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It's All Sugar's Fault
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ladyhusker39 wrote: »This is what my doctor told me today is the reason people are overweight/obese today. It's a very commonly used explanation on these boards so I wanted to open it up for discussion.
He said that we (I assume he meant Americans, but I guess it could be expanded to Westerners in general) eat about the same number of calories our parents and grandparents used to, but now everything has sugar and unrefined carbohydrates in it. And that's why we're so fat now.
The only sources he cited were a couple of documentaries I eventually got him to admit were the ones on Netflix.
I think this is a load of hooey and had to try hard to keep a straight face and a closed mouth.
But what do you think?
@ladyhusker39 You could give it a try if you wish. On a hunch I cut out added sugar and all forms of all grains and eat all that I want now. I am down 50 pounds and most of my pain and have maintained the loss for over two years now.
When I eat over 50 grams of carbs for a few days I am back to eating the legs off of the table.
Some people seem to do fine with sugar but that was not so in my case. Key is to recover our health the way that works best for each of us because we are not all the same.26 -
Sugar is a part of why some people over eat. We aren't fat because we eat the same calories as slimmer ancestors though, it is because we ate more.
I tend to overeat sugar and refined carbs. That was why I gained weight. If I overate meats and eggs, I would still have gained weight. Calories are why we get fat. Some find that sugar leads to eating too many calories...
Now health, on the other hand, can be affected by macros. That's another story.
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ladyhusker39 wrote: »This is what my doctor told me today is the reason people are overweight/obese today. It's a very commonly used explanation on these boards so I wanted to open it up for discussion.
He said that we (I assume he meant Americans, but I guess it could be expanded to Westerners in general) eat about the same number of calories our parents and grandparents used to, but now everything has sugar and unrefined carbohydrates in it. And that's why we're so fat now.
The only sources he cited were a couple of documentaries I eventually got him to admit were the ones on Netflix.
I think this is a load of hooey and had to try hard to keep a straight face and a closed mouth.
But what do you think?
My grandmother, born in 1930, was the biggest sugar advocate I knew - she gave her grand-kids a proper talking to when we quit putting sugar in our tea. He reasoning was 'sugar gives you energy, you'll end up fat without it!'
Although her scientific reasoning on this may have been slightly flawed, the point is that she never shied away from sugar in her life, and probably spent most of her life a little underweight...because she didn't eat enough calories despite a high sugar/fat diet .
Having said that - her influence when I was younger initiated a sugar craving monster within me - and unfortunately I was not blessed with the same sparrow like appetite as my grandmother! If I woke up tomorrow hating the taste of anything sweet, dropping weight would be the easiest thing in the world for me!8 -
It were great if there were a quick fix. My doctor told me I was drinking too much juice. I had half a glass with my breakfast every morning.
I did not get to be overweight because of juice. I showed patience. I'm living this life so nobody knows better how it happens. Hubby knows too, because he's a witness.0 -
I think it might be a bit short sighted to look at sugar as a lone culprit in obesity.
I'd suggest it might be more closely related to a combination of the increased consumption of refined carbohydrates (cereals, grains, processed foods), excessive industrial oils (industrial fats used in processed foods), in combination with a more sedentary lifestyle in general.
Eating whole foods (grown in the earth, or from something that eats those things) and getting some fresh air and exercise, seems like reasonable and non-hysterical advice for feeling well and managing one's body composition.7 -
PrimalForLife wrote: »I think it might be a bit short sighted to look at sugar as a lone culprit in obesity.
I'd suggest it might be more closely related to a combination of the increased consumption of refined carbohydrates (cereals, grains, processed foods), excessive industrial oils (industrial fats used in processed foods), in combination with a more sedentary lifestyle in general.
Eating whole foods (grown in the earth, or from something that eats those things) and getting some fresh air and exercise, seems like reasonable and non-hysterical advice for feeling well and managing one's body composition.
I can eat my way to obesity on cheese from grass-fed cows. It wouldn't even be hard. It doesn't matter where the calories come from; if you eat too many of them, you'll get fat.17 -
So wrong and so frustrating, at least you are educated enough to know hes wrong. I always feel bad for people who are still learning and they hear crap like that.4
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PrimalForLife wrote: »I think it might be a bit short sighted to look at sugar as a lone culprit in obesity.
I'd suggest it might be more closely related to a combination of the increased consumption of refined carbohydrates (cereals, grains, processed foods), excessive industrial oils (industrial fats used in processed foods), in combination with a more sedentary lifestyle in general.
Eating whole foods (grown in the earth, or from something that eats those things) and getting some fresh air and exercise, seems like reasonable and non-hysterical advice for feeling well and managing one's body composition.
