20 years, yet it keeps not being true. The difference is pretty obvious with just a little thought. Sugars are part of a balanced diet, it's perfectly healthy to consume some amount of sugars during a normal day. Cigarettes have NO health benefits, they only serve to kill you. Cutting out all cigarettes is a pretty minimal s…

How is it not true? Overeating / over-sugaring is at least close to smoking in its aggregate detrimental effects. So many health problems are caused by overweight.

If people feel this is a ridiculous comparison, they need to be corrected. The lowest common denominator does not dictate how I communicate.

Re: How the world's heaviest man lost it all (2017)

#13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sugar is the Cigarettes of our time, no doubt. People have been saying this for the past 15-20 years, yet it keeps not being true. The difference is pretty obvious with just a little thought. Sugars are part of a balanced diet, it's perfectly healthy to consume some amount of sugars during a normal day. Cigarettes have NO health benefits, they only serve to kill you. Cutting out all cigarettes is a pretty minimal s…

How is it not true? Overeating / over-sugaring is at least close to smoking in its aggregate detrimental effects. So many health problems are caused by overweight. If people feel this is a ridiculous comparison, they need to be corrected. The lowest common denominator does not dictate how I communicate.

You're giving away the differentiator right in your comment. You've never heard anyone talk about "oversmoking" because there's no such thing as "the right amount of smoking" (or rather, that amount is zero. No smoking is the _correct_ amount of smoking).

I agree that obesity is terrible. I even agree that the "oversugaring" is probably a large portion of the cause side of the obesity problem. I'm just pointing out that when you compare it to smoking, you sound full of yourself. I'm of normal weight but consume way too much sugar (I'm working on it). When you tell me that I'm as bad as smokers I don't hear someone telling me the hard truths. I hear someone erecting a pedestal they can put themselves on.

Re: How the world's heaviest man lost it all (2017)

#14
post #5

"He had a proper dietary routine now, he said. [...], made oatmeal for breakfast, ate a banana as a snack, had a salad or PB&J for lunch, and some pasta for dinner." Ah yes, the proper diet of carbs and sugar, little protein and even less fat. PB&J for lunch for a diabetic, seriously? We're still a few decades away before the common populace and your GPs learns that sugar, especially fructose, is one of the biggest c…

I hope someday this concept of a healthy diet goes by the wayside because even just a cursory investigation makes it obvious how flawed it is. It's like people think that a food is "healthy" as long as it's not pizza or ice cream, and even most GPs don't totally know better (they're not stupid, it's just that they're not as educated in that subject). A reasonable diet isn't even that complicated. Control the sugar an…

Re: fructose. I was reading recently some interesting theories about fructose possibly being obesogenic, I'm about to leave so I can't do a proper Google search and link the studies. The theory makes sense evolutionarily: fruits were mostly available for a couple months a year, so the body tries to store fruit sugar as fat, for the long cold winter days, instead of using them immediately as short term energy in the form of glycogen.

Re: How the world's heaviest man lost it all (2017)

#15

> He was all too familiar with that precarious balance. In 2008, he had tried to commit suicide by taking enough codeine to kill two people, but he'd woken up the next morning with only a headache—his body had absorbed it all. I am nearly speechless. Suicide is no joke, but assuming the story here is true, it's kind of remarkable that a person's morbid obesity saved them from death in such an ironic way. If he was at…

Codeine isn't designed or intended to kill you, so I'm not sure we can say anything about the effectiveness of the medication in this case.

Re: How the world's heaviest man lost it all (2017)

#16
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally. Sugar is the Cigarettes of our time, no doubt. My mother's gastric bypass at 50 saved her life. She took artifical sweateners for 20yrs thinking they would help her control her weight but in reality all they do is keep you conditioned to the rush. She regained weight after her initial surgury but has finally been able to kick the sugar and has kept it off long term - now 67. She has the same problems with sk…

> Sugar is the Cigarettes of our time, no doubt. People have been saying this for the past 15-20 years, yet it keeps not being true. The difference is pretty obvious with just a little thought. Sugars are part of a balanced diet, it's perfectly healthy to consume some amount of sugars during a normal day. Cigarettes have NO health benefits, they only serve to kill you. Cutting out all cigarettes is a pretty minimal s…

[deleted]

Re: How the world's heaviest man lost it all (2017)

