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

[rougewench.livejournal.com]

Animal fat (specifically saturated fat) was just one of the things mentioned on the lists of foods to avoid when it comes to the cholesterol thing, so it seems to show up on the various lists of what people with gall bladder issues should avoid, so I mistyped when I wrote protein above. Lean animal protein good, but some sites advocate going vegetarian to address gall bladder issues.

I think, personally, what nailed me was the 7-10 egg a week habit (I was eating them daily for breakfast), along with the large amounts of whole milk I was taking in daily (I loves me some whole milk...to the tune of 16 oz+ a day).


D.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Interesting; I wonder if the docs who recommend that diet have studied different kinds of fat.

Most fats we eat in the US are bad for us: Anything from seeds (not vegetables - "vegetable oil" is a marketing lie!) contains too much "bad" fat, and animals that don't eat their natural diets do, too. For example, beef fat isn't actually bad for you... if the cows eat grass and such. As soon as we start feeding them corn (and other cows...), they sport mostly omega-6 fats, which are bad. Omega-3 oils are good for us, helping reduce bad cholesterol, and while fish is good for us, so is beef that naturally grazes.

All the paleo literature I've read says that an egg a day won't hurt you, nor will milk from naturally grazing cows. I wish researchers would look more into these things, especially the FDA, before making blanket statements. Like "EAT MOAR CORNE 'N' WHEET!"

[rougewench.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm conflicted myself as to what I found when I went looking for information as to how to address gall bladder issues, as much of it reads in direct conflict with what I found when I first approached Atkins, and what I have learned through reading about paleo and other similar approaches. I know well exactly the positives to be found though the elimination of certain types of carbohydrates from one's intake.

Frankly there's no way to truly trust the information coming out of the FDA, because there are far to many powerful corporate farming interests which lobby far too effectively.

So, there are certain things I'm going to do, and certain things I am not in trying to address the GB issues. For instance, I'm cutting way back on egg consumption, and cutting back on the level of fat in the liquid milk I drink from whole to 2% (although liquid dairy may well get to go altogether if my bowels cant tolerate it, which is simply a separate issue for me, due to the Ulcerative Colitis). I am not, though, going to have arkhamrefugee step back from cooking with butter, ghee or coconut oil, as he is doing really well on the paleo (down 20 pounds since he started), and frankly the way he cooks with such substances, I'm not getting the bulk of the cholesterol I'm taking in through those sources. I'm also not stepping back from eating meat, but I am going to aim toward eating leaner meat by choice (I'm a dark meat girl so this will be something of a bummer). Omega 3's were already part of my gut regimen (along with the anti-inflammatory drugs I have to take for that, and probiotics), so I'll be continuing those as well.

The reason I am specifically paying attention to cholesterol intake is that my problem is polyps in my gall bladder and such polyps are, apparently, caused by excess cholesterol that embeds in the wall of the gall bladder. As polyps can, if large, signal cancer, I figure it's in my best interest to do what I can to minimize any growth.

In my case, it's all complicated by the fact that the Ulcerative Colitis is best addressed by cutting out of certain carbohydrates from my diet, so at this point I'm looking for a balance of intake that minimizes UC symptoms and GB symptoms...unfortunately, GB problems are an extraintestinal side effect of the UC, so it may have been that the amount of cholesterol I was eating wouldn't have been a bad thing for someone who didn't have a compromised bowel, but I ended up fuckered.

Your mileage, as someone who does not have such complications, would necessarily vary. I sincerely hope you can find a balance that will work for you, which is I think all that any of us can hope for as our bodies age.


D.