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The sugar conspiracy: sugar—not fat—is the greatest danger to our health

theguardian.com

61–70 of 198 posts

Re: The sugar conspiracy: sugar—not fat—is the greatest danger to our health

#61
post #59

As someone who has shifted to a sugar-free, high-fat lifestyle (keto diet), I can attest to the fact that sugar really is the ultimate evil in terms of health and nutrition. I've lost about 100lbs in 2.5 years... The only thing that I really changed was doing a Keto diet. I've learned a lot about nutrition along the way, and it's amazing how bad nutrition info was when I was growing up.. Common Misconceptions I hear/…

When you say sugar, you mean processed sugar right? My understanding is sugar in fruits is good for you...

The sugar in fruits is processed the same in our body as any other type of "refined" sugar. Whether that's table sugar, high fructose corn syrup, sucrose, fructose, whatever other names it wants to go by.

Eating an actual fruit though is healthier, because that sugar is packaged up in a wonderful fiber, nutrient-filled vessel.

Basically, the delivery mechanism of the sugar is what really counts.

Re: The sugar conspiracy: sugar—not fat—is the greatest danger to our health

#62

As someone who has shifted to a sugar-free, high-fat lifestyle (keto diet), I can attest to the fact that sugar really is the ultimate evil in terms of health and nutrition. I've lost about 100lbs in 2.5 years... The only thing that I really changed was doing a Keto diet. I've learned a lot about nutrition along the way, and it's amazing how bad nutrition info was when I was growing up.. Common Misconceptions I hear/…

(1) is technically incorrect. Humans have evolved to process fructose into triglycerides in the liver. This is different than getting a glucose spike in the bloodstream. (2) unfortunately reality is complicated. Most of what you care about is the glucose curve after consumption. You are correct in that different foods cause different curves. This will change per person, and some people will spike on soda, and some (s…

(1) Fruit juice is still sugar water. The fact that it's fructose instead of sucrose doesn't make it healthy. Maybe it's better for you than soda, but still not healthy.

(2) Who is having a glucose spike from broccoli? I don't believe this is a real thing. A glucose spike implies a significant amount of absorption in a short period of time. I doubt that broccoli digests quickly enough or suddenly enough in anyone's GI tract to cause a blood sugar spike.

Re: The sugar conspiracy: sugar—not fat—is the greatest danger to our health

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anyone has any questions about starting a keto diet (high-fat, mid-protein, low-carb), feel free to ask. :) Cannot recommend it enough. It simply just works..

How expensive is it? I mean literally. A lot of these alternative diets seem to work but be far more expensive than eating crap, unless all you eat are veggies (which few like).

I don't find it expensive at all. Couple things to point out:

1. You will eat less, snack less, and eat out less.

2. Vegetables are cheap.

3. Some meats are very cheap. Pork is super cheap right now.

4. Cheese/dairy is fairly cheap.

This all depends on where you live and what kind of foods you want to eat. Steak is going to be more expensive than pork. Maybe dairy is more expensive where you live? Just depends...

But the cost of fixing up your health later down the line will definitely be more expensive than just eating healthier early on.

Re: The sugar conspiracy: sugar—not fat—is the greatest danger to our health

#64
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you give some example meals you eat?

Breakfast: 4 strips of bacon if I'm hungry.. Usually just skip breakfast and have 2 cups of coffee, extra cream, no sugar. Lunch: I eat broccoli and carrots with some dip. Salads are also good (avoid sugary dressings though!). Dinner: A meat and vegetable side. Tacos with low-carb wraps.. Pizza made of mozzarella cheese dough. Diet soda is okay on Keto. Obviously water is the best thing for you. My favorite site for…

What's your daily caloric total? No breakfast plus just veg for lunch sounds like you're on an extremely low calorie diet, which will work for just about anyone regardless of if it's keto or not.

Re: The sugar conspiracy: sugar—not fat—is the greatest danger to our health

#65

As someone who has shifted to a sugar-free, high-fat lifestyle (keto diet), I can attest to the fact that sugar really is the ultimate evil in terms of health and nutrition. I've lost about 100lbs in 2.5 years... The only thing that I really changed was doing a Keto diet. I've learned a lot about nutrition along the way, and it's amazing how bad nutrition info was when I was growing up.. Common Misconceptions I hear/…

What blows my mind is that someone like you can see a sample size of one (you), pull like 15 different levers, and then proceed to "know" which of the levers actually worked, and which levers would work for everyone else.

