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Big Sugar Versus Your Body

nytimes.com

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Re: Big Sugar Versus Your Body

#61

Post by iamt2 »

igravious wrote: post #51
epanchin wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smoothies are horrifically sugary, I was shocked when I found out. A blender probably isn’t a bad investment... I’m not sure if they come in child safe flavours, maybe a nutribullet?!

I bet they are, I haven't looked too closely at the brands I buy but I'm sure you're correct. Regarding a blender: Convenience trumps health :(

Be careful with even homemade smoothies. Part of satiety is the speed of consumption, closely-linked to convenience of imbibing.

In other words, it is easy to drink too much smoothie because drinking is far easier and faster than preparing and eating raw fruits. Our hormonal systems are not geared to the speed of eating/drinking that our technological capabilities deliver. With processed foods it is easy to overrun actual caloric needs before your hormonal systems realize it has happened, our satiety mechanisms are fooled, and before you know it, you're way over your reasonable caloric budget.

If you engage your children in preparing, then eating raw fruit as-is, and reserve smoothies as a dessert-treat, then that establishes a timeframe their hormonal systems can easily accommodate. Even the youngest with minimal manual dexterity can "help" wash and/or dry fruits, and be an assistant by picking up fruits from the colander and placing on a cutting board for you.

It takes far more time, but personally that is my choice (YMMV), since I advocate a slow parenting movement similar to the slow food movement, because when you direct time and attention to a child, they flourish.

Re: Big Sugar Versus Your Body

#62

Post by deyan »

pascalxus wrote: post #30
deyan wrote: post #18

I can confirm at least one part of this story with a personal anecdote: As a child, I absolutely loved, craved, was addicted to Coca Cola. A liter a day, perhaps more. Coming to the US, I noticed that it tasted different because of substituting sugar with high fructose corn syrup. No problem - I switched to Mexican Coca Cola (the one in a glass bottle) - and carried on. Fast forward to after grad school, I wanted to…

It's awesome that some people can break away from the addiction entirely. But, for me, even if I don't have sugar for months at a time, I still crave it deeply. And when I consume it, it has an extremely profound enjoyable feeling to it. For me, it's not coke or soft drinks, but rather sweet drinks like horchata and milk tea (not the real one), syrupy stuff, donuts, etc. I apply moderation.

To be fair and transparent, I have been completely unable to get rid of sweets - chocolates, brownies, cookies. I have made progress, but nowhere near where I need to be.

Then again, life is short, we have to have our little pleasures. Nobody is gonna live forever anyway..

Re: Big Sugar Versus Your Body

#63

Post by jakewins »

exelius wrote: post #26
jakewins wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> on't have any effect on your blood glucose and really are completely different Source for this? My understanding is that the link between non-caloric artificial sweeteners (NAS) and diabetes is growing increasingly clear. For instance: NAS linked to glucose intolerance (pre-diabetic hyperglacemia): https://www.nature.com/articles/nature13793 NAS unlikely to be healthy alternative to sugar for prevention of type 2 d…

They’re not all one category; some artificial sweeteners cause an insulin response and some do not. This would make sense as to why it can lead to diabetes; your body is constantly getting signals to release insulin to break down sugar, but then there’s no sugar. Eventually your body “learns” to not produce as much insulin in the presence of all sweeteners, and that’s diabetes in a nutshell. I’d be interested to see…

Stevia does produce an insulin response - but, it appears, in the "right" direction. There are apparently several labs exploring stevia as a treatment in diabetes models, for instance: https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/abstract/1...

Re: Big Sugar Versus Your Body

#64

Post by ericmcer »

jackhack wrote: post #47
deyan wrote: post #18

I can confirm at least one part of this story with a personal anecdote: As a child, I absolutely loved, craved, was addicted to Coca Cola. A liter a day, perhaps more. Coming to the US, I noticed that it tasted different because of substituting sugar with high fructose corn syrup. No problem - I switched to Mexican Coca Cola (the one in a glass bottle) - and carried on. Fast forward to after grad school, I wanted to…

>Coca Cola. A liter a day... I am stunned. 1L of Coca Cola = 840 calories @ 234grams of sugar. That's 18 Tablespoons. Or a bit more than one measuring cup of sugar per day in addition to whatever else you ate! 1/3 of an adult's typical days caloric needs consumed as pure sugar. Since you were a child, it's likely you were consuming more than half your daily calories this way.

