Big Sugar Versus Your Body

The author conflates sugar&#x2F;honey etc (pure carbs - glucose, fructose) and artificial sweeteners like stevia and erythritol which don&#x27;t have any effect on your blood glucose and really are completely different. I fully agree with the premise of minimizing sugar consumption but I don&#x27;t think encouraging people to avoid certain artificial sweeteners like stevia etc is helpful - and in fact it&#x27;s hurting because certain products with these non blood glucose contributing substitutes help people avoid sugar.<p>Note that although artificial sweeteners like stevia and erythritol don&#x27;t raise the blood glucose at all and have GI index of zero or near zero - some artificial sweeteners actually do raise blood glucose, like maltitol etc, and these sweeteners are unfortunately often found in sugar-free candy. You can try a web search for &quot;GI index artificial sweeteners&quot; to see a list of sweeteners that have low GI score.<p>Something else to keep in mind is that over consumption of very carb heavy products like bread or pasta will have the exact same effect on your blood glucose as just eating sugar.

I can confirm at least one part of this story with a personal anecdote:<p>As a child, I absolutely loved, craved, was addicted to Coca Cola. A liter a day, perhaps more. Coming to the US, I noticed that it tasted different because of substituting sugar with high fructose corn syrup. No problem - I switched to Mexican Coca Cola (the one in a glass bottle) - and carried on.<p>Fast forward to after grad school, I wanted to get in a better shape, without giving up sweets entirely (I definitely have a sweet tooth). So the first thing I did is to not buy coke. I could still get it if I wanted - the local 7-11 was literally across the street from my place. But it was no longer convenient - I had to get dressed and cross the street, deal with the line, the cashier, pay more for my guilty pleasure, etc. I still went, but definitely less and less frequently.<p>Fast forward a few years and coke started to taste very &quot;heavy&quot; to me. It had this aftertaste that I never noticed before but could no longer shake off. I found myself frequently unable to finish a bottle of coke. My cravings started getting less and less pronounced. This downward (well, upward in terms of health) slope continued and today I no longer crave Coca Cola at all, drinking it perhaps 5 times a year, if that. And even then I can&#x27;t really do more than a few sips.<p>I look back on this and it honestly feels a bit surreal, knowing that my starting point was (multiple) liters per day and true joy and love for that sugary drink.<p>So progress is definitely possible as long as I took care to make the right choice the easy choice. Don&#x27;t go hungry to the supermarket. Don&#x27;t buy things because that makes them easily available, testing your willpower, which is inevitably finite. Make a few basic rules to follow rather than agonize over every small decision and feel guilty afterwards (just like the article said). Simple stuff like that.<p>Some things will stick, others won&#x27;t, but that&#x27;s okay. The key is to keep trying to get better and healthier, without losing the small pleasures in life without which, let&#x27;s be honest, is this even worth it?!<p>Good luck to everyone on their personal journeys.

I&#x27;m currently two weeks into a no-Coke month (I guess it would be &quot;no soda&quot; but truly that&#x27;s the only one I drink). I have a couple reasons for trying it:<p>- 1) Coca-Cola is an objectively evil corporation that I would like to support less.<p>- 2) I don&#x27;t know exactly what&#x27;s in it, and thanks to the corruption at the FDA, Coca-Cola doesn&#x27;t have to tell me. I worry about what other additives might be lurking about, in addition to the 12 teaspoons of sugar per can.<p>- 3) I&#x27;d simply like to see if I can.<p>I&#x27;m not sure if I necessarily want to wean myself off it completely so much as seek out other sources.<p>One thing I&#x27;m investigating at the moment is Open Soda, which was a list of ingredients for Coke based on a leaked, older version of the recipe. A vendor in the UK sells a pre-made mixture of the oils, which I have debated ordering [0]. It would in theory let me make a batch of my own Coke with less sugar or whatever I feel like using.<p>Other things I&#x27;ve tried have included just sipping club soda or sparkling mineral water in its place. If I want a bit of flavor, I mix in a shot of Balsamic Vinegar. It&#x27;s surprisingly decent. Remembering that it comes from fermented grapes (assuming you&#x27;re getting some decent quality stuff and not the low-end BV from the grocery store), you get enough sweetness to carry it through.<p>[0] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;cube-cola.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;cube-cola.org&#x2F;</a>

&#x27;Redo your pantry&#x27; is an important section in the linked article. My wife is really good about finding pointing out sugar in sauces that seem healthy [1], tomato sauce, catsup, etc., and finding sure free alternatives<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.prevention.com&#x2F;food&#x2F;healthy-eating-tips&#x2F;10-hidden-sugar-bombs&#x2F;slide&#x2F;5" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.prevention.com&#x2F;food&#x2F;healthy-eating-tips&#x2F;10-hidde...</a>

Also would like to know if the author had any younger kids at home. Being a parent I find it difficult and almost impossible to deny my kids of sweet treats few times a week. We end up buying things that kids like but then temptation is very strong and I end up eating some of those treats as well!<p>Also I am addicted to fake sugar (Truvia&#x2F;Stevia etc). I use them almost everyday. Are they bad than natural sugar or worst or same?

Its a little scary how easy it is to eat too much sugar.

The article mentions Stevia, but are fake sugars proven to be bad? What about as bad as Sugar?<p>I&#x27;m curious because that&#x27;s my wife&#x27;s lifeblood for a life without sugar. Without fake sugars.. I don&#x27;t know what she&#x27;d do.

If you don&#x27;t think refined sugar is addictive, try not eating it.

I go through full withdrawal cutting out sugar, and it was the only thing that got me to actually stop going back to it. It took me about 3 times going back and forth and the last time I decided I really didn&#x27;t want to go through the process of getting sick again.<p>I used to eat a few bowls of ice cream each day. I&#x27;d drink tons of root beer and cream soda. I still miss it every so often, but I know it&#x27;s the right choice for me given how my body reacts to it.<p>I have found that I have no problems with monk fruit. The first time I tried it, it didn&#x27;t really taste sweet. There was more just an after taste that I was unfamiliar with. After having it a few times though, my tongue must have adapted because it is a sweet flavor to me now. I don&#x27;t crave it and have no negative side effects when I stop eating it.<p>It feels pretty liberating to cut out the stuff that you have cravings for. I was definitely a slave to caffeine and sugar and I&#x27;m glad to be free from those traps now.

I encourage everyone to measure everything they eat for one week. Use an app, a scale and count the calories, macronutrients and micronutrients. The results are well worth the trouble of doing it for one week.<p>I found my sodium and sugar intake were way to high, and foods I thought were high in protein were often not. Now I read the white label on every food item I buy at the grocery store. After several years my tastes have changed so that I no longer enjoy foods that were once my favorite. I&#x27;m very glad I did this experiment at age 20, it probably saved me from obesity and type 2 diabetes.

People eat too many calories. An easy way to cut calories is by reducing the number of sugary things you eat because they taste so good you want to eat a lot of them. But nutritionally, as long as you control for calories, a bowl of ice cream is not terribly different than a grilled cheese sandwich. Yeah, the ice cream has more sugar, but in your stomach that bread is being broken down into sugar anyway.

&gt; The sugar industry and its various offshoots, like the soda industry, have spent years trying to trick you.<p>Two days ago I was wondering, why there is this thing called &#x27;energy&#x27; on nutrition labels. I mean its not 1:1 sugar, but somehow those two seem to have a positive correlation and while sugar has a bad reputation, energy sounds very positive. Who doesn&#x27;t want more energy?