Is Sugar Toxic?

[mckitterick]

First, read this NYT article on why sugar is so dangerous to your health. I'll wait.

I stopped eating refined sugars a year ago, and within two weeks I lost 10 pounds. I also started feeling healthier almost right away. This is why: Not only does sugar (cane, corn, you name it - refined sugar) make us fat, but it also causes insulin resistance. This makes it a primary cause for diabetes and metabolic syndrome. That means sugar causes heart disease. Worse yet, because of all these effects, it promotes cancer.

There's a terrifying thought, considering that it's in almost every prepared food you find in the grocery store.


Click the image to see the NYT article.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to give up refined sugar for one month. See how much your body responds.

Starting today, I'm giving up on diet soda, as well. Why? One's body sees the artificial sweetener and produces insulin in response... so the most dangerous aspect of sugar - that it promotes these diseases - can't be avoided by using artificial sweeteners in place of sugar. I've been noticing soreness in my guts, what appears from all symptoms to be a gall-bladder issue. Therefore, my body is responding to diet soda by producing insulin and increasing my triglycerides (blood fat) from artifical sweetneners.

*sigh*

I'll report in a month on how that's going. I hope to hear from YOU, too!

Good luck.
Chris

Comments

[gwyndolin.livejournal.com]

One of the things the article didn't touch on was honey. It isn't a refined sugar, so is it less problematic? Giving up on sugar entirely is rough, but I do want to cut it out when I can. If I can substitute in honey in things like Teriaki sauce when I make it, that would be a big help.

[royal-spice.livejournal.com]

Here's the rub: honey may be a natural product, but it is a refined sugar product--refined by bees instead of humans! :)

If you are concerned about insulin response to any food, look at the glycemic index. And the glycemic index of honey is still higher than nearly all things I eat on a paleo/Whole30 diet. Take a look at this page, which shows that there's not that much difference between honey and sucrose (table sugar)--55 to 61 glycemic index. Honey is better, but it's still sugary.

[gwyndolin.livejournal.com]

One of the things in this article was the specific problem with sucrose and the way the body processed it, verses, say, a baked potato, which is also high on the gleicemic index but fine by the criteria in this article. So I wasn't sure where honey fell by those criteria.

[royal-spice.livejournal.com]

You're right, that's what the article says. I just don't agree that white potatoes are a good food. :)

The part he missed

[emt-hawk.livejournal.com]

is that honey is 2.5 times as "sweet" as sugar. You need less of it, to get the same flavor results. Less volume means that your body has less to cope with. That measures equal volumes, IIRC. And honey doesn't prop up my blood glucose as long as HFCS, I've never tested it against regular sugars.

--Hawk

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the little bee butts do the refining of it for us. *sigh* I love honey....