The sophilistic nature of your comment is astounding.

Re: The sugar conspiracy: sugar—not fat—is the greatest danger to our health

#66
It really is about a lack of balance between our activity and our food intake and the types and quantity of food we consume.

As a society we have become too good at making cheap, easy to consume food that supplies far more energy than most of us need. Sugar is one of the worst culprits perhaps but it isn't the only one.

I have avoided most really sugary foods for years but with my age and activity levels eating a lot of grain based foods has pretty much the same result. Which isn't really surprising.

When I have the discipline to do it what really works for me is eating more veggies. I am sure you can get fat on a vegetable heavy diet but you probably have to work a lot harder at it.

Re: The sugar conspiracy: sugar—not fat—is the greatest danger to our health

#67
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(1) is technically incorrect. Humans have evolved to process fructose into triglycerides in the liver. This is different than getting a glucose spike in the bloodstream. (2) unfortunately reality is complicated. Most of what you care about is the glucose curve after consumption. You are correct in that different foods cause different curves. This will change per person, and some people will spike on soda, and some (s…

I found (2) really fascinating. I read a story recently about a study where they paired two people, gave them the exact same diet for a few weeks, and used continuous glucose monitoring to determine their glucose curves. It was striking that different people could have extremely different reactions to eating the exact same thing. They speculate that it may be due to differences in gut bacteria, but still aren't sure…

There's a lot of interesting research at the moment on gut bacteria eg. the fat mice, thin mice thing

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-gut-bacteria-h...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/06/health/gut-bacteria-from-t...

Surprising how complicated the whole weight loss thing can be

Re: The sugar conspiracy: sugar—not fat—is the greatest danger to our health

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a difference between natural fruit juice and the kind of "fruit juice" with high levels of marketing behind it e.g. Tropicana?

Big Beverage fruit juice may have added sugar. Regardless, fruit juice (which is fruity sugar water with no fiber), is terrible for us. Fruit was given to us in a high-fiber package, and should be consumed that way. The fiber also ensure we don't over consume. You might be full after 1 apple, which is like 1/8th a glass of apple juice. So eating real fruit, you'll get less sugar, and the fiber helps with digestion an…

Regarding "real fruit", how much sweeter is a tomato, an orange, or an apple today compared to past centuries?

Haven't most if not all of the commonly available (popular) fruits today been refined through selective breeding to be more appealing to us? What was lost vs. gained in this process?

(I have no idea, I'm not trying to be rhetorical. My guess is lots of more sweetness and perhaps less fiber, in a much larger fruit.)

Re: The sugar conspiracy: sugar—not fat—is the greatest danger to our health

#69
post #65

As someone who has shifted to a sugar-free, high-fat lifestyle (keto diet), I can attest to the fact that sugar really is the ultimate evil in terms of health and nutrition. I've lost about 100lbs in 2.5 years... The only thing that I really changed was doing a Keto diet. I've learned a lot about nutrition along the way, and it's amazing how bad nutrition info was when I was growing up.. Common Misconceptions I hear/…

What blows my mind is that someone like you can see a sample size of one (you), pull like 15 different levers, and then proceed to "know" which of the levers actually worked, and which levers would work for everyone else . The sophilistic nature of your comment is astounding.

I wasn't really implying that everyone should start a ketogenic diet. Just stating the success that I've had with it, and also noting several common misconceptions that are still largely heard today.

Re: The sugar conspiracy: sugar—not fat—is the greatest danger to our health

#70

As someone who has shifted to a sugar-free, high-fat lifestyle (keto diet), I can attest to the fact that sugar really is the ultimate evil in terms of health and nutrition. I've lost about 100lbs in 2.5 years... The only thing that I really changed was doing a Keto diet. I've learned a lot about nutrition along the way, and it's amazing how bad nutrition info was when I was growing up.. Common Misconceptions I hear/…

(1) is technically incorrect. Humans have evolved to process fructose into triglycerides in the liver. This is different than getting a glucose spike in the bloodstream. (2) unfortunately reality is complicated. Most of what you care about is the glucose curve after consumption. You are correct in that different foods cause different curves. This will change per person, and some people will spike on soda, and some (s…

(1) Not really. The liver does a good job of handling small amounts of fructose, as present in many sweet fruits and such. But in high quantities, as in HFCS soda, it's unable to cope and you will end up with waaaaay too much triglycerides. Which, unlike glucose, cannot be regulated by insulin.
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