Fri, Jan-27-17, 08:23
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Senior Member
Posts: 15,075
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Plan: mostly milkfat
Stats: 190/152.4/154
BF:
Progress: 104%
Location: Ontario
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Quote:
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The mechanism Taubes proposes for how sugar causes insulin resistance is that the fructose component, making up 50 percent of table sugar, overloads the liver, rendering it less sensitive to the insulin signal, and this eventually causes whole-body insulin resistance. Taubes is correct about the impact of fructose on the liver, although again he leaves out critical information: realistic doses of fructose primarily overload the liver if a person is overconsuming calories and liver energy stores are already full (25). This is probably why hunter-gatherer groups such as the Hadza can eat as much sugar as Americans and not develop health problems (26, 27). These facts do not fit Taubes’s narrative that calories are irrelevant, and they are not shared with the reader.
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If you're an obesity researcher looking at palatability and reward in obesity, saying that fructose is a problem only if excess calories are consumed seems to need the added observation that added to the diet in certain ways, sugar unquestionably increases the probability of excess consumption. Also--here's the thing, if there is excess consumption, clamp for excess calories, the fructose makes the diet at that calorie level more damaging (assuming that it's not replacing something also particularly damaging, such as alcohol). We're not only looking at why people are fatter, but also why they are sicker. |