19 ms·

Training the Brain to Eat Less Sugar

197 points by furcyd 7y ago

forgot_old_user 7y ago
Oh where can I get this game
- leowoo91 7y ago
  Any grocery near you. Sum up the sugar content on packages and subtract that from 100, let that be your point :)
brownbat 7y ago
From the actual study: "8-week weight losses for ICT were 3.1% vs. 2.2% for sham. A marginally significant effect was observed for gamification to reduce the impact of ICT." This seems like a small effect for eight weeks of work. And gamification backfiring makes me worry this is all noise.
- imtringued 7y ago
  1% is significant if it trains long term behaviour. Losing 2.2% in 8 weeks is useless if it is unsustainable if you will fall for the processed food trap again and regain your weight.
  - brownbat 7y ago
    > 1% is significant if it trains long term behaviour. Or maybe it can be added to other effects, or maybe the techniques can be refined from here. You're absolutely right there are a dozen reasons small effects can still be important. Sometimes it's just p-hacking though, or otherwise unreplicable studies. That's worth considering too. I think we'd both welcome more research, maybe especially over longer terms.
- benj111 7y ago
  Didn't see any mention of a control, so could just be down to the classes beforehand. Nevertheless 2%-3% weight loss without 'dieting' is surely good, it's at least additive to normal dieting, and perhaps even more effective in that it can help in overcoming craving. Plus what rate of weight loss do you think is acceptable. Losing 25% of your bodyweight in a week may be the 'in thing', but it isn't necessarily healthy or sustainable.
  - projektfu 7y ago
    Sham is the control
  - brownbat 7y ago
    > Plus what rate of weight loss do you think is acceptable. Great question, I estimated the math before the last post but let me unpack it so people can correct me. If a man is avg US height of 5'9" with an obese BMI of 35 and weight of 240, then 0.5% to 2% each week would fit standard medical guidelines for effective dieting. At that weight you can easily fluctuate by 1% each day. So we have an eight week effect that is in total less than 1% over sham, a difference on par with standard daily noise and reasonable weekly goal. This is why there's a replication crisis in health research. Also, sham is a misleading control here if we're actually interested in weight loss. Why not control for any diet at all? Even use the same time each day going for a walk, or probably even meditating on weight loss strategies, at this improvement rate the advantage will melt away. Sham is defensible if you don't actually care about weight loss, but in that case weight shouldn't be your metric. Best case is it's a horribly misleading study design.
- victor106 7y ago
  Avoiding Sugar intake is not just about weight loss though. It’s also about controlling immediate glucose spikes. Which of course could be correlated with weight
xvilka 7y ago
Just do keto-diet, and sugar addiction will dissolve pretty quickly.
- YUMad 7y ago
  +1. Undo the 10 millenia of evil.
  - SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
    Or ignore 10 millenia of evolution, if you want to look at it that way.
    - SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
      People ignore that - we have clear evidence that you can adapt to drinking milk in that span of time, why is that people think we haven't otherwise adapted to an agrarian lifestyle that's existed just as long?
      - beat 7y ago
        The success of agrarian diets doesn't mean they are healthier than what might be called paleo. Rather, it has a host of other side effects - a larger, more stable food supply means a larger population. A large population means specialization. Farming means staying in one place, forming permanent communities and permanent tools/storage that can't necessarily be carried by hand. Agrarian societies can develop new technologies and field dedicated military forces. They can develop writing. Etc.
        SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
        But if we acknowledge we adapted to it, we can't just assume that paleo is better for us strictly because it's "more natural" - we adapted to make milk natural for us to drink as well. And if we reject that - how can we say that our adaptation to a paleo diet is then better as it's part of our evolutionary tree?
chriselles 7y ago
I’ve cut sugar out of my diet almost completely(bar trace amounts and the rare cheat treat). 23kg loss sustained over 16 months on a modified keto diet. Cutting out sugar has been a game changer for me.
- gavia1 7y ago
  Sugar is so bad for us and we eat it in such large amounts! I don't drink a lot, or consume large quantities of caffeine, but when it comes to sugar I'm certain my intake is much too high!
- msiyer 7y ago
  I eat mostly fruits, very little vegetables and cooked grains. I have lost 10+ kgs in the past 6 months. I was not obese, but could lose some weight. Refined sugars are detrimental for health. Whole fruits and their sugars are great!
  - senux 7y ago
    While you're right about sugars, a diet that consists mostly of fruits can't be nutrient complete and therefore is not really good for you.
    - msiyer 7y ago
      I eat a huge variety - fruits, melons, berries... Just curious, what do you think I would be missing?
      - osrec 7y ago
        Protein?
        msiyer 7y ago
