The Bitter Truth About Sugar

http://singularityhub.com/2010/06/16/sweet-little-lies-the-bitter-truth-about-sugar/

by phaedrus • 16 years ago

79 86 16 years ago

zyb09• 16 years ago

Yea, no news for the HN crowd I guess. Good to see that more and more sources report on the dangers of sugar. Low-fat mentality is still the common opinion for healthy food and this non-sense really needs to change.

chipsy2• 16 years ago

Nobody deserves to have to go so far out of their way and do tons of research to achieve a healthful diet, though, and most people can't or won't due to ignorance, stress, money, or any number of other problems in their life. Real solutions should be coming top-down to the consumer, so that you would have to really go out of your way to eat a "vice meal."

As it is, companies seem to have barely budged for any of the trends of the last decade - it's easier to sell addiction, after all. But I've often thought that there's probably a lot of room for innovative approaches to the food service business that try to take on these problems and make it sexy to eat greens and drink tea.

karzeem2• 16 years ago

One big issue is that health advocates spend 99% of their time telling people what not to eat. That doesn't work because, as you say, people aren't going to think, "Now that I know not to eat x, I'll take the initiative to figure out what I should be eating instead."

I think Whole Foods (among others) has realized this and capitalizes on it. It eliminates the guesswork. "Come into the store and get whatever you want. You can't mess up because it's all healthy/sustainable/whatever." (Of course, it's not really all healthy/sustainable/whatever, but it's certainly harder to go wrong at Whole Foods than it is at Safeway.)

Tim_M• 16 years ago

Previous discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1006980

Jun8• 16 years ago

"Scientific innovation is pushing human longevity past the traditional limits. Yet despite this upward trend, we’re still not much smarter about what we put in our bodies. "

I expect medicine to solve problems caused by my bad habits rather than preach me about them! This is to say that sugar is my only vice (I don't drink, do drugs, gamble, drive dangerously, or eat too much meat) and I'm not quite ready to give it up. You may find that infantile but if the great things in life are taken away (or substituted with tofu), what remains?

dwwoelfel• 16 years ago

I disagree with this sentiment. Life isn't about chasing momentary pleasures at the expense of long-term values.

What remains? A long healthy life free from obesity, lack of energy, gum disease, etc.

Try giving up sweet things for a month or two, then drink a coke. If you're like me, you'll find that it's too sweet and you won't want another. But you can't cheat and use splenda or some other sugar substitute.

chipsy2• 16 years ago

It's a change in material lifestyle. We know from studies, collective experience, and numerous spiritual teachings that happiness doesn't actually come from that form of pleasure, but it remains desirable and hard to change regardless.

(For my part, I've got quite a thing for the noncaloric sweeteners and meat with the evil sodium nitrite. Neither of them have noticeable immediate effects on me, which is how I've changed my habits elsewhere, so I'm kind of stuck on how to progress with them.)

karzeem2• 16 years ago

Your expectation is a worthwhile ideal, but it's very far out of the reach of modern medicine. Doctors are pretty good at treating symptoms, but when it comes to root causes of serious diseases, they're pretty bad at treating them without inflicting collateral damage on some other body system. Especially if the treatment involves disrupting a body process designed by evolution.

The body owes as much of its function to the ways its systems interact as it does to the individual systems. And we're pretty much at a loss when it comes to tracing the mechanism of those interactions.

In other words, I strongly suspect that until we're all flying around Mars in hover cars, any "don't worry about sugar anymore" treatment will end up being harmful in some insidious, not-discovered-until-years-later way.

carbocation25• 16 years ago

> Doctors are pretty good at treating symptoms, but when it comes to root causes of serious diseases, they're pretty bad at treating them without inflicting collateral damage on some other body system.

I'm sure this is true, but the examples that immediately come to mind don't fit. New tyrosine kinase inhibitors inhibit the fusion "always-on" tyrosine kinases that cause many cancers. Antibiotics kill bacteria. Statins stop the production of cholesterol. All of these get at the root cause of the problem and don't merely treat symptoms. When you say "good at treating symptoms," which things are you thinking about?

I'm in medical school and always want to improve my understanding of what thoughtful people see as symptomatic treatments that don't get at the root cause of problems. (Like I said above, I know that there are tons of these, but would really like to know which ones come to mind for you; perhaps these are the places where we, as a profession, are failing.)

bbgm• 16 years ago

Medicine is still very reductionist and that is not going to change for a while, even though we know that isn't the right way to go about doing it. The thing is that I am not sure that we will necessarily be able to fix the impact of "bad behavior" even at a systems level, because no two perturbations, even with the same behavior are going to be alike. Yes, we'll be able to detect a lot earlier and thus fix things, but in the end, the responsible thing to do is either to take a "I will be better with my body" approach or bear the consequences.

richcollins• 16 years ago

Ive cut sugar and refined grains out of my diet. Now just a spoonful of ice cream is way more rewarding than any amount of sugar I would have eaten in the past.

radu_floricica• 16 years ago

I see your point, but still knowing more about what is good and what is bad for you can help a lot. You can still make changes which impact your satisfaction in small ways, but make a big difference.

