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Is Fat Killing Us, or Is Sugar?

newyorker.com

11–20 of 153 posts

Re: Is Fat Killing Us, or Is Sugar?

#12
post #10

Neither by themselves, but when combined... I read somewhere that when they want to fatten up lab mice they feed them a mixture of 70% sugar and 30% fat or something similar. When you make something much more delicious and available than what appears in nature, it screws with an animal's energy balance signals.

I generally agree with you but sugar also tends to make you crave more sugar as it does more crazy things with insulin.

Re: Is Fat Killing Us, or Is Sugar?

#13

There's a BBC Horizon episodes with two identical twins, one goes for the low fat diet and the other for low carb diet to test which one is worse. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03t8r4h http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1amh2t_bbc-horizon-sugar-v...

These twins also did one on Alcohol (Casual but Consistent vs Binging) which was pretty interesting: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05wdfhk

Re: Is Fat Killing Us, or Is Sugar?

#15
post #3

There's a BBC Horizon episodes with two identical twins, one goes for the low fat diet and the other for low carb diet to test which one is worse. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03t8r4h http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1amh2t_bbc-horizon-sugar-v...

Do you have a quick synopsis of what happens?

At time mark 57:20 in the DailyMotion video they say that it is neither of them individually but the combination of fat and sugar that is the problem.

Re: Is Fat Killing Us, or Is Sugar?

#16
post #13

There's a BBC Horizon episodes with two identical twins, one goes for the low fat diet and the other for low carb diet to test which one is worse. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03t8r4h http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1amh2t_bbc-horizon-sugar-v...

These twins also did one on Alcohol (Casual but Consistent vs Binging) which was pretty interesting: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05wdfhk

The episode isn't currently available, do you know what was the outcome of the experiment?

Re: Is Fat Killing Us, or Is Sugar?

#17
post #10

Neither by themselves, but when combined... I read somewhere that when they want to fatten up lab mice they feed them a mixture of 70% sugar and 30% fat or something similar. When you make something much more delicious and available than what appears in nature, it screws with an animal's energy balance signals.

Very true, when combined they are horrible. But disagree with "neither". Sugar is really bad by itself, it isn't an "empty calorie" at all, it spikes insulin and will rot your teeth.

Re: Is Fat Killing Us, or Is Sugar?

#18

There's a BBC Horizon episodes with two identical twins, one goes for the low fat diet and the other for low carb diet to test which one is worse. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03t8r4h http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1amh2t_bbc-horizon-sugar-v...

I skipped to the last few minutes of that, they seem to do a nice summary... "avoid processed foods" "All faddish diets are wrong and exercise is important" "the combination of fat and sugar is bad" (not just one or the other but foods full of both like donuts are bad)

I thought eating fat with sugar was better than eating sugar alone since the fat slowed down the absorption of the sugar, thus dampening the insulin response.

Re: Is Fat Killing Us, or Is Sugar?

#19
post #10

Neither by themselves, but when combined... I read somewhere that when they want to fatten up lab mice they feed them a mixture of 70% sugar and 30% fat or something similar. When you make something much more delicious and available than what appears in nature, it screws with an animal's energy balance signals.

This. Sugar and simple or highly processed carbs cause your body to release insulin in order to regulate blood sugar. Insulin switches off any fat burning and tells the body to store fat.

Whenever your diet consists of carbs and fat nutrients, the fat is going to be immediately stored in your fatty tissues, and any excess carbs that you can't burn quickly will go there also.

Re: Is Fat Killing Us, or Is Sugar?

#20
post #10

Neither by themselves, but when combined... I read somewhere that when they want to fatten up lab mice they feed them a mixture of 70% sugar and 30% fat or something similar. When you make something much more delicious and available than what appears in nature, it screws with an animal's energy balance signals.

The catch though is that you need fat to live. That is, without fat in your diet you're not able to digest plants.

And if for whatever reason you're not eating enough fat, your body will crave sugar.

So basically eat healthy fats. If you don't eat enough healthy fat (e.g. from walnuts), your body will start craving unhealthy fats. And if you don't eat either then your body will crazy sugar as a last resort.

As far as I can tell that's basically the secret to staying healthy, just make sure to get enough walnuts and avocado or whatever, and once you have your RDI of healthy fats then craving unhealthy fats or sugar won't be an issue.

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