I can eat my way to obesity on cheese from grass-fed cows. It wouldn't even be hard. It doesn't matter where the calories come from; if you eat too many of them, you'll get fat.
I did eat my way to obesity with a lot of great quality meat, cheese, veg, grains, whole grains etc etc etc. With some sides of cheesecake and chocolate (savoury foods are my main downfall really). Being a lazy toad for a number of years didn't help but I wasn't sedentary either given the amount of walking you do just commuting round London walking through tube stations and such. Still fat.6 -
It's a load of hooey. NO WAY we are eating the same number of calories. Look at portion sizes for McDonald's meals when they first started out - soft drinks were 7 oz.
https://www.eater.com/2015/9/9/9297609/mcdonalds-sizes-growth-since-1955
Add to that we move much much less than our grandparents. More of them had active jobs.4 -
No...
First off, I highly doubt people now are eating the same calories as our partents and grandparent. For one, my parents and grandparents typically cooked at home...usually from scratch and eating out and such was a special occasion kind of thing. Eating out now is a pretty regular thing for a lot of people and portions presented at restaurants are significantly larger than they used to be...ergo, more calories. Large restaurant portions have also skewed people's perception of portions at home as well...before I lost weight I used to have massive portions of food on my plate and go back for seconds.
My parents and grandparents also ate 3 squares per day...I don't recall much, if any snacking...it seems now days people have to have some kind of snack every couple hours or they think they're going to keel over and die.
There are a lot more high calorie, low nutrient processed foods available these days...which may be where some of the sugar argument comes in, but it's not the sugar in and of itself...it's that the product is of low nutrient quality, not particularly filling, and high calorie making it really easy to pack away the calories.
I don't recall a time when my grandma or mom didn't have fresh baked cookies or other sweets and deserts readily available.
My grandparents and my parents moved a lot more than we do now...even if they had a desk job, they still had to do a lot more things manually. I remember my grandpa watering the yard every evening by hand...my dad used a sprinkler, but he still had to go out and move it around. Mine is set to a timer and I don't have to do a damn thing with it...I don't even know it's there unless I happen to be home when they come on.10 -
PrimalForLife wrote: »I think it might be a bit short sighted to look at sugar as a lone culprit in obesity.
I'd suggest it might be more closely related to a combination of the increased consumption of refined carbohydrates (cereals, grains, processed foods), excessive industrial oils (industrial fats used in processed foods), in combination with a more sedentary lifestyle in general.
Eating whole foods (grown in the earth, or from something that eats those things) and getting some fresh air and exercise, seems like reasonable and non-hysterical advice for feeling well and managing one's body composition.
I can eat my way to obesity on cheese from grass-fed cows. It wouldn't even be hard. It doesn't matter where the calories come from; if you eat too many of them, you'll get fat.
I believe that you might be over-simplifying the effects of different kinds of 'food' on the human body, as calories are just one attribute of food. Even if you could eat to obesity on cheese (I recommend you don't try :-) ), it doesn't address the initial question as sugar as a single culprit in obesity; cheese (grass-fed or not) isn't the equivalent of sugar in the metabolic effects on the typical 'Western' human.31 -
People are eating more processed, boxed, packaged foods, not to mention eating out more than ever. Yes, sugar and grains are super calorie dense in comparison to the nutrition they provide. Cut out sugar and grains and I wonder how hard it would be to stick to staying under your deficit (or maintenance if you are at that stage)....I know I have a really hard time eating even 1300 calories a day since I stopped eating sugar and grains.10
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cwolfman13 wrote: »
First off, I highly doubt people now are eating the same calories as our partents and grandparent.
This can't possibly be true. Surely there's some science that's tracked that by now, right? Although I can't immediately point to it, I feel sure it's there. That really floored me when he said that.
My parents and grandparents also ate 3 squares per day...I don't recall much, if any snacking...it seems now days people have to have some kind of snack every couple hours or they think they're going to keel over and die.
Snacking is definitely my Achilles heel. I figured that out when I started tracking. If I don't snack I do much better overall.
I don't recall a time when my grandma or mom didn't have fresh baked cookies or other sweets and deserts readily available.
I didn't really think about that, but it's true. My mom and grandmother loved to baked and did it all the time. I intentionally chose not to learn to bake things because I love to eat baked goods.0 -
PrimalForLife wrote: »PrimalForLife wrote: »I think it might be a bit short sighted to look at sugar as a lone culprit in obesity.
I'd suggest it might be more closely related to a combination of the increased consumption of refined carbohydrates (cereals, grains, processed foods), excessive industrial oils (industrial fats used in processed foods), in combination with a more sedentary lifestyle in general.
Eating whole foods (grown in the earth, or from something that eats those things) and getting some fresh air and exercise, seems like reasonable and non-hysterical advice for feeling well and managing one's body composition.
