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

[miischelle.livejournal.com]

YOU CAN DOOO EEET!!!!!

[chernobylred.livejournal.com]

This is an amazing and huge step! I'm so proud of you!

[rougewench.livejournal.com]

With my recent experiences with gall bladder problems (I have polyps, apparently, which are caused by cholesterol embedding in the wall of the gall bladder), I have had to take a hard look at my cholesterol/saturated fat intake. The downside of a low carb/primal diet is that a good number of the allowed foods are animal proteins, and fats high in cholesterol. So I'm aiming now for both low carb (for my UC) and lower saturated fat/cholesterol (to pull strain off of the gall bladder).

You might consider adjusting your intake of fats/cholesterol, if you find that your intake of such things are higher than they might be, to see if that addresses the gut pain.

Though I do agree that cutting out diet soda is probably a good idea. Am working in that direction myself.

Good luck. I look forward to hearing how this works for you.


D.

[ms-danson.livejournal.com]

What does giving up refined sugar entail?

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I've tried to give up the Diet Coke so many times. It's really hard. Good luck!

[hippie-mamabear.livejournal.com]

I've done this with great results (lost 30 lbs in just a few months), but it was far too easy to give up on it when i stopped caring a lot about how i looked. I keep telling myself i'll start watching what i eat again, for the sake of my health, but it's really hard to be motivated to follow through. Give me another week to get over all the upcoming holiday stress and maybe i'll be on board again, ha.

[auroraceleste.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I didn't have the earth-shattering change that many people report. I dunno why, if it's that I wasn't very hooked, or if I have a resilient body that wasn't responding, or if I just am not in tune with what's going on in my body. I do notice, however, that even fruit these days is sickly sweet. I can't drink fruit juice anymore, even the all-natural no-sugar kind, because it's too sweet. I did see a lot of weight loss when I gave it up, too, so I'm not saying it's worthless, just that I'm kinda getting annoyed at all the "OMG I saw the light" statements because it's starting to make me wonder what's wrong with me that I didn't have that.

[mongrelheart.livejournal.com]

That article is right on. Kudos to you for giving up the sugar & diet soda!

I never liked soda much, whether regular or diet. Coffee, on other hand, I can't live without. I no longer put sugar in it, which was quite an adjustment at first.

[victoria-lane.livejournal.com]

I gave up soda two years ago for the final time. Diet soda, of course. I don't drink any sort of soda now.

But I do drink coffee. With sugar.

I've been thinking about the whole cutting out sugar thing for quite some time but I don't know if I can cut it out entirely. Some days, that damn cup of coffee in the morning is the only good thing that happens to me all day.

I used to live for most of my life relatively sugar free. I didn't eat much because it wasn't allowed in my house and I never craved it. It wasn't until the last seven years that I started to eat it. And it shows in the way I look.

[normalcyispasse.livejournal.com]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16280432?ordinalpos=5&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

..."Glucose and maltodextrin ingestions resulted in similar increases in blood glucose and insulin concentrations. However, only glucose triggered an early rise in insulin concentrations. Aspartame did not trigger any insulin response. "

The Internet is full of hype why artificial sweeteners are omgbad. However, the places that decry sweeteners as horrible (they cause cancer/brain tumors/insulin resistance/sweet adaptation/harlequin syndrome) are themselves impeachable. I trust sources from unbiased, peer-reviewed third parties. I have yet to see actual, compelling evidence that aspartame, Splenda or other artificial sweeteners cause/contribute to obesity/cancer/etc. In fact, all the studies I've seen indicate quite the opposite.

http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/1calorie.asp

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/aspartame.asp

First off, that's cool.

[emt-hawk.livejournal.com]

Watch out for HFCS, because it's hidden in most products, including lots of breads.

I'm a Type II Diabetic, they found out when I was brought home from the WTC incident, and had a CBC and a chest x-ray.

If you can, have an Hemoglobin A1C test done by your doctor, on a regular basis as well. That will give you an average of your blood glucose for a 3 month period. An alternative would be to monitor your blood glucose using a standard meter, or purchasing a home A1C test. Using the US standards, your blood glucose should produce an A1C of as close to 6 as possible. Doing the A1C means you're not subjecting yourself to the less precise and more frequent blood sugar tests that I do every morning, lunch, dinner, and bedtime.

--Hawk

[emt-hawk.livejournal.com]

Reading every package of everything you plan to eat, and make sure that it's not included as an ingredient.

Spaghetti sauce often contains sugars, for example.

--Hawk

[kimberlywade.livejournal.com]

Hooray! I'm so glad this information is getting out there. I don't eat refined sugars if i can help it, but it's a battle because it's in so many things. I've pretty much given up shopping at conventional supermarkets. Luckily, my town has a large health food store that has made it it's policy not to stock items that contain refined sugar. I can shop there without having to read every label.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Right, as Hawk says, it's only easy if you cook all your own food. Almost EVERYTHING packaged contains sugar, I shit you not (look at boxes and packages next time you go grocery shopping).

Refined sugar is cane sugar, corn syrup, honey (the bees refine it for us), and so forth. Just don't add those and you'll be avoiding refined sugar! Now, you can have some without the terrible effects, obviously, but I found I had to go cold-turkey to make it stick.

[xjenavivex.livejournal.com]

I support you fully and wish you luck.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I know! Giving up cookies and stuff was rough, so maybe this'll be easier....

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I'm so happy with how I look these days - look, abs! - that it's self-reinforcing at this point. Congrats on losing all the weight; at some point, I bet you'll start enjoying how you look more than the food. Luckily, I no longer crave chocolate. Much.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Ha! You were just lucky, is all.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Nowadays, I just use milk as a sweetener. It really does have a lot of sugar, compared to other natural foods, just it's not refined to the point of being grossly sweet.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Good for you! I hope I can do it without all the cravings. Need to move the diet soda into storage for parties to avoid the temptation.

I use milk to sweeten my coffee. Never much liked sugar in it, oddly! I think it's because that's how my grammie would make it for me. She called it "baby coffee" - more milk than coffee.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Huh - thanks for the information. I've seen conflicting reports on this, but haven't been quite sure how to address the gall-bladder issue. Hm.

[hippie-mamabear.livejournal.com]

Oh, i'm with you here. I live with one of those people that saw huge health improvements of all kinds after quitting sugar and grains. I lost weight, but didn't feel any different (after the first two weeks of carb flu, of course), so where's my motivation!?

[hippie-mamabear.livejournal.com]

lol, "much."

[victoria-lane.livejournal.com]

It's called a Boston Coffee when it is half milk or more. ;)

Re: First off, that's cool.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Geez, HFCS is EVERYWHERE. Thanks for the information! I've been meaning to watch my blood glucose; a home test that I can run regularly sounds like a great idea.