        Not at all. All the protein a human needs can be sourced from plants and in huge quantities. Even grass has enough protein to help an elephant grow to ~1.5 tonnes.
nindalf 7y ago
For the first 3.5 months of this year I was completely off artificial sugar. That meant fruit was ok, but any kind of dessert wasn't. It was hard initially but after a couple of weeks it was easy. I didn't feel the craving to eat dessert like I always did. I also felt much better and more productive now that my insulin levels were more stable than before. On my previous diet I had regular sugar highs and lows (which of course meant more sugar), and it was great to be rid of that. If anyone wants to try this and finds it too difficult initially, please stick to it for at least two weeks! It gets easier!
- johnkpaul 7y ago
  Awesome, congrats! I'm at 2.5 years of no artificial and as close to 0 "natural sugar" as possible. I don't have any fruit and I don't drink milk but have the lactose in cheese sometimes. I also have tomatoes sometimes so there is a little glucose in that. Generally, if I could, I'd have 0 -ose completely. It's done wonders for my A1C and weight. It definitely gets easier after the original weaning. Now it doesn't even take thought or effort and I have no regrets at all.
  - jmnicolas 7y ago
    If you want to avoid lactose, there are naturally lactose free cheeses like Italian Parmigiano and French Comté.
  - edraferi 7y ago
    One interesting milk option is Fairlife. It's processed to have more protein and no lactose [0]. Some health bloggers object to the process, here's a summary [1]. Overall I think it's a solid product. [0] https://fairlife.com/our-nutrition/ https://fairlife.com/our-nutrition/ [1] https://www.stephshares.com/healthyeating/966/ https://www.stephshares.com/healthyeating/966/
    - johnkpaul 7y ago
      Thanks! I've heard of this but never really researched it. I don't object to the process but I drink carageenan free heavy cream to achieve a similar taste/texture with no protein.
killjoywashere 7y ago
I want that in augmented reality! Can you imagine!
louthy 7y ago
I have a super sweet tooth and have become more and more concerned about it as I get older. One thing that I am really bad at is any kind of conscious diet or regime, I am just not regimented with anything really. So, I tried the big-bang and did a 4 day fast - my theory being, well, treat it like a drug addiction and go 'cold turkey'. It worked. I massively cut down on my sugar intake because I didn't feel like I needed sugar (for about 3 months). Over time as I've had sugary foods it's definitely come back, and so I'll probably try again. But I found it quite interesting how quickly I could reset myself to a state where my body didn't crave it. Obviously, fasting isn't for everyone, and long fasts you should make sure you know what you're doing, but it was a serious eye opener.
- msiyer 7y ago
  Try satiating your "refined sugars craving" with fruits. Not juice, but whole fruits. Taste will reset itself within a week. This has been my personal experience.
  - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
    There are also a plethora of sugar free or low sugar processed foods to look into. Some of them use sugar alcohols or some artificial sweetener that might have some adverse effects, but they are fairly effective as a better substitute when you are otherwise craving a candy bar or a mocha. Fruits, some are better than others, depending on how much fiber they have.
    - msiyer 7y ago
      Please stay away from artificial sugars. We have no idea what diseases they might be causing.
      - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
        That is like saying please stay away from vaping as a way of stopping smoking. Great advice if you can, horrible advice if you can’t. Perfect is the enemy of good.
WMCRUN 7y ago
I phased out sugar by setting a daily goal and then progressively lowering it. I started at 40g max per day (the reccomended limit) and then treated it like a game to find other sources of sugar in my diet. I now get about 5g /day from things like oatmeal and Brussels sprouts (even some vegetables have sugar). It’s not for everyone but it’s changed my life.
- uxcolumbo 7y ago
  How did it change your life? So it's not just the processed / refined sugar you're reducing, it's sugar from all foods?
eswat 7y ago
Glad to see more treading into using games to reinforce beneficial behaviours. If only the resources we were pumping into making lootbox games could start being diverted into projects like this.
johnkpaul 7y ago
At what stage, if any, are we going to call sugar an addiction? "Craving" being the word used here is very obviously an indicator of the strength here and there are negative consequences to having too much. I don't know what other leaps need to be made to formalize the addiction category.
- Nasrudith 7y ago
  The problem with those criteria is we would need to ask at what stage are we going to call water an addiction? It also fufills those details. Really just because it can be classified as an addiction doesn't mean it should. The real criteria of concern is "does it cause problems /in this case/". Otherwise you end up with a hysterical neo-puritanism of trying to create a perfect life by excision of all vices.
  - rv-de 7y ago
    if it isn't bad for you then it's not an addiction. addictive behavior is by definition always harmful. drinking water is hence not an addiction but a necessity.
