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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: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday September 16 2014, @03:14PM
Get your thyroid checked. "Sugar withdrawal" is a common symptom; ie. you only feel good when you're consuming plenty of sugar, because the whole body and especially the brain are chronically energy-deprived, and sugar is an instant fix. Also occurs as "food fixes my depression".
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by mendax on Wednesday September 17 2014, @12:38AM
My thyroid is fine. I've had it checked.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday September 17 2014, @01:46AM
So far so good, but be aware the common TSH test is a very crude indicator, and can be entirely wrong. It's better to diagnose by symptoms, of which the list is long and sometimes bizarre (eg. swelling in the tip of the nose). Sugar craving is a strong redflag.
I have Hashimoto's thyroiditis. I've had to become a pocket expert on the topic in sheer self defense. Thank ghu for the Journal of Endocrinology, from which I now go to the doctor armed with printouts.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by mendax on Wednesday September 17 2014, @02:49AM
I have been a sugar and carbohydrate addict since I was a child. It has nothing to do with any abnormal biology such as a thyroid condition. It has everything to do with coping with the pain from emotionally distant parents, a emotionally abusive mother, being smarter than nearly everyone else in school, regular teasing, and sexual trauma courtesy of the neighborhood pedophile. PTSD is nasty.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday September 17 2014, @04:44AM
That's seriously ugly :( Hope things get better for you.
But (based on long and acute observation) I would still posit that =how= we cope is largely fueled by biochemistry. Someone with different levels of critical hormones, enzymes, and whatever might have reacted by going forth and breaking shit instead. Long-term persistence of PTSD is probably due to an imbalance which prevents recovery. Frex, reduced processing of stress metabolites, so once made, you're kinda stuck with 'em.
The ability to recover from stress, and its inverse, are very definitely inherited in dogs, which indicates a root in biology rather than psychology. Interestingly, those unable to recover from stress have a high incidence of issues like epilepsy and exercise-induced collapse, and I'm beginning to suspect the MDR1 gene as well.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.