The Case Against Sugar

[JazzDisorder58]

I think it might be sucrose that is the most harmful. especially in the development of health problems like diabetes

[BigJohn]

Originally Posted by Gem

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

I know one person who has diabetes. He is upset because he can't eat the sweet things he used to eat. I told him there are a lot of really good things he can eat. He still longs for sweets and at times, more sweets.

[Aldous]

podcasts on sugar and health
https://www.drtomroselle.com/ageless-health-podcast/

[FairyCrystal]

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

The naivety of some...
Maybe you can say "raw natural foods generally aren't bad"
(Man-made) sugar isn't a food, it's a carbohydrate, an additive to food because it tastes so good and is very addictive so you keep wanting it more, again and again.
Natural sugars can be found in fruits and honey etc. and these we do need to some measure, which isn't nearly the amount that most consume sugar per day. These also have a different effect on/inside the body than man-made sugars. It's digested differently.

To say it's not bad, not addictive, indicates you don't know anything about the human body.
If your statement would be true we could all live on donuts, bacon & eggs and Big Macs & ice cream on daily basis. Unfortunately we wouldn't stay healthy for long, nor get very old.

Maybe wonder why you're trying to convince yourself it isn't bad. It reminds me of weed addicts arguing till the cows come home that it isn't bad to smoke spliffs. Or smokers arguing many smokers get well into their 90s so what's the big deal!?
Maybe it's a sign of addiction to fiercely defend the substance that's abused. And sugar IS a substance of abuse. Considering how bad it is it's totally unbelievable it isn't forbidden by law.

[FairyCrystal]

I used to drink my coffees with loads of sugar, more like drinking sugar with some coffee, until a nurse told me how dangerous that was concerning developing diabetes.
That scared me, even though I was only 20 at the time, and I quit using sugar in my coffee altogether. That was hard, but I did it regardless for my own health.

Jump forward approx. 10 years in time and I was having regular blood sugar dips. VEry unhealthy, blood sugar level should stay stable as much as possible. A nutritional therapist told me to cut out all sugars as that would help get over these god awful dips that feel so horrible.
She also told me if I did get off sugar it'd be like going cold turkey from an addiction, which it is, and I'd not feel so good for a few days.

I cut out all "it tastes so great" sugars (desserts, big cookies etc) and boy did I feel horrible! It was like coming down with a really bad cold or flu. No energy, tired, narked, just general bleeeeh...
That lasted for about 5-7 days, then I was fine again.
In any case, the blood sugar dips went, which was grand!! I always hated those dips, feeling so bad and tired and narked just because you basically need your next hit, like any junky.

It's an addiction (sugar is highly addictive!) and getting off it comes with all the difficulties of getting off any addiction. Although I think it's easier than quitting smoking which I'm currently doing, haha.

If you can't do without your sugar you're a sugar junky, highly addicted.
Which is all the more reason to get off it and hope you haven't worn your pancreas out just yet.

[FairyCrystal]

Artificial sweeteners... years ago I read that it was originally a by-product in some chemical industry, if memory serves it was paint-related.
Then they found out it could serve as sweetener and bingo! It was marketed and sold.
When I found out I dumped everything with sweetener in it, many bottles of cola, crisps, mayonnaise, and so on. After I'd thrown it in the bin I told the kids about it -teenagers then, now adults- and they haven't bought it since either.

But many rely on that chemical cr@p, thinking they're making a healthy choice while it wreaks havoc in the body as it isn't at all healthy.
It isn't natural and anything unnatural that's put into the body is also alien and the body doesn't know what to do with it. Often such things are stored in the body somewhere in order to keep things functioning normally, but what happens when it runs out of storage?
Some unnatural, chemical & toxic stuff is stored in fat, but can also be in bones.
Why do you think it's bad to lose weight too fast? All the waste that the body cannot rid itself of in a normal fashion is then released.

If you need a replacement go for something that is natural, like honey. I do not like the taste of honey, but I am using acacia honey in my oats for breakfast to sweeten. Acacia honey doesn't taste so strong and is very doable.
Stevia should be okay provided you get the real deal, which is very expensive. Advantage is that it sweetens like crazy so a little will last a long time.
Stevia is made from a plant, should not have anything added to it. It can be bought as a liquid and as powder, can be used in drinks, cooking, and baking.
Just doesn't have any glycemic load, glycemic index of 0 whereas sugar's GI is 100.
Honey is approx. 50 but... it also offers lots of other things, anti-inflammatory etc. etc. Very healthy! And digested differently from man-made addictive sugar and sweeteners.
Bummer is if we all switch to using honey we will likely run out of the healthy good version because our use of chemicals and pesticides have killed too many bees on global level...
So we have to clean up our act on more levels than saving the bees for our own survival. Although surviving our own pollution, of course, trumps sweetening our coffees.

[FairyCrystal]

Oh to add to it for the ones truly interested...
There are more healthier alternatives with low GI than just stevia.
Agave sugar for instance.
BUT... agave sugar has to be digested via the liver so if you use a lot of it and your liver isn't too happy it might become too much.
So if you know you have liver issues don't go for agave. I don't know if this goes for having fatty liver too, and many have that. I would assume so but not sure.
So do your own research when looking for a better way of sweetening your drinks & foods.

[Native spirit]

I am type 2 diabetic I am not a lover of sugar never have been.
but I know when my body needs sugar so i just have a small chocolate if I ate anymore I would be ill,
My friend was type two also but I asked her one day if she was sure she was type two she said yes the doctors have told her
to me it was a wrong diagnosis so i told her to go back.

She said I will as soon as i get home from holiday she went camping with her husband and son,
I got a phone call she had collapsed and was totally out of it. she was rushed to hospital and it was touch and go as to whether she would wake up.
she had fallen into a Diabetic comma.

They tested her and she was type one all along, she was advised never to take sugar or sweeteners or they could kill her


Namaste

[BigJohn]

Did they ever divuldge what her Hemoglobin A1C was?

Where I live, the temperature has been hot (what do you expect for the desert in summer). On the news they hav been telling people that are diabetics to watch their sugar levels. The heat can make their levels go up and down .

[Gem]

Originally Posted by BigJohn

I know one person who has diabetes. He is upset because he can't eat the sweet things he used to eat. I told him there are a lot of really good things he can eat. He still longs for sweets and at times, more sweets.

We generally find diabetes is associated with excess body fat or low lean body mass. IOW, high body fat percentage. The medication makes losing fat harder because they can increase appetite, but if you eat less calories than you burn, you will lose weight.

The consumption of sugar doesn't cause diabetes, but people who consume a lot of added sugar tend to consume too many calories in general, so they put on more fat, which is the leading diabetes risk. It's best not to consume added sugars because too many calories from carbs means there not enough room for calories from protein and dietary fat. If you don't get the protein you can't build the muscle.

The way to move forward is to increase muscle mass and decrease fat mass, and that means eating low calories on a fairly high protein diet and doing resistance exercise. Hence fat-loss diets typically involve carb reduction and protein increase, but not always.

If it's possible to alter that lean mass to fat percentage ratio, it's possible to reduce medication, and hopefully heal the condition altogether. Or at least, there's no other way of doing it.

In normal treatment diabetics are generally advised to lose as much weight as they can as fast as they can, but that also leads to the loss of lean muscle mass, so it's pretty important to undertake resistance training in conjunction with a low-calorie, higher protein diet to preserve or increase lean mass while losing the fat.