    - nradov 7y ago
      Water intoxication will kill you. Almost anything can be harmful in excessive quantities.
      - mvid 7y ago
        That is pedantic. There is no realistic scenario where your brain will compel you to consume so much water you suffer long term detriment
        stronglikedan 7y ago
        > There is no realistic scenario Admittedly pedantic, but apparently a contest to win a Wii is one such realistic scenario. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-jan-14-me-water14-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-jan-14-me-water...
amriksohata 7y ago
Watch the Fed Up documentary, how sugar is more addictive than cocaine in mice, how 80% of food products in US supermarkets have added sugar. Its nearly impossible trying to train yourself to moderate your sugar, its better to avoid it altogether as your body sugar level (GI) spikes causes withdrawal later. Our body does not need any refined sugar. Fruits are ok, avoid fruit juices as they often either have added or sugar or miss the fibre which helps your body slow down digestion.
- VLM 7y ago
  "how 80% of food products in US supermarkets have added sugar." The other 20% have added artificial sweeteners that taste awful. (edited to note I hate the taste and idea of products that are heavily marketed as "no added sugar" that are dosed with megatons of suralose or similar) You pretty much HAVE to go homemade paleo style food. Luckily that kind of food can be delicious and easy to make and cheap... A big salad with a modest side of meat, a stir fry made with a bag of frozen veggies and chopped meat, classic meat and veggies, meat and spices in a slow cooker, etc.
  - slfnflctd 7y ago
    I have no problems with artificial sweeteners and have used them for over a decade (mostly in beverages). I believe it improved my health. Eating too much real sugar isn't even that enjoyable now, and usually makes me feel sick.
    - SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
      I recently reduced my pop to a friday afternoon one can treat, but before that I drank exclusively diet drinks - I got so used to it that drinking a full sugar coke was sickly sweet.
  - sevensor 7y ago
    > meat and spices in a slow cooker I cannot overstate how much of a difference it makes to season your food with delicious spices. I think packaged food has so much sugar and salt in it partly because spices are comparatively expensive. If you cook your own food, I highly recommend herbs and spices! (Also some spices, like turmeric for instance, are reputed to have health benefits of their own.)
flyGuyOnTheSly 7y ago
>Think: Lumosity for your diet. I am surprised that an educational institution is comparing their new program to a company who deceived consumers on scientific claims.
hsnewman 7y ago
So if I eat less sugar I'll loose weight, who'd a thunk it?
ZeroFries 7y ago
There's actually not that much evidence moderate sugar intake is bad for you, at all. All this talk about "sugar" swings is completely off base, IMO, especially considering most starches are much higher on the GI and II scales than sugars. Fructose is low GI, and most of it is converted to glucose in the gut, anyway. Higher consumption is converted to fat, but most vilifying sugars promote fat, so what's the difference? If anyone can link me evidence that moderate sugar intake promotes worse blood sugar regulation (compared to saturated fat, especially) in healthy, non-diabetic populations, would love to see it. FWIW, I've had anywhere from <30g total carbs in my diet, to moderate sugar/carb intake, to very high (300+g sugar [mostly from fruit], 500+ carb) diets. The very low carb diets were the worst for my energy levels (and yes, I did intake plenty of electrolytes, and was on it for 12+ weeks). Moderate carb feels best, to me, as an active, healthy body-weight male, for what anecdotal evidence is worth.
- bluntfang 7y ago
  >There's actually not that much evidence moderate sugar intake is bad for you There's plenty of evidence that foods in America are loaded with above-moderate sugar levels, so it's generally hard/expensive to receive moderate sugar levels.
- stronglikedan 7y ago
  Hear, hear! I couldn't imagine cutting sugar out completely, or anything non-processed for that matter. It just seems like a miserable way to live, but to each their own, I guess. I personally like to enjoy everything nature has to offer, just in moderation. Portion control using non-processed ingredients is the only sustainable diet I've ever successfully implemented, and I've tried a great many.
- snarf21 7y ago
  Anecdotally, I agree that it isn't that moderate carbs is bad and low carbs is good. The one thing that I feel is not talked about enough is the human aspect. Some people can limit themselves to a small helping of carbs, others can't. For a lot of people, the only good strategy is denial. If I know I'll be tempted to eat too much pasta or drink too much orange juice, I have to just not buy it or order it at all. I always talk about this analogy. It is really hard to eat 8 medium oranges with a meal, it is trivial to drink a 16 oz bottle of orange juice. It is also pretty easy to have a second 16 oz bottle of orange juice (but no one is likely to eat 16 medium oranges). Most people struggle because life is stressful and eating the whole bag of chips is a release. It is hard to stop after 10 chips when your day was sh!t. Just my two cents....

