Sugar - the bitter truth

Interested in learning about both sides of the conversation. Saving for later.

I can agree that anything - even a "good" food, can be bad for people if not used wisely (moderation for example).

But who ever is of a scientific mind, can you answer me this -

Aside from people who have diabetes, can you tell me if a person ate a tsp worth of real cane sugar, vs that much aspartame, equal, stevia, the stuff they used to put in Tab soda, etc. (chemical sweeter though someone said Stevia was natural)... but...

Can anyone tell me which is going to potentially, or surely harm the person - the real sugar or the other group? And #2 - which one has more nutrition if any?

And #3 - which one tastes the best? i.e. which one would you prefer the taste of if you could eat from either group (i dont mean those people who choose not to eat it because of some choice other than flavor).

That is why diet soda is very bad because of the aspartame which takes a huge bad toll on the body.

Just so you know, there is not one bit of credible evidence which links to aspartame damaging humans.

Aspartame is a chemical, and like i said im not a scientist, but i have read where it is not a good thing to ingest. however, you may disagree, especially if you feel another person wrote an opposing view that you do agree with

Regardless of what you have read, I have just told you there is no credible scientific evidence to say it damages our health.

A couple of studies you might be interested in:

Increase of kidney failure: http://cjasn.asnjournals.org/content/6/1/160.abstract?sid=fb9e39ed-6318-46de-9bf1-d497348f0756
Risk of lymphoma and leukemia: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23097267

Those studies prove nothing, just a load of rubbish as usual.

Not having chocolate makes me crave chocolate.

Further, it's clear you miss the point of Art completely when you confuse it with logic 101.

:drinker:

BUMP

Hi - not sure if anyone saw my questions a few posts above - but....

In all the years real sugar has been on the market has there been anything to show that it is toxic? I know some people's personal biology does not work well with it (diabetes, etc)... however, in the general population has sugar ever been found to be toxic or harmful to the body (of course in moderation - I know if anything is taken to the extreme, yes it can be toxic).

First, on the real sugar piece -- not that I'm aware of. I think mostly people look at the correlation between the increase in sugar consumption and the increase in obesity, heart disease, diabetes, etc., and use that observation as evidence that sugar is problematic in our diets at the levels consumed.

I don't think that's the only, or even the most likely, conclusion from the data presented, but it probably warrants a bit of attention from the scientific community.

But in all the years fake sugar has been on the market has there been anything to show that it is harmful or toxic?

As to the fake sugar part -- in certain populations, aspartame can cause problems (headaches, worsened depression, etc.), and there's also the correlation between diet soda intake and obesity, though I've only skimmed summaries of those studies and wouldn't necessarily jump on the anti-aspartame bandwagon because of it.

My general thought is that fake sweeteners are likely to be non-harmful to the population at large within reasonable dosage levels. It's worth noting that we thought the same thing for cigarettes for a long time, so people are free to make decisions about their body that they're comfortable with.

I am no scientist, so I am guessing cane sugar has been around long enough millions of years and people have been eating it and no harm. but chemically fake sugar, I can believe since it is man-made, it has the potential to be bad. People are not God! People try to duplicate what God created and they allways eff up eventually.

Cane sugar has been around forever -- the details around our ingestion of it have changed significantly, though, and relatively recently. Plenty of things that are natural are poisonous to eat, and plenty of things that are man made are perfectly acceptable, so I wouldn't use that as the basis of my beliefs, personally.

I personally believe in many years of watching the effects of people ingesting this stuff, will scientists have enough living proof about these things. for now, we are pretty much guinea pigs. You can test all you want on rats and mice and animals, but when you test it on people, thats the real deal.

We test things on mice, rats, and animals for a lot of different reasons. In some cases, they're cheaper. In the case of mice, they breed quickly and have short life spans, so we can do generational research much more easily. Also, the genetic lines of mice are well controlled, so that within the lifetime of an experiment, we don't have to deal with genetic differences mucking up our results, which saves time and money. And, many animals have very similarly functioning systems to humans (depending on the system, animal, and what you're testing), so it makes sense to do so.

That's not to say that we won't have more data in another couple decades, though -- and more data is always good.

So does anyone have scientific proof of such things as I have asked? not just "oh I've been drinking fake sugar for 80 years and so far i haven't sprouted an extra arm so it must be ok"

We're not likely to see anything that obvious from fake sugar research, else we'd have seen it by now. If fake sugar is harmful, it will likely be evidenced by marginal increases in the likelihood of some cancers, etc. Non-obvious stuff.

Of course I am not saying that all things that are grown because they are grown, are good for you, i.e. toxic plants.