The human body is amazingly adaptive though. My old roommates friend would come over frequently and every time he would get a cup from the kitchen, fill it 1/3rd with water, add one of those flavoring crystal packets, and then fill the rest with vodka out of a plastic bottle. No one else would even be drinking. He would drink 2-3 of those cups and seem pretty much unfazed, eat nothing, and go home hours later. I am sure it caught up to him eventually but at the time it was always flooring that his body had adapted to that kind of diet.

Re: Big Sugar Versus Your Body

#65

Post by jogjayr »

godot wrote: post #44
ascagnel_ wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article is specifically talking about added sugars, and their net effect. > Big Sugar has paid researchers to conduct misleading — if not false — studies about the health effects of added sweeteners. The core issue is not the type of sugar, but the nature of it being basically everywhere in packaged foods. The author also mentions that it's not worth trying to quantify the amount of sugar: > Don’t agonize over th…

When you say "slightly more expensive grocery bill", what are you comparing it to? I find that it's generally cheaper if you buy fresh meat and produce and make meals yourself, whether you compare it to eating at restaurants (a lot more expensive) or prepared/boxed meals in supermarkets (slightly more expensive than the same amount of food in fresh grocery). I suppose if you compare it to junk food, like eating chips…

> You can consistently eat healthy and get all your nutritions for under $5 a meal.

+1

Except I'd change that figure to around $2/meal.

This article written in 2012[0] has a $3/day target and I'm scaling that up a bit.

0. http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/03/29/killing-your-1000-...

Re: Big Sugar Versus Your Body

#66

Post by lev99 »

121789 wrote: post #45
lev99 wrote: post #23

I encourage everyone to measure everything they eat for one week. Use an app, a scale and count the calories, macronutrients and micronutrients. The results are well worth the trouble of doing it for one week. I found my sodium and sugar intake were way to high, and foods I thought were high in protein were often not. Now I read the white label on every food item I buy at the grocery store. After several years my tas…

I know it would decrease adherence, but I suggest that people do this for 3-6 months. Set a calorie limit based roughly on daily energy expenditure and track what you eat with an app. I do not think this is necessary long-term (and it can be harmful if you take it to the extreme), but it is really helpful to calibrate your perception of portion sizes and calories relative to what you can eat in a day. You start to lo…

I wish I new a better way to market the idea of counting calories, micronutrients and macronutrients for a short period of time. It's something that I think everyone should do from time to time, like take a vacation or see a dentist.

Re: Big Sugar Versus Your Body

#68

Post by asp_hornet »

gjem97 wrote: post #13
notheguyouthink wrote: post #3

The article mentions Stevia, but are fake sugars proven to be bad? What about as bad as Sugar? I'm curious because that's my wife's lifeblood for a life without sugar. Without fake sugars.. I don't know what she'd do.

I believe there have been some studies that show that artificial sweeteners affect your insulin response to real sugar, but I think it's far from settled science.

i believe it was debunked:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-n...

Re: Big Sugar Versus Your Body

#69

Post by r00fus »

itpragmatik wrote: post #6

Also would like to know if the author had any younger kids at home. Being a parent I find it difficult and almost impossible to deny my kids of sweet treats few times a week. We end up buying things that kids like but then temptation is very strong and I end up eating some of those treats as well! Also I am addicted to fake sugar (Truvia/Stevia etc). I use them almost everyday. Are they bad than natural sugar or wors…

I've found the only solution to avoiding sugary drinks is to simply not buy them.

One of the parents being strict about his/her diet also helps as that focus can result in changes for the family as a whole.

Re: Big Sugar Versus Your Body

#70

Post by emmanuel_1234 »

logfromblammo wrote: post #58
gascan wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's a popular sauce in America, it's almost sugary as a rule. BBQ sauce, maple syrup, salad dressing, tomato sauce. Mustard might be the one solid exception (?) I don't know if this is because sugary sauces become popular, or because popular sauces were adulterated with sugar.

Mustard, mayonnaise, and chile-vinegar sauces like Tabasco or Frank's RedHot are the only sugar-free sauces I can think of at the moment. Most everything else either has sugar or an artificial sweetener in it--or some back-door sugar, like raisin paste, or fruit juice concentrates. It is likely because condiments came from preserved foods, and those generally require a high concentration of sugar or salt, or a low pH…

Heinz mayonnaise, at least where I live (outside of the US) contains an ungodly amount of sugar, it is the second ingredient, and makes it properly disgusting.
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