197 points by furcyd 7y ago

forgot_old_user 7y ago

Oh where can I get this game

leowoo91 7y ago
Any grocery near you. Sum up the sugar content on packages and subtract that from 100, let that be your point :)

brownbat 7y ago

From the actual study: "8-week weight losses for ICT were 3.1% vs. 2.2% for sham. A marginally significant effect was observed for gamification to reduce the impact of ICT." This seems like a small effect for eight weeks of work. And gamification backfiring makes me worry this is all noise.

imtringued 7y ago
1% is significant if it trains long term behaviour. Losing 2.2% in 8 weeks is useless if it is unsustainable if you will fall for the processed food trap again and regain your weight.
- brownbat 7y ago
  > 1% is significant if it trains long term behaviour. Or maybe it can be added to other effects, or maybe the techniques can be refined from here. You're absolutely right there are a dozen reasons small effects can still be important. Sometimes it's just p-hacking though, or otherwise unreplicable studies. That's worth considering too. I think we'd both welcome more research, maybe especially over longer terms.
benj111 7y ago
Didn't see any mention of a control, so could just be down to the classes beforehand. Nevertheless 2%-3% weight loss without 'dieting' is surely good, it's at least additive to normal dieting, and perhaps even more effective in that it can help in overcoming craving. Plus what rate of weight loss do you think is acceptable. Losing 25% of your bodyweight in a week may be the 'in thing', but it isn't necessarily healthy or sustainable.
- projektfu 7y ago
  Sham is the control
- brownbat 7y ago
  > Plus what rate of weight loss do you think is acceptable. Great question, I estimated the math before the last post but let me unpack it so people can correct me. If a man is avg US height of 5'9" with an obese BMI of 35 and weight of 240, then 0.5% to 2% each week would fit standard medical guidelines for effective dieting. At that weight you can easily fluctuate by 1% each day. So we have an eight week effect that is in total less than 1% over sham, a difference on par with standard daily noise and reasonable weekly goal. This is why there's a replication crisis in health research. Also, sham is a misleading control here if we're actually interested in weight loss. Why not control for any diet at all? Even use the same time each day going for a walk, or probably even meditating on weight loss strategies, at this improvement rate the advantage will melt away. Sham is defensible if you don't actually care about weight loss, but in that case weight shouldn't be your metric. Best case is it's a horribly misleading study design.
victor106 7y ago
Avoiding Sugar intake is not just about weight loss though. It’s also about controlling immediate glucose spikes. Which of course could be correlated with weight