My point on the above questions specifically is this - it is my opinion on food -

While I am not going to be like a religious fanatic and demand clean food eating is the ONLY way to go, however, I do believe the more we eat food that God created (or nature created if your an atheist); the better. I think if I have a choice between a natural food and a chemical food, the real food wins, as real food does not have to go thru scientific trials to see if it will pass the FDA for safety for the public's consumption, however, some chemicals/food additives might be ok, however, i will choose the better choice, as real food has nutrients in it that mankind cannot duplicate what nature naturally has. And it seems to taste better. YMMV though

Just now on the news, Coke is going to battle over the public's perception about it not being a good product, because of the sugars in it - i am not sure if it is diet coke or all coke, but the news is talking about sales going down because of something in Coke that is hurting sales. more to come i guess as the news talks about it.

Would you eat tofu?

My doctor has always told me that he isn't worried about me drinking diet sodas. My weight is what will kill me if I am not careful. I always laugh when someone I read that you should limit fruit because of sugar. I have yet to meet an overweight person who became that way because they ate too much fruit.

That is why diet soda is very bad because of the aspartame which takes a huge bad toll on the body.

Just so you know, there is not one bit of credible evidence which links to aspartame damaging humans.

^^^^ This! ^^^^ Scientists have proven that it would take an ENORMOUS amount of aspartame to do even minimal damage to our bodies. As a type I diabetic, I have been using aspartame since NutraSweet was introduced back in 1985. I think that for years I drank around 4 or 5 2 LITERS of diet soda a day! (Serious soda-holic!) I use my Crystal Light happily and my apartame packets as I wish. I have no issues and am 2 years away from my RD and those of you can eat sugar--enjoy rotting your teeth and the extra calories. By the way, you can't believe everything you read in the media, on the internet, or t.v. How about reading some actual scientific publications and posting those?

Thanks, I do enjoy the calories from sugar. Never had a cavity though, and did not realize they were enjoyable or something one would wish on another.

I was never very good at chemistry at school and when I go shopping I dont have all day, so I try to buy food that most closely resembles natural foodstuffs. Thats easy with fresh fruit, vegetables, fish meat and eggs, the rest of my shopping list is a little more tricky.

So I buy olive oil instead of corn oil, butter (comes from a cow) instead of margarine ( made in a factory) wholemeal bread , wholemeal bagels, wholemeal pasta and wholemeal rice instead of white ( less refined). Tinned fruit in juice, veg in water, fish in brine, (my belief is it hasnt been interfered with unduly) frozen fruit veg, fish and meat ditto usually frozen without additives , chemicals or undue processing . Packets of lentils, nuts, bulghar wheat, couscous, kidney beans, borlotti beans as unrefined as possible. Porridge oats or muesli rather than commercial breakfast cereals. I like dairy so I buy low fat or skimmed products.

About the only ready prepared items I eat are salad bowls which work out cheaper than buying all the individual ingredients. I may not have a 100% perfect diet, but I try and avoid anything obviously high in processed fats, high salt or high added sugar. I dont sweat over how much sugar is in natural foods I just think I will eat the good things in moderation and dont buy cookies, doughnuts, fizzy frinks, crisps, cakes, chocolate, sweets, ready meals,. I make good use of the deli counter and fresh meat or fresh fish counter and try and avoid things in square black plastic dishes filled with unidentifiable gunk and then shrink wrapped in plastic with instructions such as heat in microwave for 5 minutes which claims to be dinner

That is why diet soda is very bad because of the aspartame which takes a huge bad toll on the body.

Just so you know, there is not one bit of credible evidence which links to aspartame damaging humans.

^^^^ This! ^^^^ Scientists have proven that it would take an ENORMOUS amount of aspartame to do even minimal damage to our bodies. As a type I diabetic, I have been using aspartame since NutraSweet was introduced back in 1985. I think that for years I drank around 4 or 5 2 LITERS of diet soda a day! (Serious soda-holic!) I use my Crystal Light happily and my apartame packets as I wish. I have no issues and am 2 years away from my RD and those of you can eat sugar--enjoy rotting your teeth and the extra calories. By the way, you can't believe everything you read in the media, on the internet, or t.v. How about reading some actual scientific publications and posting those?

Erm, no, that is just not true.

Scientists can't prove anything about aspartame, that's the problem.

Have a browse through these:

http://www.mpwhi.com/peer_reviewed_research.htm

Some are articles, but many are studies. Generally, the studies are inconclusive. This study (again, inconclusive) indicates cancer was indicated after >= 1 (one) portion of diet soda.

So, far from proving that huge quantities are safe, the jury is still out.

Aspartame has not been proven safe, it just hasn't. Consume it all you want, but stop telling people it's safe, because no one knows that for sure.

I'm agree with you. I'm vegan and I did juice 7 days fast and lost 4lbs. Yes, meat IS the reason of obesity. go vegan!

I'm agree with you. I'm vegan and I did juice 7 days fast and lost 4lbs. Yes, meat IS the reason of obesity. go vegan!

Brilliant!