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Giving up sugar for good

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  • PaulaWallaDingDong
    PaulaWallaDingDong Posts: 4,641 Member
    Have any of the people here who think we don't naturally like sweet things ever tasted breast milk?

    This makes me think of Impractial Jokers and "I made a public access titty cheese commercial." Oh, Sal.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    blambo61 wrote: »
    blambo61 wrote: »
    I've given up sugar (or mostly given it up) not for weight loss purposes but for gout purposes. I've read some scientific articles that say fructose is way bad for gout. I believe it!

    gout can be caused by eating certain things not just fructose. my husbands gout flares up if he eats too much pork, an uncle had it and it would flare up if he ate pickled banana peppers. it has to do with uric acid production. if fructose causes it(which it states it can) then you would have to watch fruits and some veggies as well as they are mainly fructose. not to mention certain medical issues,diet,weight,age,etc all are risk factors in gout..if you suffer from gout its best to avoid things that can cause it/flare ups. if you know a certain food causes a flare up you avoid that food.

    Gout is caused when uric acid builds up and uric acid crystals precipitate out of the blood and into tissues. The immune system then attacks the crystals and causes a gout flare. People can have the crystals and not have the flare if their immune system isn't attacking the crystals.

    Purines in meat produce uric acid when metabolized. Ketones (losing weight can cause gout) and sugars and other things don't produce uric acid but interfere with the kidney's elimination of the uric acid. Who knows what else causes an individuals immune system to go off on the crystals also. Like you said, if you notice something that is causing problems, then that needs to be eliminated. The article I read said that the sugar effect (fructose) is worse than the meat but I have problems with both. Kidney function is hereditary and my dad and brother had to deal with this also. From what I've read the kidneys are supposed to get rid of the majority of the uric acid and the digestive system handles a part of it too (25% I believe I've read). Lots of factors.

    I mentioned health issues causing it too,but yeah I know how gout works :smile: I also know its a form of arthritis as well. yeah if your body isnt working like its supposed to it can cause all sorts of issues.
  • goldthistime
    goldthistime Posts: 3,213 Member
    Machka9 wrote: »
    I bit the bullet and read the whole article. Taube's articles can be such an eyeroll fest, but he somehow managed to outdo himself on this one.

    Seriously? Cigarettes have sugar? Well, oil is used in soap.. so? How is that even relevant?

    Once people are exposed, they consume as much sugar as they can easily procure? I have not seen a more rediculous generalization. I go weeks, and in some instances months, without added sugar without even noticing, even after going weeks having it daily. I just randomly lose interest. Is that how addiction works?

    People moderate their kids' sugar intake therefore sugar is bad? And? Parents moderate their kids' everything including video games and, in my case as a kid, tomatoes and Greek yogurt.

    The tired argument of sugar and the dopamine? Yeah, a hot shower with a nice smelling shower gel does it for me. I should quit showering forever because it might be addictive I guess. You know what else stimulates my pleasure center? Cheese! It turns out I'm not the only one. It's even dubbed as "dairy crack" by the same media that likes slapping the addictive label on sugar, but hating on cheese is not as trendy I guess, and hating on fat (which has been studied extensively and found to stimulate dopamine) has gone out of vogue.

    He then ends the article saying that sugar is very likely to be a toxic substance. Yeah, no comment.

    It's like he scouted the internet for woo paddlers like the food babe and her elk then distilled all their ideas into one article.



    I will agree that the article was disappointing. He unnecessarily introduced some strange reasoning.

    But as to parents moderating their children's consumption of sugar, I was thinking that a stronger argument could be made by pointing out that we are supposed to give our children ZERO added sugar from birth to 2 years old. Does anyone disagree with this advice? Would you or did you ignore it with your babies?

    So ... you didn't give your children any fruit at all until they turned 2?

    Of course I gave my kids fruit. That doesn't fall into the "added sugar" category.

    I had to go look up myself who "they" was again. It's the AHA. When I looked up the articles surrounding this statement I can see that it's not going to help bring the two sides here any closer together. Even I think some of it is on the extreme side (link below). I tried to give my wee ones as little sugar as possible but yes, I also gave my one year old birthday cake.

    My point was more that if you believe, as I do, that you should keep sugar intake very low in toddlers, there must be something about sugar that you view as a little dangerous. For me it was that they would "develop a taste for it". That falls well shy of an addiction, of course, but it has some similarities.

    http://abcnews.go.com/Health/american-heart-association-issues-recommendations-kids-sugar/story?id=41588639
  • LINIA
    LINIA Posts: 1,159 Member
    OP---you are correct and so is Gary Taubes---fully half of people in the US (and some other places) are obese or overweight, they can not control the intake of sugar/carbs and they are having negative health impacts.

    Here at MFP, we hear from many who can eat sugar/carbs within CiCo and those ppl refuse to believe that this does not work for sugar/carb addicts.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    Ty_Floyd wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    All I'm gonna say is that I've had friend's and family who were drug addicts...I've seen them in withdrawal and recovery and I see how they continue to struggle even years later...when I gave up Mt Dew it wasn't even remotely the same thing...

    "Sugar addiction" is a bunch of BS...

    As another poster mentioned earlier, have you ever seen the program "My 600 Pound Life"? Or how many people even here have lost weight time and again only to regain it overeating sweet foods? Maybe it's just not a problem for you. Personally I can take or leave booze but I don't deny that alcohol addiction is a problem for a lot of people.
    But it isn't just "sweet food". That show does nothing to teach someone how to eat properly, so when they are done with the show they haven't learned anything and gain the weight back. It's not that they are addicted to sugar. And please don't compare it to an alcohol addiction. It isn't anything like that and, as has been pointed out before, that is an insult to those with a true addiction.

    I am the one who initially brought up My 600 Pound Life and said "(Not specific to sugar - making a point about people self-medicating with food.)"

    I used to self-medicate with alcohol, and other substances and behaviors, and while I did have some serious negative consequences from that, I wouldn't trade my journey for theirs, and am not at all insulted by the comparison.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,984 Member
    try2again wrote: »
    If there were absolutely no other sweets in my house, I would never be tempted to eat plain sugar. Am I addicted?
    Lol, yep. I'm sure "addicts" are eating spoonfuls of it when they need their fix.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

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  • Falcon
    Falcon Posts: 853 Member
    edited January 2017
    I skimmed it. Someone has way too much time on their hands.

    Repeat after me. Sugar is not a drug. Moderate the amount you consume on a daily bases. Other wise you'll end up messing with your blood sugar levels and that makes you really sick without sugar. Symptoms of low blood sugar are as of the following:

    dizzy, lightheaded, headache, shaking and nausea.

    Been there, done that, was not amused.

    Just because they put it in tobacco products does not mean it's a drug.
  • masterscallit
    masterscallit Posts: 2 Member
    We're all gonna die. I read this article and it scared the *kitten* out of me. Apparently there was a lot of resistance from the medical community in the past about the destruction and cancer-causing effects sugar creates in the body. I NEED HELP kicking sugar. It's so hard man.
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