On 4/18/11 9:52 PM April 18, 2011, Deepa Mohan wrote:
On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 9:46 AM, Udhay Shankar N <ud...@pobox.com <mailto:ud...@pobox.com>> wrote:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all> April 13, 2011 Is Sugar Toxic? By GARY TAUBES On May 26, 2009, Robert Lustig gave a lecture called “Sugar: The Bitter Truth,” which was posted on YouTube the following July. Since then, it has been viewed well over 800,000 times, gaining new viewers at a rate of about 50,000 per month, fairly remarkable numbers for a 90-minute discussion of the nuances of fructose biochemistry and human physiology.I'll still stick to my own opinion, that anything in moderation is OK. The human body is prone to illness caused by many things, and we live out a kind of precarious chemical balance in our intakes. Most of us have had sugar in moderate-to-excess doses, and we've survived the experience with our health intact. If people can eat fugu, why not sugar?
Take the time to watch Robert Lustig's video before you judge it. The section on glucose and fructose metabolism goes a long way towards explaining how excessive sugar, particularly in refined forms, causes obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes. It's been a while since I watched it, so I don't remember whether he also makes a strong connection between excessive sugar intake and heart disease, but that connection also seems to be valid.
I think the video makes a strong case for taking most of your sugar in the form of whole fruit, as well as reducing the intake of refined sugars.
Before I watched the video, I didn't understand that fructose is metabolized quite differently from glucose, nor that dumping a combination of the two quickly into the bloodstream encourages the body to store fat and messes up insulin metabolism.
By the time I saw the video, I had evidence that my body did really badly on a high sugar diet. During my last pregnancy, I discovered that eliminating refined sugar completely prevented morning sickness.
After my 4th child was born, I was disabled with a hip injury for a number of years. My weight crept slowly up. By the time the hip was healed, I was in obese territory and determined to lose the extra adipose. This I did, over the course of three years, using a combination of calorie-counting and emphasizing low glycemic index foods.
Since I've lost the extra weight, I continue to limit my sugar intake. I've observed that any high calorie high sugar treat converts with 100% efficiency to weight gain, *even if I stay within my calorie limit for the day*. If I splurge on a big old piece of chocolate cake, I spend the next week undoing the damage.
I'm very active, dancing every day and lifting weights, and still I have a low tolerance for refined sugar. I can eat a little -- a few pieces of candy, a few cookies, a small piece of cake.
One of Lustig's points was that, if you're going to eat sugar, you should eat it with fiber so it enters the bloodstream more slowly. A piece of fruit is ideal, sugary drinks are the worst.
Obesity and diabetes are on the rise world-wide, and increased sugar consumption is a very likely culprit.
-- Heather Madrone (heat...@madrone.com) http://www.sunsplinter.blogspot.com I'd love to change the world, but they won't give me access to the source code.
