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from the sweets-for-my-sweet,-sugar-for-my-honey-The-Drifters-1961 dept.
Lustig, the maverick scientist, has long argued that sugar is as harmful as cocaine or tobacco – and that the food industry has been adding too much of it to our meals for too long.
If you have any interest at all in diet, obesity, public health, diabetes, epidemiology, your own health or that of other people, you will probably be aware that sugar, not fat, is now considered the devil's food. Dr Robert Lustig's book, Fat Chance: The Hidden Truth About Sugar, Obesity and Disease ( http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jan/25/fat-chance-robert-lustig-review ), for all that it sounds like a Dan Brown novel, is the difference between vaguely knowing something is probably true, and being told it as a fact. Lustig has spent the past 16 years treating childhood obesity. His meta-analysis of the cutting-edge research on large-cohort studies of what sugar does to populations across the world, alongside his own clinical observations, has him credited with starting the war on sugar. When it reaches the enemy status of tobacco, it will be because of Lustig.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/aug/24/robert-lustig-sugar-poison
I think moderation is the key. What do you think ?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bradley13 on Wednesday August 27 2014, @02:06PM
It is my impression, backed by nothing but personal observation, that the rise of obesity in the US parallels the change in diet towards pre-prepared foods and snack foods.
Look at the typical US breakfast. Lots of people eat commercial cereal, which is often 40% or 50% sugar (and the rest consists of other carbohydrates). When I was a kid (I know, get off my lawn), breakfast was eggs and bacon, with a slice of toast. Much lower carbohydrate content in general and sugar content specifically. The new evidence is that eating fat doesn't make you fat - our bodies are designed for it - it's all those carbohydrates spiking your insulin levels.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by TrumpetPower! on Wednesday August 27 2014, @03:07PM
That's because basically all pre-packaged foods are loaded with insane amounts of sugar (in various forms, infamously including HFCS -- but cane sugar and honey and the various substitutes are just as unhealthy).
The other stuff they do isn't good for you, either, but most of the harm is mostly coming from the sugar. Mostly.
(Think of it this way: that shit don't spoil. If nothing else wants to eat it, why should you?)
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by cafebabe on Wednesday August 27 2014, @08:33PM
Living on a high sugar diet is unhealthy but some sugars are worse than others. In decreasing order of health:-
1702845791×2
(Score: 2) by Pav on Thursday August 28 2014, @05:31AM
If you read Lustigs stuff it's precisely fructose that does the damage (HFCS/sucrose is quickly broken down into fructose and glucose anyway). He not only has correlations, but well understood mechanisms on why this is so.
*) Fructose can only be broken down slowly in the liver (to glucose). Glucose on the other hand can be absorbed by any cell in the body. Blood glucose is regulated easily by insulin which stimulates its absorbsion by fat and muscle cells. This regulation happens surprisingly quickly - in tens of seconds.
*) Your insulin metabolism sees fructose and glucose in the same way ie. as "sugar". Too much circulating fructose therefore causes insulin to be released. Your blood glucose crashes while fructose levels remain unaffected - glucose is absorbed by fat and muscles, while fructose is only absorbed after being slowly converted to glucose by the liver. Low blood glucose causes a lack of energy and food cravings... in this case despite high fructose levels. The food cravings often causes more fructose to be added to the system. What's worse, insulin remains high causing glucose to be continually scrubbed from the blood and deposited as fat as the fructose is processed by the liver... with chronically high insulin eventually causing insulin resistance.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 27 2014, @03:22PM
The new evidence is that eating fat doesn't make you fat - our bodies are designed for it - it's all those carbohydrates spiking your insulin levels.
And fat makes you fat. Eating too much, makes you fat.
How many miles did you walk today? Get your step counter. If it is less than 10,000 steps, you are way under your quote for movement. People used to walk for 10-20km a day, every day. Today, people don't walk to to the end of their driveway - and no, I'm not kidding you! On the other hand, we have abundance of food *and* obesogens (mainly plastics related) in our diet making us fatter than expected.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesogen [wikipedia.org]
Without obesogens, American diet would make people *FAT* and lazy. With these hormones-like substances, we get morbidly obese doing the same thing - no exercise and snacking. American diet is not high in carbs - it is high in fat. Things like fries, chocolate bars, chips, burgers, all are high in fat. People eat more meat today per person than at any time in history. Look at the steak sizes in American restaurants. 200 years ago, average people didn't eat that much meat in weeks and many not in months.
If you want to get rid off almost ALL your sugar or sugar-like substances, start drinking plain water. Tap water. It's free.
So, it's more fad diets about "evil sugar", just like there were fad diets about "evil fat".
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Geotti on Wednesday August 27 2014, @04:30PM
You must be one of the lucky few with tasty and healthy tap water. For everyone else, buying bottled water is much more recommended. Also, it's not free.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday August 27 2014, @04:38PM
You must live in Orlando.
(Score: 1) by arashi no garou on Wednesday August 27 2014, @08:21PM
You do realize that most bottled water is drawn from municipal water sources, right? It's the same thing as tap water, only much more expensive and harmful to the environment.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/03/100310/why-tap-water-is-better/ [nationalgeographic.com]
(Score: 2) by Geotti on Thursday August 28 2014, @11:23AM
Not where I live. I prefer Gerolsteiner [gerolsteiner.com]
When was the last time you've tested your taste-buds by comparing different water? And don't tell me "water is water."