Sugar consumption and health issues

vm007
vm007 Posts: 241 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I keep coming across posts/videos/short reels etc which demonize sugar. Is it because now everyone knows about CICO so they do not even talk about it and go to the secondary items?

My question is why does Mother Nature hate us so much that we evolved in a way that we did optimally with carbs than with high fat? or am I mis-understanding this whole sugar being evil thing? When they talk about sugar maybe they mean things that are sweet and not necessarily about carbs? or things that have added sugar and not naturally occurring like fruits and veggies?

Then again I have seen posts which talk about carbs being bad, period. I have done keto for a long time and I had to be constantly vigilant of what I consumed because of my social circle, society, life in general.

What is the consensus here? people who have experienced it, do you think it's about sugar that is "sweet" , added afterwards like coca cola, chocolates, ice cream etc or carbs in general?
If a person's goal is just to stay healthy (maintaining appropriate body weight for their size/age/height etc) -how should they live?

To be honest it was super hard being on Keto, however, reducing sugar that is "sweet" or that comes from snacking is fairly okay for me.

Replies

  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,225 Member
    Carbs are fine however ulta processed ones you need to limit, things like cookies, chips, sodas, etc.
  • herringboxes
    herringboxes Posts: 259 Member
    Mother nature intended us to eat fruits and vegetables.

    But not dozens of pounds per year of refined cane sugar.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,221 Member
    edited April 2023
    It's excess sugar consumption where the evidence is overwhelming, and not necessarily carbohydrates unless they're formulated into another food offering which includes sugar, then we're talking processed and ultra processed foods, which are also consumed in excess and are a major contributor to most symptoms of metabolic diseases. When we look at the total calories consumed that are attributed to sugars which include sugary drinks, it's not hard to see why people try on many levels to mitigate that consumption which then lead to all sorts of misinformation, disinformation, confusion and out and out stupidity. imo.

    https://bmj.com/content/381/bmj-2022-071609
  • littlegreenparrot1
    littlegreenparrot1 Posts: 702 Member
    I didn't become overweight because I ate to much porridge, wholemeal bread and fruit.
    It was the pastries, whole packets of chocolate biscuits, doughnuts etc. All of which I'll eat far to much of, I just won't eat that many apples.
    It's the type of carbs and the volume that's the problem.
  • hoodlisa1979
    hoodlisa1979 Posts: 38 Member
    There's always a food group that's being demonised somewhere so a diet can be peddled and profit can be made, I completely ignore dietary advice which rules out a certain food group, my hub is 54 hes extremely fit but has never set foot in a gym, he is very strong as well, when watching him work its obvious he's stronger than the ones who lift that are half his age, he rarely breaks a sweat even doing the hard graft, he's weighed the same throughout our 24 years of marriage, I say this because his diet is *kitten*, 5-6 cups of tea a day with 3 sugars, packet of shortbread fingers for breakfast, lunch is processed meat slapped between white bread a packet of crisps and 3 cherry bakewell, dinner is either chips or mash with meat gravy etc, 5 beers an evening, I'm suprised he doesn't have scurvy but his bloods were a1 at his 50 age check, he's been to the doctors twice in the last 24 years for issues that were not health related but due to injury, now there's nothing to say that his diet won't catch up with him however he's going strong, my point is despite eating a couple of bags of sugar a week he carries no fat at all, genetics and lifestyle is what is obviously at play but if refined sugar really is all that bad id like one of the nay sayers to come try and convince the hub he's gonna end up diabetic or fat
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    Like the above poster, my husband eats lots of sweets and adds 2 packets of sugar to his coffee 2 or 3 times a day. He's 69 and has always been thin. His blood work is always perfect even though he eats mainly cheese. He is pescatarian and goes to the Fitness Center everyday. Great body. So, no, sugar is not the devil.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,221 Member
    edited April 2023
    It's excess visceral adipose tissue that creates inflammation and is the main factor for most of the diseases and problems associated with diabetes, atherosclerosis, fatty liver, high blood pressure, high LDL and not sugar per se. People consume too many calories that then create too much visceral fat and if those calories contain lots of sugar or refined and ultra refined food then yes, you have an argument to remove some, but the main goal to mitigate these problems, is weight reduction. Most people like to imagine there are evil doers and someone or something to blame and at the moment it's sugar. Cheers.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,225 Member
    Bashing foods is a huge literary industry
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    The World Health Organization (WHO) was mentioned above; I thought I'd provide a link and a few blurbs. Note: "free sugars" is what is referred to in the US as "added sugar" plus sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates.

    https://www.who.int/news/item/04-03-2015-who-calls-on-countries-to-reduce-sugars-intake-among-adults-and-children

    A new WHO guideline recommends adults and children reduce their daily intake of free sugars to less than 10% of their total energy intake. A further reduction to below 5% or roughly 25 grams (6 teaspoons) per day would provide additional health benefits.

    Free sugars refer to monosaccharides (such as glucose, fructose) and disaccharides (such as sucrose or table sugar) added to foods and drinks by the manufacturer, cook or consumer, and sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates.

    “We have solid evidence that keeping intake of free sugars to less than 10% of total energy intake reduces the risk of overweight, obesity and tooth decay,” says Dr Francesco Branca, Director of WHO’s Department of Nutrition for Health and Development. “Making policy changes to support this will be key if countries are to live up to their commitments to reduce the burden of noncommunicable diseases.”

    The WHO guideline does not refer to the sugars in fresh fruits and vegetables, and sugars naturally present in milk, because there is no reported evidence of adverse effects of consuming these sugars.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    edited April 2023
    It's possible something like the WHO's 2015 sugar news release got distorted like this:

    fhfty229he51.gif
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,455 Member
    I’ve been both persons. The person who literally ate several pounds a day of cookies, candies, ice creams, pies and cakes. All of it, all in one day.

    Even though I’m newer, much smaller me, I still love sweets, and I still manage to pack some in my day. A lot are sugar free (like the syrup on my French toast this morning, and my yummy homemade sugar free ice cream schedule for tonight.). Some are same old same old ( the half a giant ginger molasses cookie I just got from the French bakery and that’s gonna make me rearrange my snack schedule this afternoon, and the mini lemon pound cake my husband chose, which we’ll split together, with our blueberry ice cream ).

    The difference is, I no longer stuff my face til my stomach bursts, and I know how to go in and adjust my remaining calories so I’ll still net under for the day.

    No way am I going to spend my life worry about the merits of this and the dangers of that.

    Same for the sugar free stuff. Yeah, I can worry that erithrytol has a slightly higher incidence of cancer (per article I read yesterday), but then again, the extra hundred pounds wasn’t doing me any favors either.

    Pick your poisons, if you want to think of them that way.

    I’d muuuuuch rather incorporate some yum into my day than punish myself the rest of my life, and that kinda sounds like the approach you’re falling into.

    Many hugs. I remember vividly the head spinning ack! ack!ack! of TMI being thrown at me those first few months of calorie counting. 😘

  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,252 Member
    edited April 2023
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    “We have solid evidence that keeping intake of free sugars to less than 10% of total energy intake reduces the risk of overweight, obesity and tooth decay,” says Dr Francesco Branca, Director of WHO’s Department of”[/b]

    There is no discussion about direct one to one relationship to anything other than overweight, obesity, and tooth decay.

    The goal of the recommendation is to reduce the risk of overweight, obesity and tooth decay.

    I guess I will go brush my teeth now. And continue to log my excess sugar intake within the context of appropriate caloric intake. If my caloric intake is NOT appropriate, yes, the easiest calories to cut for me probably have to do with excess donuts (well that and mayo)

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