What's the real deal with sugars?

Lift_hard_eat_big

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Actually yes. I drink a liter of Mtn Dew several days a week, I eat ice cream, pop tarts, snickers, cake, donuts, etc and I'm in better shape than most people that eat tasteless rabbit food all day. Maybe children are overweight because PE has been removed from school, they are driven to and from school, in my day I rode my bike several miles to elentary school. Or maybe it's the fact that most kids don't go and play outside anymore, instead they sit on their *kitten* and play video games all day. And maybe it's the fact that most adults don't do squat at work, they sit at a desk and don't burn many calories. Not many people farm or do construction or other labor intensive jobs like back in the day. All the men on my dads construction crew eat whatever they want, drink a ton of beer and eat sweets and fatty foods, yet they are all rail thin because they burn a ton of calories at work.

Or maybe people like you may have clad iron genetics that give you the ability to fight off the damage these things do to your body. Yes you can eat this way and you may live to be a 100. You might also die tomorrow from a heart attack.

My aunt died at 92, smoking daily and over weight. She died in her sleep and was completely healthy until the day she died. Another person in my family died at 52. He exercised and ate right. He died anyway of heart failure...

We can't fight genetics, at least not at the present time. However we also do not need to increase our chances of defeat and disease. I will take a little self denial in my food choices rather than gamble with my future. I could die tomorrow, I could also live to 100, I have both options in my family genetics. But one thing I do know, if I make better food choices I am going to be a lot more comfortable along the way.

Exactly, genetics are the main contributing factor which dictates what you die of. My grandpa's brother smoked and drank hard liquor nearly everyday of his life since he was 16. He ate full fat foods, and lots of sweets. According to Dr's he should have died before his 70th birthday due to his lifestyle. However he lived to 98, drinking, smoking and eating bacon and butter till the day he also passed in his sleep.
On the other hand, my deceased dentist was a long distance runner, ate 'clean' didnt smoke or drink, was an ovo-vegan and he died of a heart attack at 43.
The point is, when it's your time, it's your time. Might as well enjoy the time you have to the fullest. I'm not saying go ahead and eat your weight in sugar everyday, but damn, if you feel like eating a donut or cake, eat some damn cake!!!

ShanB891

How did you change your setting from sugar to cholesterol?

stealthq

What has the world come to that people are doubting the age-old wisdom of "eat more fruits and vegetables to be healthy"?!?! NO ONE HAS EVER BECOME FAT AND SICK FROM EATING TOO MANY FRUITS AND VEGETABLES! No. One. Ever.

I wish that MFP didn't even provide a column for sugar. So pointless. Sugar is a sub-set of carbs (check your nutrition label). If you are tracking your carbs, then its redundant and pointless to track sugar. (First thing I did when I got to MFP was hide the silly sugar column.) And I was diabetic at the time!! (I reversed my diabetes in 8 weeks with diet, btw.)

Yes there is "good sugar" and "bad sugar." Just like there is good fat and bad fat and good food and bad food and good protein and bad protein.... but we still NEED all those things to be healthy, and nothing is poisonous in MODERATION.

Let's use our common sense, people! Avoid processed crap with processed sugar! Eat natural things that grow from the earth like fruits and vegetables. And will someone do us all a favor and destroy the freaking sugar column?

Peace out :flowerforyou:

There are naturally occurring poisons in fruits and vegetables. See rhubarb, sorrel and oxalic acid as one example. If you eat too much too frequently you can make yourself very sick (kidney stones, vitamin deficiencies). If you eat stupid amounts that most of us who are not into competition eating cannot fathom doing, you can poison yourself and die.

There are people who get fat and eat pretty much nothing but fruit and vegetables. If all I did was sit around and eat pears, peaches and such, I would gain weight. Fruit doesn't stick with me at all, so in order to not be hungry, I'd have to be eating constantly and I'd be over my TDEE by the end of the day. It can be done, and if it can be done you can be guaranteed somebody out there will have done it. It's just nowhere near as easy as getting fat on high calorie low density food.

Morninglory81

Your body doesn't treat all sugars the same.

Basically, fructose (sugar from fruit) has a low glycemic index, meaning it breaks down slower, and provides energy longer giving our bodies time to burn it off, rather than store it.

Sucrose (refined sugar) has a high GI, it's broken down very quickly, and whatever isn't burned off in a short period is stored as glycogen. When the glycogen stores are full, it is then stored as fat. Sucrose also causes blood sugar to spike and an immediate release of insulin. Your body doesn't really know how to react to it, because it's not something your body easily recognizes, because it's unnatural.

So natural sugars won't make you fat, but refined sugar will.

You are misinformed. Fructose doesn't break down slower, it's a monosaccharide so it's absorbed immediately in the intestines. Sucrose is a disaccharide and requires the enzyme sucrase to break down the molecule into fructose and glucose.
Both fructose and sucrose will cause weight gain if you consume more calories than you burn. Both contain 4 kcals/gram

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