So apparently there was a buzz in the news a while back because a study recently came out saying that sugar was bad for you. Now, I would think that with the war, economy, and general globe giving us a steady stream of actual news to report, delivering a story that was covered 7 years ago is probably not necessary. Seriously, didn’t we go through the whole “fat isn’t all that bad, avoid sugar” thing with atkins, south beach, and paleo? That was years ago? How is this news? Anyway, I generally agree with the premise that sugar should be avoided whenever possible unless it’s cinnamon hard candy, but the article that was written was obviously done so by someone who doesn’t grasp the subject at all, thus my need for a good solid rant. Article is below, with my comments in bold.
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Sugar is actually a toxin. Scientific studies are starting to back this evidence up of sugar being a poison. On 60 Minutes that aired April 1, 2012, Dr. Sanjay Gupta reported new research is coming out of America's most respected institutions, which find that sugar is a toxin.
So what is a toxin? Is this just some sort of new-age buzz word? Because when I think about toxin, I think about ricin, not sugar. I think we’re being a bit overdramatic here. Sugar isn’t poison, strychnine is. Jesus Christ, fucking take a chill pill, guy.
Sugar is toxic, whether it be in the form of crystal or syrup. "They are basically equivalent. The problem is, they're both bad. They're both equally toxic," says Dr. Lustig.
I don’t think the argument “be” that HFCS is worse than table sugar, again, that was a news article from a few years ago. Right now you are accusing sugar of being tantamount to anthrax, so let’s just stick to defending that one.
According to reports, the average American consumes over 130 pounds of sugar annually. This lead to increased diabetes and obesity, especially in children. The National Institute of Health states that diabetes affects 25.8 million Americans of all ages, and 215,000 people younger than 20 had diabetes in 2010.
Sweet, some facts. This is usual ripe ground for horseshit. 130 lbs = 59,091 grams. A can of coke is about 40g of sugar, so that’s 1477 cans of coke per year? Sounds a tad high to me.
Since the 1970s, sugar consumption has gone down nearly 40 percent, but high fructose corn syrup has more than made up the difference. Dr. Lustig says they are both toxic because they both contain fructose, that's what makes them sweet and irresistible.
Fructose doesn’t make sugar any more irresistible than glucose or dextrose. It’s fucking sugar.
When you eat sugar in the form of fruit, you are getting other stuff with it. You're getting fiber, micro-nutrients and also a slow absorbtion of sugar which is much more natural. That's the way human bodies were designed to take in sugar.
Your body is either OK with handling sugar or it isn’t, there is no middle ground called fruit. The sugar in fruit isn’t great for you, but fruit has a lot of great stuff in it that makes fruit not the worst thing in the world, but it certainly still isn’t designed to handle all that fructose. The fructose in an orange is nearly the same fructose in HFCS that goes in cookies, let’s not pretend they’re different. Also, the amount of fiber in fruit is largely negligible to slow the absorbtion [sic] of fructose. In fact, the amount of fructose far outpaces fiber and has a net increase on blood-glucose.
When it comes to artificial sweeteners, the body is smart. Dr. Sanjay Gupta gave the example of when a person drinks Diet Coke then goes home at night and has two bowls of ice cream. He says, "It's almost as if your body says, 'You tricked me. So you know what, I'm going to make you go out and find real sugar and feed me.' It's sort of a punishment."
This isn’t the body being smart; this is the brain being dumb. I can drink a few diet cokes and I won’t have the urge to pound ice cream because I’m not a fat fuck…the aspartame isn’t “fooling” me. There is nothing wrong with artificial sweeteners, provided you are a rational human being who isn’t a slave to gorging pie.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta says that eating real food is the best piece of advice. Real foods like, vegetables, meat, and food that doesn't come out of a box or package. Usually you'll find real food on the outer perimeter of the grocery store. Food on the inner aisles is usually packaged and processed.
Most frozen ice cream and beer is on the perimeter too…just sayin.
Is sugar bad for people with heart disease? People believe if they eat sugar, they put on weight and if you put on weight, you're more likely to develop heart disease. People fundamentally get heart disease. Dr. Sanjay Gupta gave the example of a person eating a cheeseburger and thinking this is a fatty food and it will raise their cholesterol in which will put you at risk of heart disease. That's what sugar is doing, maybe more so than fatty foods.
This paragraph makes no sense. The basic argument is contradictory.
When a person consumes too much sugar, the liver gets overloaded with fructose and converts some of it into fat. That fat ends up in the bloodstream and generates the bad kind of cholesterol called small dense LDL. These particles are known to lodge in blood vessels, form plaque, in which are associated with heart attacks.
Kimber Stanhope said, "We found that people who consumed high fructose corn syrup had increased blood levels of LDL cholesterol and other risk factors for cardiovascular disease."
But the purpose of statistics and research is to determine if the two things are correlated. Are they? I found that pirate attacks went down in the 19th century as amount of coal mined increased, therefore, mining coal prevents pirate attacks.
Esstenially, we need a balanced diet, but the idea of balance is a drastic reduction in sugar consumption. An American Heart Association report recommends men should consume no more than 150 calories of added sugars a day. And women, just 100 calories. That's less than the amount in just one can of soda.
So your recommendation is to go from consuming 160 grams of added sugar a day (above figure/365) to somewhere between 25 and 35 grams? Sounds great, I support that. However, that’s a net decrease of 500 calories per day. Since people tend to want to remain in equilibrium, I predict they will just eat 500 more calories of bread, pasta, and French fries, because O HAI, NO SUGAR! MUST BE GOOD! Good job.
Dr. Robert Lustig says, "Ultimately this is a public health crisis. And when it's a public health crisis, you have to do big things and you have to do them across the board. Tobacco and alcohol are perfect examples
Wait what? What big things across the board? Are you suggesting that the government get in there and tell me not to have sugar? Dear god. The second we start having retarded doctors prescribing health ultimatums it’s a slippery slope to banning fat and red meat. I’m all for supporting a reduced sugar intake, but I’m also Pro-letting dumb people kill themselves, that’s what makes America great.
Also, what alcohol health crisis? Are we talking about fucking prohibition here?
