On 4/20/11 2:26 AM April 20, 2011, ss wrote:
On Wednesday 20 Apr 2011 12:57:45 pm Charles Haynes wrote:
Or to put it another (simplistic) way, sugar eaters may be a proper
subset of fat people. All sugar eaters are fat, but not all fat people
are sugar eaters. In which case one should never eat sugar - which is
what the article is trying to say.
Basically it means that the article is nearly useless for people who do not
eat sugar in meaningful amounts but become fat nevertheless and often end up
with diabetes and heart and kidney disease. Which is the case around where I
live.
The article alone is not particularly useful except as a starting place.
Our bodies are complex, and many factors affect our health.
Understanding sugar metabolism, however, is a good step along the way to
making healthier food choices. If you're concerned about obesity,
metabolic syndrome, and diabetes, you'll need to do more than cut sugar,
however. You'll need to cut calories and pay attention to glycemic index
and glycemic load. Eliminating or minimizing transfats is also a good
idea. Regular exercise is essential.
Obesity can be a factor in heart disease, and diabetes can be a factor
in kidney disease. Diabetes and obesity are increasing worldwide,
largely because calorie consumption and consumption of processed foods
is increasing worldwide.
I can introduce you to many such people.
The typical south Indian diet in Bangalore is:
Breakfast:
Idli, dosa, akki roti or upma, or khara baath
Lunch:
rice or ragi and sambar or rasam, vegetables, sometimes yogurt, sometimes
chapati
Dinner:
Rice, ragi or chapati with vegetable. Sambar,
Add meat about 2-3 times a week for those who eat meat. Savory meat curry. No
sugar. Plenty of oil/fat.
"Sweets" (Payasam or kheer, or sweet baath) are prepared and served only for
guests or for a celebration. Typically once a week or less often. Coffee/tea -
usually 2-3 times a day. Almost no confectionery, sugared drinks or other
sweets are consumed.
These are people who eat all the things that are praised as being good by some
people . Complex starch as opposed to sugar. Plenty of vgetables.
This diet sounds very starchy to me, and all that fried food is not
particularly healthy, either. Also quite low in protein, which might
lead to overconsumption of calories. The glycemic index of many of the
foods in this diet is quite high, particularly if the rice is polished
and the flour white. Yes, it's low in sugar, but starch metabolizes very
quickly to glucose, and dumping large amounts of glucose into the
bloodstream quickly is only marginally better than dumping large amounts
of glucose plus fructose into the bloodstream.
In the US, too, a large number of middle-aged vegetarians are
discovering that they are developing obesity, metabolic syndrome, and
diabetes. In their (or maybe I should say “our”, although I am no longer
vegetarian) case, sugar consumption is probably part of the problem.
Another part of the problem is likely the fact that many vegetarian
(particularly vegan) protein sources are very starchy.
Let me tell you why Lustig did not take these people and their diet into
account when he had his sugar is toxic rant. I think it was because he was
talking to Americans in America about other Americans, Nothing wrong in that
but relatively non relevant to my part of the world.
I think it's because Lustig is a person who has researched one
particular area extensively. He talked about what he knows, which is
sugar metabolism. His main point is that glucose and fructose are
metabolized quite differently, and that the two of them taken together
have specific biological effects that can lead to serious health problems.
So yes, he was talking to Americans, but sugar consumption has been
increasing worldwide:
http://www.whocollab.od.mah.se/expl/globalsugar.html#SEARO
You will note that sugar consumption is rising rapidly in India.
Here's an article specifically on sugar consumption in Pakistan:
http://www.pakalumni.com/profiles/blogs/1119293:BlogPost:65675
I can't find a good article that combines sugar consumption with high
fructose corn syrup consumption worldwide. There are lots of abstracts
but you can't get at the data unless you go behind a pay wall. There's
quite a bit of evidence that refined sweetener use is rising worldwide,
partly due to increased consumption of soft drinks.
--
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.
