You guys don't mind if I do a point-by-point? Now for a little fun!
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Every few years, there's a new food bad guy in town -- and right now, it's sugar. Some experts have even declared it a "poison" that's "killing us."
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That's true. But sugar has always been a bad guy. There's nothing new about sugar, but there's certainly new research being done on it these days. For example, fructose is studied for its effects on the liver, with the idea that this is where NAFLD comes from.
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Yet could the sweet stuff people have been eating forever really be so terrible?
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That's an exaggeration. Forever is a long time. Let's say instead "for the last 10,000 years", and never in the quantities we eat today. We've been eating more sugar every year for the last 100 years. We now eat about 75-100lbs of sugar per person per year. And we're only counting sugar, not HFCS. But they're the same so it's probably much higher than that.
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"We actually need sugar; it's our body's preferred fuel," says Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center. "But we eat too damn much of it."
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Yes, we need sugar, but not
dietary sugar. More specifically, we need glucose in our blood to supply energy for red blood cells, which can only use glucose as fuel. Yes, glucose is the preferred fuel for those red blood cells and a few other cells but that's about it. All other cells prefer fatty acids and ketones. And yes, we eat too damn much of it.
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Naturally occurring sugar -- which gives fruit, some veggies, and milk their sweet taste — is perfectly healthy. It's added sugar (sweeteners put in during processing and prep) that we need to not OD on.
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There's no difference between fruit sugar and table sugar, except perhaps in their proportions of fructose/glucose. So if table sugar is bad, then fruit sugar is just as bad.
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No need to cut out dessert: The key is to eat strategically.
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Yes, I agree. A favorite strategy of members of this forum is to not eat sugar.
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Happily, some major companies are getting on board. In the past four years, cereal brands have cut back on sugar, the milk industry recently lowered amounts in the chocolate milk served in schools, and Walmart is aiming for 10% less added sugar in select foods by 2015.
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None of that makes any difference. We can add sugar by the spoonful ourselves if we want. And we usually do. Hehe, "Low-Sugar Sugar".
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We turned to experts to clear up the confusion over this tasty temptress. As Katz says, "There's a role for sugar in our diet. After all, what's the point of being healthy if it's not to enjoy living?"
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And the role of sugar is to make us not-healthy? Hm, I see your point, Mr Katz.
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Is there such thing as a sweet tooth?
Yes, sugar love is in your DNA. Researchers have found two sweet-receptor genes that can predict a preference for sweets.
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Yes, that's right. Our ancestors had extensive sugar cane agriculture, extensive transformation industry, and extensive world economy to provide refined and pure table sugar to everybody on the planet. And that's where these sweet-receptor genes come from.
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How much is OK?
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Read labels; if there's a sweetener in the first few ingredients (some common aliases: evaporated cane juice, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate, agave nectar, fructose, dextrose, and syrup), look for a brand with a low-or no-sugar option.
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That's correct. "None" is OK. 70lbs/person/year/20 years gets you diabetes.
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As sweet as some of these things may taste, they contain relatively small amounts of sugar. Plus, nature's packaging comes with essential vitamins and minerals, along with water and fiber that slow the release of sugars into the bloodstream and prevent insulin spikes.
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No, that's incorrect. If you can taste it, then it's already in a free state, i.e. no digestion required for its absorption, therefore immediate absorption.
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Some sweeteners, like raw honey and sucanat, have trace nutrients, but they're all the same as white sugar in terms of calories -- and some contain even more calories.
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But you just said that the real problem with sugar is its effects on the liver. Do these effects come from the calories? You lost me.
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Is it OK to use calorie-free sweeteners?
Yes! The FDA deems stevia, aspartame (Equal), sucralose (Splenda), and other cal-free sweeteners safe. "Short-term data suggests they're safer than table sugar," says Kimber Stanhope, a nutritional biologist at the University of California-Davis.
Faux sugar won't cause blood-sugar spikes or weight gain -- and all the potential health ills. As Stanhope says, "I use them because I can't afford the extra calories!"
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Let me get this straight. When it comes to artificial sweeteners safety, it's fine to use short-term data, but when it comes to low-carb diets safety, you guys are all over it saying there's no long-term data? I understand. It's OK to be biased, as long as the bias is in our favor.
That article is really strange. Sugar is bad, but it's good if you like sugar.