How Do You Explain That Sugar Isn't Bad?

[catan]

Everyone around me talks about how bad sugar is for you. I used to share my positive experience with Peat's ideas (eating high carbs, minimizing PUFA, focusing on metabolism) but nowadays I mostly just ignore and let people be.

I have kids and a new partner, and the kids especially have more and more questions and lately they come to me asking why their friends are saying sugar is bad, and if it's bad why do we use it? I know they hear it from their parents, and since that's the idea that's trending these days... even other parents/families with whom we spend time with and agree on re vaccines and doctors etc, also say sugar is addictive and evil, the cause of all health problems.

I've mostly focused on explaining sugar (and starch) breaks down into glucose that is energy for our bodies and brains. And avoid foods with additives and vegetable oils as much as possible. Beyond that it can get complicated, and our situation is complicated by the fact that our family is recently blended. So I'm looking for ways to explain, and also how to handle it when your partner/family doesn't agree with you.

I'm not articulate and am so busy with kids I can't cite Peat and other research etc easily. A lot of my belief is also from my experience. I've tried all the different ways of eating-- high fat, paleo, primal, vegetarian etc and they'd all resulted in problems.

 

[tankasnowgod]

Peat does the best job I've ever heard breaking down his dietary recommendations here-



Basically, the two arguments against sugar are that 1.it has no nutrients other than sucrose, and 2. fructose can cause cholesterol levels to rise.

The second argument is based on the fraudulent lipid hypothesis and diet-heart hypothesis, so for anyone who has rejected those as baseless, and recognizes cholesterol as a beneficial and necessary substance that the body needs. So that argument falls apart, just like most arguments against steak, live, and eggs.

The first point does have merit, but its all about context. Sugar in your coffee and a soda or two a day is fine, probably even beneficial, in the context of a nutrient dense diet. But if sugar replaces things like orange juice, meat, dairy, eggs, and other nutrient packed foods, it can be problematic.

 

[bluefish]

I was curious about the same thing.

I can also add my half baked assumptions as to why sugar is bad...
it rots your teeth
It creates sugar highs and then crashes
it causes diabetes
It’s bad for your mood (high and than crash)
It’s addictive

those are a few of the assumptions I’ve had my whole life.

 

[maillol]

My understanding is that sugar is only bad in the context of a diet containing a lot of pufa, or if your liver is not healthy.
The studies I've seen that show negative effects from sugar have always been on mice fed a diet that is also high in pufa.
It can rot your teeth by feeding bacteria, so again it's not really the sugar that is the problem but the bacteria.

 

[bluefish]

thanks... Im really enjoying moving past the sugar is bad paradigm.

So then for the teeth... means... brush teeth basicially? or ?

 

[maillol]

thanks... Im really enjoying moving past the sugar is bad paradigm.

So then for the teeth... means... brush teeth basicially? or ?

Someone else can probably give you a better answer but I'd say if you have your digestion and liver in good shape that should stop any bad bacteria from collecting and normal dental hygiene should be all you need.
I saw someone here say their lifelong gum issues were incidentally cured with a round of antibiotics.

 

[yerrag]

I'd tell rice eaters that a cup of rice is equivalent to 14 teaspoons of sugar. Yet sugar tastes a whole lot better.

And I'd also tell them that it's not sugar that's bad, it's bad that his body has lost its ability to handle sugar correctly. Blame himself, not the sugar. But that's not easy to do, but it gets through to reasonable people, or people who search for alternative explanations. This won't work though for lab coat worshippers.

 

[milkbasedvegan]

Sugar never did nothing wrong, caloric surplus from starches and seed oils did:

Challenging the Fructose Hypothesis: New Perspectives on Fructose Consumption and Metabolism

that said, I’d still keep a B complex on hand, if loading up on sugar.

 

[bluefish]

Sugar never did nothing wrong, caloric surplus from starches and seed oils did:

Challenging the Fructose Hypothesis: New Perspectives on Fructose Consumption and Metabolism

that said, I’d still keep a B complex on hand, if loading up on sugar.

B complex is useful for what in this regard?

 

[yerrag]

B complex is useful for what in this regard?

Thiamine, B1, is needed for proper glucose metabolism.

 

[bluefish]

Thiamine, B1, is needed for proper glucose metabolism.

So how and when is good to take thiamine and B1 ? Like, if I eat a candy bar? Or ? How do you do it. Thanks

thanks!

 

[yerrag]

So how and when is good to take thiamine and B1 ? Like, if I eat a candy bar? Or ? How do you do it. Thanks

thanks!

You just have to make sure you're not deficient. And B2, riboflavin, helps with fat metabolism. And B3, niacinamide, helps with pushing the completion of glucose metabolism towards mitochondrial production of energy, which is more efficient.