I can eat my way to obesity on cheese from grass-fed cows. It wouldn't even be hard. It doesn't matter where the calories come from; if you eat too many of them, you'll get fat.
I believe that you might be over-simplifying the effects of different kinds of 'food' on the human body, as calories are just one attribute of food. Even if you could eat to obesity on cheese (I recommend you don't try :-) ), it doesn't address the initial question as sugar as a single culprit in obesity; cheese (grass-fed or not) isn't the equivalent of sugar in the metabolic effects on the typical 'Western' human.
Exactly what metabolic effects are you talking about?6 -
I know I can gain weight mostly from cheese (I ate way more cheese when gaining weight than sugary things or grains, in certainty, since I don't have a huge sweet tooth, I eat more sweets now than when I was getting fat, and don't care about bread (and hate cereal) -- my issues with excess calories lean much more to the savory and higher fat items). Would that make my obesity harmless? Pretty sure not -- being overfat is bad for you and causes metabolic problems, no matter how you got fat.6
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PrimalForLife wrote: »PrimalForLife wrote: »I think it might be a bit short sighted to look at sugar as a lone culprit in obesity.
I'd suggest it might be more closely related to a combination of the increased consumption of refined carbohydrates (cereals, grains, processed foods), excessive industrial oils (industrial fats used in processed foods), in combination with a more sedentary lifestyle in general.
Eating whole foods (grown in the earth, or from something that eats those things) and getting some fresh air and exercise, seems like reasonable and non-hysterical advice for feeling well and managing one's body composition.
I can eat my way to obesity on cheese from grass-fed cows. It wouldn't even be hard. It doesn't matter where the calories come from; if you eat too many of them, you'll get fat.
I believe that you might be over-simplifying the effects of different kinds of 'food' on the human body, as calories are just one attribute of food. Even if you could eat to obesity on cheese (I recommend you don't try :-) ), it doesn't address the initial question as sugar as a single culprit in obesity; cheese (grass-fed or not) isn't the equivalent of sugar in the metabolic effects on the typical 'Western' human.
Are you proposing that someone can eat X amount of calories of 'foods grown in the earth, or from something that eats those things' and lose or maintain weight and eat those same amount of calories and gain weight?
Or are you suggesting that you can't have a nutrient-rich diet on traditionally 'Western' foods?
Or that increase carb consumption leads to increased obesity?
Because none of those are true.9 -
If you sit me in front of the TV with a big bag of pretzels, I would eat maybe 1.5 or 2 servings worth and roll up the bag.
If you sit me in front of the TV with a whole roast chicken and a canister of nuts, I would easily eat my way through half the poor chicken and 3 or 4 servings of nuts before even realizing what I was doing.
Processed carbs are easier to overeat for "some" people, not everyone. It's not a universal rule.
And while I think it's clear we're eating more of everything nowadays, we are for sure moving a lot less through the course of our day.12 -
People are eating more processed, boxed, packaged foods, not to mention eating out more than ever. Yes, sugar and grains are super calorie dense in comparison to the nutrition they provide. Cut out sugar and grains and I wonder how hard it would be to stick to staying under your deficit (or maintenance if you are at that stage)....I know I have a really hard time eating even 1300 calories a day since I stopped eating sugar and grains.
I do not think most anyone can gain weight if one truly cuts out sugar and grains. With them I was able to be obese because of the carb cravings that I had. Now without sugar or any form of any grain I eat until I am stuffed and after three years still am losing about 1/2 pound per month on average with out counting anything calorie wise. Just last night I ate at McDonald's and for the heck of it counted up the calories in my double hamburger, salad and coffee and it came to 435 calories so I had another cup of coffee to bump the meal up to 535 calories since it was free.
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Sure you can Gale. Also don't you claim that you never eat processed food?10
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GaleHawkins wrote: »People are eating more processed, boxed, packaged foods, not to mention eating out more than ever. Yes, sugar and grains are super calorie dense in comparison to the nutrition they provide. Cut out sugar and grains and I wonder how hard it would be to stick to staying under your deficit (or maintenance if you are at that stage)....I know I have a really hard time eating even 1300 calories a day since I stopped eating sugar and grains.
I do not think most anyone can gain weight if one truly cuts out sugar and grains. With them I was able to be obese because of the carb cravings that I had. Now without sugar or any form of any grain I eat until I am stuffed and after three years still am losing about 1/2 pound per month on average with out counting anything calorie wise. Just last night I ate at McDonald's and for the heck of it counted up the calories in my double hamburger, salad and coffee and it came to 435 calories so I had another cup of coffee to bump the meal up to 535 calories since it was free.
You couldn't possibly be more wrong.15
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