Why is sugar the devil?

CarolinaGirlinVA

I would rather have sugar in moderation than any artificial sweetener. I have a very strong adverse reaction to artificial sweeteners and within minutes I start vomiting and experience severe gut wrenching stomach cramps. I will admit, given my reaction, I do not want to "test" the newer products like stevia.

It's all about moderation.

blackcoffeeandcherrypie

I can't speak for anyone else but I read 'pure, white and deadly' by John Yudkin, and that convinced the heck out of me.

Satan is a religious concept and not one that I adhere to. My reasons for avoiding sugar are that it appears to provide little to no nutritional value, it's bad for your teeth, it's bad for your insulin response and when I eat it, I end up in a cycle of eating - craving - eating - craving which I find annoying and unhelpful.

Ymmv.

LeonCX

Satan is a religious concept and not one that I adhere to.

Negative_X

All in moderation.

That being said, every single person I've helped lose weight over the past 5 years, I started out by doing just one thing. Just cut out sugar. That's it...

Within a month, not a single person went back to consuming sugar in large quantities. Their energy improved, moods stabilized and the fat started peeling off. (stayed below 25-50 grams a day)

The choice is ultimately yours, but from personal experience, sugar is easily the best thing you can cut out of your nutrition to get the most noticeable results.

There is no physiological requirement for sugar; all human nutritional needs can be met in full without ... sugar. It is a worthless nutrient, unless you enjoy the negative consequences that accompany consuming it in large quantities.

chilly1470

And sodium is the devil, and fat is wicked, and don't eat red meat, it's instant death. Screw all that stuff, I will eat it all. I just log and stay under and so far that works just fine. Moderation is key. Again, moderation. If you eat 10 pounds of sugar, it is you that have the evil craving, it's not sugars fault.

LeonCX

And sodium is the devil, and fat is wicked, and don't eat red meat, it's instant death. Screw all that stuff, I will eat it all. I just log and stay under and so far that works just fine. Moderation is key. Again, moderation. If you eat 10 pounds of sugar, it is you that have the evil craving, it's not sugars fault.

That should just about kill this thread. Thanks.

stdlib

I dunno...is diabetes "science?"

Seriously though, if you want and can have sugar, I'm not riding you about it.

I'll just leave this here:

Researchers in Israel found that artificial sweeteners used in diet drinks and other foods can disrupt healthy microbes that live in the gut, leading to higher blood sugar levels – an early sign of diabetes.

“Our findings suggest that non-caloric artificial sweeteners may have directly contributed to enhancing the exact epidemic that they themselves were intended to fight,” the authors write in the journal Nature.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/sep/17/artificial-sweeteners-diabetes-saccharin-blood-sugar

LeslieTSUK

As a long term diabetic one would expect me to say how bad sugar is, and i mean all sugar, not just refined or added or natural but all of it.

But to put it in perspective, sugar is like a loaded gun clocked and ready to fire.

By itself, if put in the hands of an expert that knows what their doing with it and can handle it professionally, it is perfectly safe.

Unfortunately 90% of people have no idea what they doing with it, it is in so many foods, and drinks and labeled as healthy or put in such a way it makes a product look like it low sugar when really it not, and people get trapped into a cycle of far too much consumption of it.

For instance:

One professional dietician at hospital I go to, one that deals with diabetic patients like myself, she always said to me, cut out fats, medium proteins, and make your diet mainly carbs.

Have as much fruit as you wish because it is very good for you, same with veg, fill your plate up with veg.

3 years ago, my diabetes was so bad my glucose meter just showed H1, my blood sugars were too high to register.
I was also going blind and at point of needing laser surgery.

I came onto a site like MFP, and started to look at all the fruit and veg I was eating like instructed, and yes my overall carbs wasn't that high, but the sugars OMG, with all the fruit and low fat foods and veg, sugars were over 300 a day.

After that I cut out fruit completely, cut out most veg, and never touch low fat foods now unless it shows full sugar content, and guess what, turned my diabetes from totally out of control to perfect control.
In 2 weeks had halved it, in 4weeks was in normal levels, was so remarkable the change my doctor sent me for a 2nd lot of blood tests as they thought first lot had been messed up at the lab.

Also reversed the damage behind my eyes to almost clear in 4 months.

And to this day, I still can't get my diabetic nurse to understand all sugars are the same.

Now I want to say this, just to be fair and impartial.....

As long as you have 100% perfect health with no increased genetic links for PCOS/Diabetes on either side of family, and your active and able to burn off the glucose as you ingest it, then there is absolutely nothing wrong with sugar at all, it not a devil, it an awesome source of energy when working out, and for those lucky enough to be able to handle it, it fantastic.

Now diabetes has always been around, so has obesity, but was never anywhere near as bad until the invention of corn syrup and low fat foods, and both have been on a growing scale ever since.

The fact that the FDA allow a product to show trans fats as zero as long as in the portion size it's 0.49g or less, so it really makes ya wonder just what else in our modern food is getting hidden in same way.

Food for thought.....