For example replacing sodas with fruit juice (without added sugar). It's still sweet and good, but much less harmful. Or eating your daily cake, but eating it between meals and/or cutting on some white bread instead.

donaldc• 16 years ago

You may find that infantile but if the great things in life are taken away (or substituted with tofu), what remains?

I gave up refined sugar four months ago and have found that, after a couple months of adjustment, most fruit tastes much sweeter than before. I suspect the body adjusts over time to whatever level of sweetness it is tasting.

Personally, I can't stand tofu, and don't eat it. But then, I find that it has many of the same issues as refined sugar -- it's a rather artificial, modern food that isn't deeply satisfying.

henryw• 16 years ago

saw the video a few months ago by recommendation from a friend. it is really really good. it has a slow start, but if you can finish the 90 min video, you will learn a lot about eating right and imho it's worth your time.

direct link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM&feature=playe...!

kellishaver2• 16 years ago

I cut all refined sugars out of my diet about a month ago, with a few rare exceptions (the occasional meal out with friends, for instance, which may happen once a month). Basically, it has been life-changing. I have more energy, I sleep better, I don't have the stomach/digestive problems I used to, I don't get the daily headaches, my blood pressure is lower, I don't get as hungry, and I've lost 12lbs (with exercise, too).

pierrefar• 16 years ago

How can you attribute the benefits you're seeing to cutting sugar, when there is a ton of evidence saying exercise gives these exact benefits?

tome• 16 years ago

Presumably a lot of things give the exact same benefits. The OP's post sounds like a generic description of "I'm healthier". He said he cut out sugar; he didn't say he exercised more. I'm guessing that's why he thinks the cause was the sugar.

pkulak2• 16 years ago

Actually, excercise alone won't usually make you lose weight.

forgottenpaswrd• 16 years ago

I did the same thing years ago. Occasionally I eat honey.

I didn't had health problems, but I got a lot more energy during the day(first I cut alcohol that really makes me want to sleep).

elai2• 16 years ago

how about rice, bread, corn and other starch staples?

pkulak2• 16 years ago

That's glucose. It's not even in the same league as fructose.

Bjoern• 16 years ago

A good alternative for a sweet tooth is Honey. Not the cheap rubbish but the good stuff (e.g. UMF 10+). Manuka Honey even has antibacterial benefits and tastes great.

rsheridan64• 16 years ago

And it's loaded with sugar, just like high fructose corn syrup or cane sugar.

OrangeGuutan• 16 years ago

There are different types of sugars. High fructose corn syrup is usually either 55% fructose and 45% glucose, or 42% fructose and 58% glucose.

Honey is about 40% fructose, 30% glucose, along with sucrose and maltose. It's also known to have antimicrobial and antioxidant effects.

Equating high fructose corn syrup with honey is a major oversimplification.

elai2• 16 years ago

People living in different, default thin/rare diabetic cultures don't have magical diet information, often they know nothing! It's just the default diet or 'food culture' results in those results. In the 60s/70s most people were fairly thin, and the smoking gun points to north america's changing food culture, more sedentary work and transportation and food industry marketing research, even though there is a much greater awareness now about food and diet than back then.

somebear• 16 years ago

Researchers from the Bartholin Institute at the Danish national hospital have found a correlation between intake of refined sugar and type-1 diabetes. There is still quite a bit of controversy over whether an increased intake of refined sugar does lead to type-1 diabetes, with researchers from the Danish Diabetes association dissenting.

Unfortunately, the only information I could find about this research was in Danish, but feel free to read the (translated) newspaper article here: http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&h...

zeynel12• 16 years ago

towards the end of the article he writes

--we as consumers have more power than we think when it comes to dictating food industry trends which could advocate for a healthier population in the long run--

but gives no explanation -how- we have more power dictating food industry - it seems to me that we have no power - food industry dictates what we eat - and we have to make an effort to protect ourselves from forming habits dictated by the food industry

Lendal• 16 years ago

The 'food industry' doesn't dictate what you eat. The 'food industry' provides you with many choices at many different stores and restaurants. You just choose the unhealthy ones. That's not the food industry's fault. Make better choices.

zeynel12• 16 years ago

the way i understand it -food industry- refers to these global corporations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_industry#Prominent_Food_Co... rather than local restaurants but you are right at least here in new york there are many choices to eat healthy - but my point is that we need to make an effort to sustain a healthy diet because the global food industry is pushing for us to consume highly processed food sold by them

asdflkj• 16 years ago

The guy in the video says energy expenditure and feeling good are synonymous. How about with opiates?

The Bitter Truth About Sugar

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