Sugar: The bitter Truth

[shnozzola]

Just saw this referred to on 60 minutes.  Didn't see it yet.  Controversial  I would guess.

[Chronos]

Yes, it is controversial but the premise makes sense. There have been many scientists over the past 30-40 years who have been working on research like this, but none has been brave enough to used the word "toxic".

[Nick]

Well, remember, we don't buy into scientific ideas anymore...so hit the cookies and ice cream.

[kin hell]

Just watched it.

people have been saying sugar (fructose/sucrose not glucose) is a poison for years, but I never realised how exactly accurate that "propaganda" was

this guy spells it out   it's a toxin

I've had difficulty after injury and sybaritic indolence getting back down to fighting weight for surfing   even after coming back to "healthy living and exercise"

I now realise my healthy fruit juices are really only healthy in original fruit form   
otherwise without the fibre packaging the fructose is metabolised like a fat...

thanks shnozz

[ParkingPlaces]

kin, if you're going to use a word like sybaritic in a sentence, you've got a lot worse problems than sugar. 

I just found a place that will deliver orange sherbet by drone helicopters for a small weekly fee, and someone finds this for me. Thanks a lot folks.

These days I'm thinking that most anything can be bad for you if eaten at the wrong time, in incorrect quantities, or if it is ingested orally. The term "organic" has been co-opted by big business and has no meaning any more. Whatever diet is the big fad this week will be proven to cause cancer the next. Eggs will continue to bounce back and forth between "incredible" and "do not ea" on an hourly basis. White anything will be proven to taste better and kill faster, natural will taste worse and kill slightly slower.

Too damn many people are interested in what I eat and offering to sell me the ultimate solution, and frankly I'm getting tired of it. Probably because of my high blood sugar. No matter how right they are, I can't trust the little grubbers. The way do-gooder foodies line up at my door you would think I won the lottery yesterday.

In a world where folks snort coke, drink booze by the gallon, have sex with gerbils and fill their carts at the dollar store, a little premature death caused by sugar doesn't seem so bad. In fact, it may be an advantage. Stuff tastes great and you don't have to live long enough to regret it. What's to dislike about that?

If the world is going downhill fast anyway, I have little incentive to do anything right. So I'm going to take myself down with it.

Hark, I do believe I hear a drone...

[kin hell]

kin, if you're going to use a word like sybaritic in a sentence, you've got a lot worse problems than sugar. 

if you think me using it in a sentence is bad, you shoulda seen how I abused it in real life.....

[atheola]

And now my world famous impersonation of the counselor from Beavis and Butthead... drum roll please.
###########################

Uhmm...sugar's bad..uhm, ok?

[joebbowers]

Water and oxygen are both poisonous if you take in too much too fast. I don't see the point of this.

[Azdgari]

Watching the video might help you understand that, joe.

[joebbowers]

Youtube is blocked in China. From the title I guess it's saying sugar is bad. But what does the video suggest we should do about it?

[Chronos]

Youtube is blocked in China. From the title I guess it's saying sugar is bad. But what does the video suggest we should do about it?

Stop eating it unless it comes in a fibrous fruit, then only sparingly.

[atheola]

Not eating sugar in today's world would require most of us to make a monumental shift in eating habits and a huge investment in how we shop being most everything we eat these days is loaded with it and if you're like me and low income it's next to impossible ESPECIALLY if you live in one of our finer cities where you live in a food desert.
Of course it's toxic..it rots teeth right out of peoples heads. They find 50,000 year old skulls in the ground with teeth intact, but here I am at 53 with almost no teeth..life stinks then you die and then you REALLY stink.

[Azdgari]

Youtube is blocked in China. From the title I guess it's saying sugar is bad. But what does the video suggest we should do about it?

Ahh, sorry.  Though if you can't view the video, then why is it meaningful that you couldn't see its point?

The video explains how fructose (and the fructose component of sucrose) is a metabolic toxin similar to ethanol, one that directly leads to obesity, among several other problems.

[Traveler]

I just watched the whole thing, and am quite impressed. It clarifies some of the concerns many of us have had about fast food and such. For those of you who have not watched it, he explains the vast difference between glucose (ok) and fructose (or sucrose) which are metabolized differently, and cause many, many health problems.

Fructose is used in most of our processed foods because its cheap. And the FDA won't regulate it because its a chronic toxin, not an acute toxin.

Lots more data, but I can't sum up 1.5 hours in a brief post. Watch it if you're interested.

[Backspace]

So the tree that bore fruit of knowledge of good & evil was actually healthy for Eve and Adam?  Now I'm really confused...

[Chronos]

Not eating sugar in today's world would require most of us to make a monumental shift in eating habits and a huge investment in how we shop being most everything we eat these days is loaded with it and if you're like me and low income it's next to impossible ESPECIALLY if you live in one of our finer cities where you live in a food desert.

Fresh vegetables, especially the green, leafy variety, are not expensive and are quite filling. I eat eggs and bacon for breakfast every day, salad for lunch and dinner (lots), and then chicken, fish, some cheese, olives, and nuts but stay away from breads, rice, pastas and most anything pre-prepared (as in processed/manufactured). It's not difficult to do and it's not expensive.

[Backspace]

Fresh vegetables, especially the green, leafy variety, are not expensive and are quite filling...  It's not difficult to do and it's not expensive.

East St. Louis is a severely depressed area just over the river from it's name sake city -- much like depressed areas around other metropolitan areas in the US.  Due to the level of crime in E.StL, there are no grocery stores for miles; one would need to spend an hour or more by public transit to get to one. That leaves convenience stores with little/any fruits & veggies, and loads of junk & snack foods, all at inflated prices. This is reality for much of the depressed in the US.

[Historicity]

Sugar's just fine.