xvilka 7y ago

Just do keto-diet, and sugar addiction will dissolve pretty quickly.

YUMad 7y ago
+1. Undo the 10 millenia of evil.
- SmellyGeekBoy 7y ago
  Or ignore 10 millenia of evolution, if you want to look at it that way.
  - SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
    People ignore that - we have clear evidence that you can adapt to drinking milk in that span of time, why is that people think we haven't otherwise adapted to an agrarian lifestyle that's existed just as long?
    - beat 7y ago
      The success of agrarian diets doesn't mean they are healthier than what might be called paleo. Rather, it has a host of other side effects - a larger, more stable food supply means a larger population. A large population means specialization. Farming means staying in one place, forming permanent communities and permanent tools/storage that can't necessarily be carried by hand. Agrarian societies can develop new technologies and field dedicated military forces. They can develop writing. Etc.
      - SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
        But if we acknowledge we adapted to it, we can't just assume that paleo is better for us strictly because it's "more natural" - we adapted to make milk natural for us to drink as well. And if we reject that - how can we say that our adaptation to a paleo diet is then better as it's part of our evolutionary tree?

chriselles 7y ago

I’ve cut sugar out of my diet almost completely(bar trace amounts and the rare cheat treat). 23kg loss sustained over 16 months on a modified keto diet. Cutting out sugar has been a game changer for me.

gavia1 7y ago
Sugar is so bad for us and we eat it in such large amounts! I don't drink a lot, or consume large quantities of caffeine, but when it comes to sugar I'm certain my intake is much too high!
msiyer 7y ago
I eat mostly fruits, very little vegetables and cooked grains. I have lost 10+ kgs in the past 6 months. I was not obese, but could lose some weight. Refined sugars are detrimental for health. Whole fruits and their sugars are great!
- senux 7y ago
  While you're right about sugars, a diet that consists mostly of fruits can't be nutrient complete and therefore is not really good for you.
  - msiyer 7y ago
    I eat a huge variety - fruits, melons, berries... Just curious, what do you think I would be missing?
    - osrec 7y ago
      Protein?
      - msiyer 7y ago
        Not at all. All the protein a human needs can be sourced from plants and in huge quantities. Even grass has enough protein to help an elephant grow to ~1.5 tonnes.

nindalf 7y ago

For the first 3.5 months of this year I was completely off artificial sugar. That meant fruit was ok, but any kind of dessert wasn't. It was hard initially but after a couple of weeks it was easy. I didn't feel the craving to eat dessert like I always did. I also felt much better and more productive now that my insulin levels were more stable than before. On my previous diet I had regular sugar highs and lows (which of course meant more sugar), and it was great to be rid of that. If anyone wants to try this and finds it too difficult initially, please stick to it for at least two weeks! It gets easier!

