The Case Against Sugar

[Aldous]

This is a good article from Chemical & Engineering news about sugar

The Case Against Sugar
Amid calls to cut back or even ban added sugars, scientists hunt for alternative ways to satisfy our cravings

Sugar is toxic. The fat and sodium we’ve spent so much time fretting over may in fact be the lesser of the evils in our diet. New evidence suggests that sugar—and possibly artificial sweeteners—might be the ultimate cause of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, and liver disease.

https://cen.acs.org/articles/92/i31/...nst-Sugar.html

[BigJohn]

I fully agree about artificial sweeteners.

[inavalan]

Fear is the most toxic.

[pixiedust]

I admit a regrettable liking for sweet foods. I admire anyone who can cut it out/down.

[Aldous]

I've been using stevia as a sweetener for a while. The stevia I have includes erythritol. I found stevia extract in one store that doesn't say anything about erythritol. I might try that sometime. I found this recently:


New Warning About Zero-Calorie Sugar Substitute: What Experts Are Saying About Erythritol
https://www.forbes.com/sites/arianna...h=6b5708b15385

The artificial sweetener erythritol and cardiovascular event risk
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-023-02223-9

Common sweetener erythritol tied to higher risk of stroke and heart attack
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/art...d-heart-attack

[Aldous]

Originally Posted by inavalan

Fear is the most toxic.

High blood pressure = silent killer
I remember one patent searcher I used to see most days at the USPTO public search room. one day I heard he died of a stroke and I also heard people talking about him not wanting to do anything about his high blood pressure.

[inavalan]

Sugar reduces the cellular membrane's permeability, which causes degenerative diseases. As far as I know, the only way to somewhat reverse that cellular damage is fish oil.

But ...

The body is a gestalt of consciousness, which means that its state of health is determined at the gestalt level, and it isn't derived form its elements' state (see the definition of "gestalt").

In other words, if at gestalt level there is a feeling, intention, expectation of health (NOTE: this is fundamentally different from a wish of "not getting sick") then even when at cellular consciousness level tendencies of illness appear, they eventually subside, maintaining the body's health.

The opposite is also true: a feeling or expectation of illness (including fear of illness, wish of "not getting sick") will cause illness at gestalt level, even when at cellular level all conditions would warrant health.

Two people with the same genetic predispositions, lifestyle, including sugar consumption, will have different health outcomes when their feelings, intentions, expectations of health are different.

Health, as everything we experience in our physical lives, is determined totally by our psychic state.

The body isn't a mechanistic construction of organs, cells, atoms, subatomic particles.

You may choose to disagree.

[Podshell]

When I used to drink a lot of alcohol,I couldn't face sugar in anything else(as I expect most types of booze contain it in some form) I now occasionaly use jaggery(the pressed sugar cane variety)honey and sometimes other syrups such as mulberry or pomegranite-these also have their own benefits,excess amounts of the refined stuff being a big problem,if the healt benefits of jaggery are googled some of the things it is said to help are caused by overconsumption of the refined stuff.It's also worth checking out chemically made salt v naturally occuring stuff and replacing that in diet.

[Gem]

Sugar isn't a toxin, and it's not addictive, but because sugar is added to a lot of processed food products including all sorts of condiments, people tend to consume too many calories from sugar, which leads to many calories in the diet. The best way is replace processed packaged food with fresh whole food. Eating out often is a problem, too, because you have no idea how many calories are in your meal especially if it's drowned in dressings and sauces, so I minimise buting out, and prepare most food at home.

Sugary whole foods like most fruit and some veges like corn and carrots are better than added sugar because they come with fiber, which is satiating and slows down the body's absorption of sugar, preventing extreme blood sugar spikes - and you notice you're already satisfied just a little bit.

Artificial sweeteners are fine. I personally have not seen any human controlled trials that show adverse effects (they are one of the most studied things in nutrition), but if you are under medical care for something, then your doctor can advise. We tend to find switching from sugary drinks to no-sugar drinks can be a reasonable calorie reduction strategy, so whether or not a person will benefit from artificial sweeteners depends on circumstances. E.g. I daresay if person drinks 2L of coke a day, then a no-sugar one is better. Best to quit soft drinks altogether and stick to water.

So, don't believe the fear mongers who pick on sugar. Sugar is good and there are no bad foods (only bad diets).

Do the sensible thing everyone knows is right - homemade food from fresh ingredients - and there will be no problem at all.

[Podshell]

I started making cakes and fruit bread at home more often,if you want them to taste like shop bought I can't imagine how much extra sugar needs to be added,they must contain loads-I always add yeast to the mix now so that eats up the naturally occuring sugars,having the bread or cake with greek yoghurt means only adding a small amount of honey or similar to it for a sweet taste,some yoghurts have loads of sugar added,I don't know why as leaving it live would preserve it and the refined tasteless sugar they add doesn't do much flavourwise.