How bad is sugar for you?

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  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
    Don't worry about naturally occurring sugar in fruits. Epidemiology links high fruit intake with longer life. While it's just epidemiology, it would still be pretty silly to avoid fruit for health reasons.

    It's foods with added sugar that you have to worry about.

    completely agree

    Agree with circumstances. Yes, lots of benefits to fruit - I (usually) eat 2-3 servings worth. But epidemiology also links constant insulin release induced by foods with coronary heart disease, diabetes, hyperinsulinemia, high blood pressure, and a plethora of other things. Sugar is sugar it doesn't matter where it came from. All carbs are sugar just some in more complex forms and are broken down as such. With that being said:

    "I see carbs as elective macronutrients, in general. I don’t elect to eat all that many of them, personally, but that’s because I’ve tailored my lifestyle such that this is the healthiest way for me to eat. Eat more if you’re going to be burning glycogen. Eat fewer if you’re not. Eating too few carbs while working out with high intensity and high volume will ruin your adrenals, depress your thyroid, and stall weight loss. Eating too many carbs without putting them to good use or enjoying exercise-induced insulin sensitivity will promote hyperinsulinemia and weight gain." - Mark Sisson

    I elect to get 50% of my calories from carbs. That's working well for me. Forty-three pounds down in four months! :wink:
  • paijing
    paijing Posts: 184 Member
    Another take on sugar, basically saying that a high-sugar diet by itself does not lead to obesity or other diseases of affluence.

    Sugar Intake and Body Fatness in Non-industrial Cultures
    http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2012/06/sugar-intake-and-body-fatness-in-non.html#more

    Excerpt:

    "A high-sugar diet is not sufficient to produce obesity and other disorders of affluence in humans adhering to a mostly traditional diet and lifestyle, particularly if the sugar is coming from unrefined sources such as fresh fruit. This is consistent with other reports of beneficial weight loss in people eating a whole food diet centered around fruit.

    "That being said, I think everyone can agree that added sugar almost certainly plays a role in obesity and disease in affluent societies such as the US. Added sugars increase the energy density, seductiveness and palatability of foods, favoring fat gain. In large amounts, refined fructose-containing foods such as added sugar can also promote harmful metabolic changes. However, controlled diet trials have shown that this applies mostly in the context of excess calorie intake (which, to be fair, is the typical dietary context in the US).

    "The broader point is that added sugar is part of a dietary pattern that also includes added fats, flavorings, refined and engineered foods in general. This pattern includes the fact that foods are easier to obtain than ever before, often require no work to prepare, and advertising and our cultural milieu encourage overeating. And that’s not even getting into the differences in lifestyle patterns such as physical activity and sleep between traditional cultures and our own, which also play an important role."

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