It's WWGHA which is toxic.  I sit here in a very comfortable chair for much too long when I should be exercising.

[kin hell]

Sugar's just fine.

It's WWGHA which is toxic.  I sit here in a very comfortable chair for much too long when I should be exercising.

the lecturer showed his obesity intervention process for kids

his last point was the enforced concept of buying of screen time (ie time in front of the tv or computer) with equal time physical activity

so get off your arse and go out atheist door-knocking or sumpin.

[atheola]

From now on Sunday mornings bright and early before church I'll put on the suit and tie I don't own and go knocking on doors and when they answer, "Hey you bible thumping moron.. stop eating sugar you simple minded assholes. It's bad for you. I saw it on some atheists site I go to
 Enjoy the services now. BYEBYE!" 

[jaimehlers]

First off, I don't really have the time to watch an hour and a half video just to see what it says about sugar.  A short summary of "some sugars are good, other sugars are bad" and why would have been helpful in the OP, then the video could be watched for context.

Second, I can't say I'm especially surprised.  My roommate has been generally avoiding foods with high fructose corn syrup for a while, and this explains why.  As for me, I tend to be fairly active, so I maintain my weight at a reasonable level (I am overweight, but not much so), thus the distinction isn't especially important to me.

[Azdgari]

The most relevant point of the video (IMO) with respect to your own post, Jaim, is that sucrose is half-fructose.  So it's not just the corn syrup - it's everything with refined sugar in it.

[joebbowers]

I've been basically a vegetarian the past few years to lose weight. I was 335 pounds in 2008, now I'm down to 200. I lost most of that by cutting out soda, ice cream, and chocolate almost completely, cutting way back on fast food, and taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

I decided to drop another 20 pounds to get to my ideal weight for my height, which would be about 180 pounds. So in the last month I've eaten nothing but fruit, with an occasional low fat yoghurt. Now this week I'm switching from fruit only to vegetables only, because they have even less calories, and many vegetables actually burn more calories digesting them than they contain.

[Traveler]

Congratulations Joe!!! Very impressive!!!

In the end, I think the best thing to do nutrition-wise is to eat as naturally as we can. All the various things that go into our highly processed foods simply can't be as healthy as an organically grown broccoli taken out of the earth. Whether its because of sugars or pesticides or hormones or a wide variety of other things, the food we find at fast food restaurants and in packages that last forever without rotting simply can't have as much nutrition. I'm betting that the details are FAR too complex to narrow obesity or illness down to one single factor (such as fructose). But cutting as many artificial or altered foods out as we can seems a safer way to eat.

I try to always read labels and if there are a lot of ingredients I can't pronounce, I try to leave it on the shelf. And there's enough controversy about high fructose corn syrup that I'm willing to avoid it just in case. There are SO many ways in which our country (USA) is twisted up in the food arena because of big agri-business, and the money they throw into politics. I don't trust them to tell us the truth. Just look at the tobacco companies denying the danger of smoking, despite years of conclusive tests to the contrary. When the interest of big business is involved, its every person for themselves. If I could afford it I'd buy a bunch of land and start an organic commune where we could grow our own food and get off the grid with sustainable power. 

[atheola]

Drag a couple of kids into the grocery store and even TRY to read all those food labels.. Good luck.  Hey, maybe your kids are perfect little angels in stores. Congratulations. You're a 1%er. 
Seriously though the average single mom is lucky to feed a couple screaming kids healthy meals, sugar free, fat free, etc., on her limited budget AND limited time being many single moms work for low wages and live in substandard housing and are bombarded with sugary ads daily as are her kids.

[Traveler]

I don't have children. Never have. Never will. Never wanted any, and now its far too late. Still wouldn't want any, even if it were possible. 

Yup, all this awesomeness and I'll not reproduce. Oh well. I'll have to count on my niece and nephew to carry on the genes. Speaking of which, my niece is a vegetarian who eats mostly organic and is studying environmental studies at college. I have high hopes for that young woman, both in terms of her longterm health, and in terms of her continueing to be a fine human being.

As for kids and health, I agree. And school lunches aren't usually very healthy either. My sister-in-law did a great job of feeding her kids in a healthy fashion, but she was very lucky. She and my brother have a stable relationship, and she worked only part time while the kids were in school. These days that's probably very rare.

[atheola]

Now in hindsight after having brought up 4 kids and now a "proud" grandfather I think spaying and neutering kids should be an option. 
Don't worry..it's relevant to sugar.

[12 Monkeys]

I've been basically a vegetarian the past few years to lose weight. I was 335 pounds in 2008, now I'm down to 200. I lost most of that by cutting out soda, ice cream, and chocolate almost completely, cutting way back on fast food, and taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

I decided to drop another 20 pounds to get to my ideal weight for my height, which would be about 180 pounds. So in the last month I've eaten nothing but fruit, with an occasional low fat yoghurt. Now this week I'm switching from fruit only to vegetables only, because they have even less calories, and many vegetables actually burn more calories digesting them than they contain.

been a live food vegan for years.... good job joe

[Chronos]

Fresh vegetables, especially the green, leafy variety, are not expensive and are quite filling...  It's not difficult to do and it's not expensive.

East St. Louis is a severely depressed area just over the river from it's name sake city -- much like depressed areas around other metropolitan areas in the US.  Due to the level of crime in E.StL, there are no grocery stores for miles; one would need to spend an hour or more by public transit to get to one. That leaves convenience stores with little/any fruits & veggies, and loads of junk & snack foods, all at inflated prices. This is reality for much of the depressed in the US.

Perhaps so, but that was not atheola's point. A considerable majority of Americans have grocery stores with fresh vegetables within easy reach.

Severely depressed areas of cities have multiple problems, and a fully-stocked grocery store is down the list from productive jobs.