#17
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally. Sugar is the Cigarettes of our time, no doubt. My mother's gastric bypass at 50 saved her life. She took artifical sweateners for 20yrs thinking they would help her control her weight but in reality all they do is keep you conditioned to the rush. She regained weight after her initial surgury but has finally been able to kick the sugar and has kept it off long term - now 67. She has the same problems with sk…

> Sugar is the Cigarettes of our time, no doubt. People have been saying this for the past 15-20 years, yet it keeps not being true. The difference is pretty obvious with just a little thought. Sugars are part of a balanced diet, it's perfectly healthy to consume some amount of sugars during a normal day. Cigarettes have NO health benefits, they only serve to kill you. Cutting out all cigarettes is a pretty minimal s…

Agreed. For example our brain _depends_ on glucose for energy. Even if you go into ketosis, your body will still generate glucose to feed your brain (and possibly other organs?). Conversely, cigarettes offer nothing that your body depends on.

There's no doubt that too much sugar is a really bad thing, and that the average diet in USA (and other parts of the world) is way too heavy on sugars, but it's not something to be puritanical about. A little sugar in your diet is non-harmful for most people; it is a valuable nutrient.

Re: How the world's heaviest man lost it all (2017)

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it not true? Overeating / over-sugaring is at least close to smoking in its aggregate detrimental effects. So many health problems are caused by overweight. If people feel this is a ridiculous comparison, they need to be corrected. The lowest common denominator does not dictate how I communicate.

You're giving away the differentiator right in your comment. You've never heard anyone talk about "oversmoking" because there's no such thing as "the right amount of smoking" (or rather, that amount is zero. No smoking is the _correct_ amount of smoking). I agree that obesity is terrible. I even agree that the "oversugaring" is probably a large portion of the cause side of the obesity problem. I'm just pointing out t…

What is the right amount of sugar? What are the health benefits of sugar? Your body does not require it at all, it is strictly negative impact unless you're literally starving or trying to gain fat to avoid starvation.

You're making this weirdly personal. No one is saying you're a bad person for eating sugar or "as bad as" a smoker. There's no pedestal.

Re: How the world's heaviest man lost it all (2017)

#19
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sugar is the Cigarettes of our time, no doubt. People have been saying this for the past 15-20 years, yet it keeps not being true. The difference is pretty obvious with just a little thought. Sugars are part of a balanced diet, it's perfectly healthy to consume some amount of sugars during a normal day. Cigarettes have NO health benefits, they only serve to kill you. Cutting out all cigarettes is a pretty minimal s…

Agreed. For example our brain _depends_ on glucose for energy. Even if you go into ketosis, your body will still generate glucose to feed your brain (and possibly other organs?). Conversely, cigarettes offer nothing that your body depends on. There's no doubt that too much sugar is a really bad thing, and that the average diet in USA (and other parts of the world) is way too heavy on sugars, but it's not something to…

> For example our brain _depends_ on glucose for energy.

Right, but you don't need to eat sugar. Your body is capable of manufacturing glucose as-is from fat or protein. If you have 0 grams of sugar in your diet it's not like your brain will starve.

> it is a valuable nutrient.

No it isn't. Your body does not require that you eat sugar and it does not benefit from it either.

Re: How the world's heaviest man lost it all (2017)

#20
post #5

"He had a proper dietary routine now, he said. [...], made oatmeal for breakfast, ate a banana as a snack, had a salad or PB&J for lunch, and some pasta for dinner." Ah yes, the proper diet of carbs and sugar, little protein and even less fat. PB&J for lunch for a diabetic, seriously? We're still a few decades away before the common populace and your GPs learns that sugar, especially fructose, is one of the biggest c…

I hope someday this concept of a healthy diet goes by the wayside because even just a cursory investigation makes it obvious how flawed it is. It's like people think that a food is "healthy" as long as it's not pizza or ice cream, and even most GPs don't totally know better (they're not stupid, it's just that they're not as educated in that subject). A reasonable diet isn't even that complicated. Control the sugar an…

As someone who is successfully reversing* prediabetes for the past year, the most important takeaways for me are:

- You must think about the insulin index of your whole meal, not individual components. It's fine to eat a banana if you mix with high fiber stuff. That's also why you should eat greens in your meals. They're high in fiber and will lower the insulin index of your dishes.

- If you're exercising before or after eating, that changes everything.

- Study the insulin index of the foods you generally eat.

- Exercise like there is no tomorrow =)

* Not sure if that's the correct term. My understanding is insulin resistance is a life long condition and even with great care it might progress to type 2 diabetes. All we can do is lower the probability of that happening.

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