Anyway, that's just my opinion rightly or wrongly, let the discussion continue hopefully in a nice, polite & respectful way.

Blessed be

perseverance14

I would rather have sugar in moderation than any artificial sweetener. I have a very strong adverse reaction to artificial sweeteners and within minutes I start vomiting and experience severe gut wrenching stomach cramps. I will admit, given my reaction, I do not want to "test" the newer products like stevia.

It's all about moderation.

Stevia isn't new, it comes from a leaf similar to mint and has been around for a very long time. Truvia is relatively new, but you can buy less processed Stevia too.

stevencloser

If you look hard enough you can find studies supporting that any macronutrient is dangerous to you.
Ergo, just drink water until you starve to death, it's the healthiest thing you can do.
Or have a balanced diet of all nutrients instead of cutting one out completely for no direct medical reason, but that's crazy talk.

FatFreeFrolicking

It's not. No food or micro/macro is bad unless you have a health issue that results in problems when consuming too much of said nutrient.

False. It's not just bad for those with health issues. How do you think people develop diabetes? One of the major causes of type-2 diabetes is overconsumption of sugar.

brianpperkins

When personal responsibility fails, resort to the usual fear mongering and assigning good or evil characteristics to inanimate objects.

amusedmonkey

It's not. No food or micro/macro is bad unless you have a health issue that results in problems when consuming too much of said nutrient.

False. It's not just bad for those with health issues. How do you think people develop diabetes? One of the major causes of type-2 diabetes is overconsumption of sugar.

That's a big myth. Genetics and autoimmune issues is what causes diabetes, and obesity is what nudges the risk further. Sugar has nothing to do with it.

La5Vega5Girl

if you see alot of posts where people are saying sugar is the devil, perhaps they are saying it is their opinion that sugar is the devil for them. i for one cannot eat sugar because it makes me crave more sugar. if i have anything with sugar in it (and i am talking foods with added table-sugar, not a naturally occurring sugar such that is in an apple or banana...) i will crave more and more. i stopped eating sugar a long time ago and i do not want it or crave it anymore. it took a long time to get over the cravings, and i really don't want to go back down that road. over-consumption of anything is the devil. so, everyone probably has a different devil. :devil:

brianpperkins

It's not. No food or micro/macro is bad unless you have a health issue that results in problems when consuming too much of said nutrient.

False. It's not just bad for those with health issues. How do you think people develop diabetes? One of the major causes of type-2 diabetes is overconsumption of sugar.

From the Mayo Clinic ... "Type 2 diabetes develops when the body becomes resistant to insulin or when the pancreas stops producing enough insulin. Exactly why this happens is unknown, although genetics and environmental factors, such as excess weight and inactivity, seem to be contributing factors."

The Diabetes Association lists this on their "Diabetes Myths" page .... "Myth: Eating too much sugar causes diabetes" and "Myth: People with diabetes can't eat sweets or chocolate."

FatFreeFrolicking

It's not. No food or micro/macro is bad unless you have a health issue that results in problems when consuming too much of said nutrient.

False. It's not just bad for those with health issues. How do you think people develop diabetes? One of the major causes of type-2 diabetes is overconsumption of sugar.

That's a big myth. Genetics and autoimmune issues is what causes diabetes, and obesity is what nudges the risk further. Sugar has nothing to do with it.

You're wrong. Thousands of people develop diabetes who have ZERO history of diabetes or autoimmune diseases in their family. Why? Because of their diet.

brianpperkins

It's not. No food or micro/macro is bad unless you have a health issue that results in problems when consuming too much of said nutrient.

False. It's not just bad for those with health issues. How do you think people develop diabetes? One of the major causes of type-2 diabetes is overconsumption of sugar.

That's a big myth. Genetics and autoimmune issues is what causes diabetes, and obesity is what nudges the risk further. Sugar has nothing to do with it.

You're wrong. Thousands of people develop diabetes who have ZERO history of diabetes or autoimmune diseases in their family. Why? Because of their diet.

It must be nice being ahead of medical science on this issue. What is your secret?

perseverance14

But to put it in perspective, sugar is like a loaded gun clocked and ready to fire.

Yeah, no, you don't "clock" a gun...when you put a bullet into the chamber of a gun there are a few terms you can use that would be correct, "clock" is not one of them. Those terms are "charge", "chamber" or the word that sounds like a rooster that I tried to type but they censored on here, definitely not clock.

That said, I think trying to draw a correlation between a cocked gun and sugar is one of the silliest things I ever heard, I am sorry, but NO, it is not the same at all. Remind me never to go to the same gun range you do, I mean, if you do go to one.

You can't paint everybody with the same brush, some can have higher sugar within their macros and still lose, some have to eat a bit less of it because they may have issues like insulin resistance, and obviously diabetes would preclude it.

That said, comparing it to a loaded gun is invalid, it really does nobody any good to make such sweeping all or nothing type of statements.

jennifer_417

It isn't. The only reason I switched to artificial sweeteners in some things was to save calories.