sugar

No Snacks, no sweets, no seconds. Except on Days that start with S. Too simple for you? Simple is why it works. Look here for questions, introductions, support, success stories.

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funfuture
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sugar

Post by funfuture » Sun Apr 17, 2011 11:31 pm


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BrightAngel
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Post by BrightAngel » Mon Apr 18, 2011 3:44 pm

funfuture, Image
I enjoyed reading this article. Thanks for sharing it.
BrightAngel - (Dr. Collins)
See: DietHobby. com

ManOnWire
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Post by ManOnWire » Tue Apr 19, 2011 2:46 am


Who Me?
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Post by Who Me? » Tue Apr 19, 2011 4:18 am

I do a lot of training in workplace safety, and we talk a lot about the definitions of words like toxin.

The fact is, that in large enough doses, just about anything can kill a human. There are cases of people dying from drinking too much water, every single year. (This happens, sadly, in fraternity hazing.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication

So, sure, sugar can technically be a toxin.

Here's another good article:

http://buginfo.com/article.cfm?id=119

funfuture
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Post by funfuture » Tue Apr 19, 2011 5:46 am

Thanks Brightangel, ManOnWire and Who Me?. I enjoyed the articles posted. The one about Paul Rudnick is a hoot. It did remind me of a doco I saw recently though about a man who could tolerate enormous amounts of electricity running through his body - he was a freak of nature. I wonder if Rudnick is a similar freak of nature (if, and I know I'm probably being unfairly cyncial here, he's not exaggerating about his diet). Mind you, I take the underlying point of the article that it is important to enjoy life and its holidays and festivals, etc.

I also take your point Who Me? about toxicity and hyperbole. One of the interesting things about the Taubes article though (and to be honest, I hadn't noticed it was by Taubes when I posted it) is that he notes that the amount of sugar/fructose we now eat is the problem, not that we eat any of it. I think this thinking fits with NoS which allows for treats occasionally and in moderation. I also noticed that by the end of the article he had drawn a distinction between the way the body processes glucose and fructose - and from my reading generally it does seem to be the latter that causes the problems if consumed in large amounts (but as T noted in the article - how much is too much? we don't know that...)

There simply isn't enough research done and enough concrete information to conclusively know what is going on. And it may well be that some other lifestyle factors modify the effects of too much fructose (if that is the underlying cause of the obesity epidemic), e.g. fruit and vegetable consumption or regular exercise or being of reproductive years in women, or whatever...

Overall, my intention is to try to be sugar free as I know that if I have that aim:
- I'll end up eating sugar occasionally rather than regularly and it would hopefully be on special occasions
- it will break the mindset that I developed last time I was on NoS that weekends are for sugar fests. That wasn't a healthy mindset for me to have...

Anyway, I really appreciate the feedback and articles. Very interesting.

Who Me?
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Post by Who Me? » Tue Apr 19, 2011 1:19 pm

Sugar used to be a terribly expensive luxury. Did you read the Laura Ingalls Wilder books as a kid? Remember how much trouble the "Farmer Boy" children got in when they ate all the sugar? Remember what you learned in history class about the slave trade, in which slaves were sent on ships, which returned laden with sugar, or the rum that was made from sugar.

Before large scale sugar production, people had to use other sweeteners. As a backyard beekeeper, I can tell you that it takes a huge amount of effort to raise honey.

So, where sugar and sweets were once precious and only for special occasions, now they're dirt cheap and we probably eat way too much.

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Bonham
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Post by Bonham » Tue Apr 19, 2011 6:38 pm

Read this in my Sunday NYTimes magazine, great idea sharing it on the board.

I agree with others in that the idea of toxicity is really about dosage with something like sugar. And the upshot of the article as Taubes points out is the massive amounts of sugar we consume today compared to a generation or two ago, prior to the spike in obesity rates. It's really about moderation, and as others have said, this fits in ideally with the No S plan.

I think this quote ties it together perfectly:
Instead it’s about getting us — or our children — to move more and eat less, reduce our portion sizes, cut back on snacks.

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