johnkpaul 7y ago
Awesome, congrats! I'm at 2.5 years of no artificial and as close to 0 "natural sugar" as possible. I don't have any fruit and I don't drink milk but have the lactose in cheese sometimes. I also have tomatoes sometimes so there is a little glucose in that. Generally, if I could, I'd have 0 -ose completely. It's done wonders for my A1C and weight. It definitely gets easier after the original weaning. Now it doesn't even take thought or effort and I have no regrets at all.
- jmnicolas 7y ago
  If you want to avoid lactose, there are naturally lactose free cheeses like Italian Parmigiano and French Comté.
- edraferi 7y ago
  One interesting milk option is Fairlife. It's processed to have more protein and no lactose [0]. Some health bloggers object to the process, here's a summary [1]. Overall I think it's a solid product. [0] https://fairlife.com/our-nutrition/ https://fairlife.com/our-nutrition/ [1] https://www.stephshares.com/healthyeating/966/ https://www.stephshares.com/healthyeating/966/
  - johnkpaul 7y ago
    Thanks! I've heard of this but never really researched it. I don't object to the process but I drink carageenan free heavy cream to achieve a similar taste/texture with no protein.

killjoywashere 7y ago

I want that in augmented reality! Can you imagine!

louthy 7y ago

I have a super sweet tooth and have become more and more concerned about it as I get older. One thing that I am really bad at is any kind of conscious diet or regime, I am just not regimented with anything really. So, I tried the big-bang and did a 4 day fast - my theory being, well, treat it like a drug addiction and go 'cold turkey'. It worked. I massively cut down on my sugar intake because I didn't feel like I needed sugar (for about 3 months). Over time as I've had sugary foods it's definitely come back, and so I'll probably try again. But I found it quite interesting how quickly I could reset myself to a state where my body didn't crave it. Obviously, fasting isn't for everyone, and long fasts you should make sure you know what you're doing, but it was a serious eye opener.

msiyer 7y ago
Try satiating your "refined sugars craving" with fruits. Not juice, but whole fruits. Taste will reset itself within a week. This has been my personal experience.
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  There are also a plethora of sugar free or low sugar processed foods to look into. Some of them use sugar alcohols or some artificial sweetener that might have some adverse effects, but they are fairly effective as a better substitute when you are otherwise craving a candy bar or a mocha. Fruits, some are better than others, depending on how much fiber they have.
  - msiyer 7y ago
    Please stay away from artificial sugars. We have no idea what diseases they might be causing.
    - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
      That is like saying please stay away from vaping as a way of stopping smoking. Great advice if you can, horrible advice if you can’t. Perfect is the enemy of good.

WMCRUN 7y ago

I phased out sugar by setting a daily goal and then progressively lowering it. I started at 40g max per day (the reccomended limit) and then treated it like a game to find other sources of sugar in my diet. I now get about 5g /day from things like oatmeal and Brussels sprouts (even some vegetables have sugar). It’s not for everyone but it’s changed my life.

uxcolumbo 7y ago
How did it change your life? So it's not just the processed / refined sugar you're reducing, it's sugar from all foods?

eswat 7y ago

Glad to see more treading into using games to reinforce beneficial behaviours. If only the resources we were pumping into making lootbox games could start being diverted into projects like this.

johnkpaul 7y ago

At what stage, if any, are we going to call sugar an addiction? "Craving" being the word used here is very obviously an indicator of the strength here and there are negative consequences to having too much. I don't know what other leaps need to be made to formalize the addiction category.