 

[GreekDemiGod]

So then for the teeth... means... brush teeth basicially? or ?

K2

Context matters.
For a caloric / weight point of view, saying that sugar is fattening is just ridiculous. It is not even that calorie dense. You can gorge on sugar and that'll amount to 300 - 400 calories at most.
I even find that sugar is pro weight-loss for me.

 

[Samya]

All living animals that I'm aware of use glucose (a sugar) for energy, even pure carninores like lions use gluconeogenesis.

If you're talking about refined sugar, you can get the same energy from fruit or milk sugar along with abundant vits and minerals, so I'm not sure how it could be argued as being good.

 

[yerrag]

All living animals that I'm aware of use glucose (a sugar) for energy, even pure carninores like lions use gluconeogenesis.

If you're talking about refined sugar, you can get the same energy from fruit or milk sugar along with abundant vits and minerals, so I'm not sure how it could be argued as being good.

It depends on what you mean by sugar. If it's in the context of a discussion about fats vs sugar, sugar is good, as it is essential for the body. The brain cannot survive without it, even if supplied with ketone. Our red. blood cells need it. It cannot metabolize fats.

Now if you're referring to white sugar, certainly it would lose out to fruits as it lacks minerals, but compared to white rice it doesn't lose out but it is half fructose half glucose whereas rice is pure glucose.

 

[Arnold Grape]

My take on this is simply that sugar is less disruptive to the metabolism than eating a pile of potatoes. I cannot personally just eat sugar or drink juice all day without consequences, one of them being that I cannot obtain enough calories.

Also, OP probably gets the favorite dad award, hands down lol.

 

[milkbasedvegan]

Also re: teeth

hyperglycemia is what feeds bad bacteria (and yeast, candida, etc.) causing yellowed teeth and tartar etc.

Another reason not to disrupt blood glucose all day and keep liver glycogen at reasonably adapted levels ie. anywhere between 100g of sugar daily for an extremely sedentary person, up to 1000+ in athletes. Starch is a very poor substitute considering that fructose and galactose are far superior at filling liver glycogen back up.

 

[Peatful]

Everyone around me talks about how bad sugar is for you. I used to share my positive experience with Peat's ideas (eating high carbs, minimizing PUFA, focusing on metabolism) but nowadays I mostly just ignore and let people be.

I have kids and a new partner, and the kids especially have more and more questions and lately they come to me asking why their friends are saying sugar is bad, and if it's bad why do we use it? I know they hear it from their parents, and since that's the idea that's trending these days... even other parents/families with whom we spend time with and agree on re vaccines and doctors etc, also say sugar is addictive and evil, the cause of all health problems.

I've mostly focused on explaining sugar (and starch) breaks down into glucose that is energy for our bodies and brains. And avoid foods with additives and vegetable oils as much as possible. Beyond that it can get complicated, and our situation is complicated by the fact that our family is recently blended. So I'm looking for ways to explain, and also how to handle it when your partner/family doesn't agree with you.

I'm not articulate and am so busy with kids I can't cite Peat and other research etc easily. A lot of my belief is also from my experience. I've tried all the different ways of eating-- high fat, paleo, primal, vegetarian etc and they'd all resulted in problems.

My kids have friends who’s parents have them on a keto diet.
This is 4th - 7th graders; so I hear you.

I personally don’t try to ever persuade anyone.
I just as matter of factly say- “then why do they use honey on wounds”;
or to the Mom’s- “hmmm, I wonder why glycolic peels are a thing then if sugar is inflammatory “.

They just shut up and think I’m a weirdo- and I seriously do not give a ****.

 

[milkbasedvegan]

People don’t understand that sugar is not blood sugar. Can’t blame them. Nobody is explicitly telling them that high blood sugar is what’s driving up inflammation and disease, and that NAFLD isn’t a thing for a healthy metabolism eating nutritious foods with choline etc. I could school keto doctors all day, whenever they go on about fructose. They’re funny. Same goes with plant based doctors.

Dietary cholesterol isn’t blood cholesterol. Dietary sugar isn’t blood sugar. Dietary fat isn’t body fat. Dietary PUFAs isn’t tissue PUFA. And so on and so forth.

Errrybody wants to blame disease on something somewhere, yet nobody cares about all westernized populations being over fed yet undernourished, causing what we now call the metabolic syndrome.

Occam's Razor | Leangains

Increasing dietary linoleic acid does not increase tissue arachidonic acid content in adults consuming Western-type diets: a systematic review

Europe PMC

 

[Ruslan Andreev]

From my intense research, not only sugar is bad and causes glycation (the most severe factor of aging) but even a diet in high fructose (lots of fruits) can cause glycation at dangerous levels.

I personally don't take any sugar at all, not even fruit. But I will not argue with anyone here on this, everyone believes what he/she wants. I believe my own research. I respect everyone.