Nasrudith 7y ago
The problem with those criteria is we would need to ask at what stage are we going to call water an addiction? It also fufills those details. Really just because it can be classified as an addiction doesn't mean it should. The real criteria of concern is "does it cause problems /in this case/". Otherwise you end up with a hysterical neo-puritanism of trying to create a perfect life by excision of all vices.
- rv-de 7y ago
  if it isn't bad for you then it's not an addiction. addictive behavior is by definition always harmful. drinking water is hence not an addiction but a necessity.
  - nradov 7y ago
    Water intoxication will kill you. Almost anything can be harmful in excessive quantities.
    - mvid 7y ago
      That is pedantic. There is no realistic scenario where your brain will compel you to consume so much water you suffer long term detriment
      - stronglikedan 7y ago
        > There is no realistic scenario Admittedly pedantic, but apparently a contest to win a Wii is one such realistic scenario. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-jan-14-me-water14-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-jan-14-me-water...

amriksohata 7y ago

Watch the Fed Up documentary, how sugar is more addictive than cocaine in mice, how 80% of food products in US supermarkets have added sugar. Its nearly impossible trying to train yourself to moderate your sugar, its better to avoid it altogether as your body sugar level (GI) spikes causes withdrawal later. Our body does not need any refined sugar. Fruits are ok, avoid fruit juices as they often either have added or sugar or miss the fibre which helps your body slow down digestion.

VLM 7y ago
"how 80% of food products in US supermarkets have added sugar." The other 20% have added artificial sweeteners that taste awful. (edited to note I hate the taste and idea of products that are heavily marketed as "no added sugar" that are dosed with megatons of suralose or similar) You pretty much HAVE to go homemade paleo style food. Luckily that kind of food can be delicious and easy to make and cheap... A big salad with a modest side of meat, a stir fry made with a bag of frozen veggies and chopped meat, classic meat and veggies, meat and spices in a slow cooker, etc.
- slfnflctd 7y ago
  I have no problems with artificial sweeteners and have used them for over a decade (mostly in beverages). I believe it improved my health. Eating too much real sugar isn't even that enjoyable now, and usually makes me feel sick.
  - SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
    I recently reduced my pop to a friday afternoon one can treat, but before that I drank exclusively diet drinks - I got so used to it that drinking a full sugar coke was sickly sweet.
- sevensor 7y ago
  > meat and spices in a slow cooker I cannot overstate how much of a difference it makes to season your food with delicious spices. I think packaged food has so much sugar and salt in it partly because spices are comparatively expensive. If you cook your own food, I highly recommend herbs and spices! (Also some spices, like turmeric for instance, are reputed to have health benefits of their own.)

flyGuyOnTheSly 7y ago

>Think: Lumosity for your diet. I am surprised that an educational institution is comparing their new program to a company who deceived consumers on scientific claims.

hsnewman 7y ago

So if I eat less sugar I'll loose weight, who'd a thunk it?

ZeroFries 7y ago

There's actually not that much evidence moderate sugar intake is bad for you, at all. All this talk about "sugar" swings is completely off base, IMO, especially considering most starches are much higher on the GI and II scales than sugars. Fructose is low GI, and most of it is converted to glucose in the gut, anyway. Higher consumption is converted to fat, but most vilifying sugars promote fat, so what's the difference? If anyone can link me evidence that moderate sugar intake promotes worse blood sugar regulation (compared to saturated fat, especially) in healthy, non-diabetic populations, would love to see it. FWIW, I've had anywhere from <30g total carbs in my diet, to moderate sugar/carb intake, to very high (300+g sugar [mostly from fruit], 500+ carb) diets. The very low carb diets were the worst for my energy levels (and yes, I did intake plenty of electrolytes, and was on it for 12+ weeks). Moderate carb feels best, to me, as an active, healthy body-weight male, for what anecdotal evidence is worth.

bluntfang 7y ago
>There's actually not that much evidence moderate sugar intake is bad for you There's plenty of evidence that foods in America are loaded with above-moderate sugar levels, so it's generally hard/expensive to receive moderate sugar levels.
stronglikedan 7y ago
Hear, hear! I couldn't imagine cutting sugar out completely, or anything non-processed for that matter. It just seems like a miserable way to live, but to each their own, I guess. I personally like to enjoy everything nature has to offer, just in moderation. Portion control using non-processed ingredients is the only sustainable diet I've ever successfully implemented, and I've tried a great many.
snarf21 7y ago
Anecdotally, I agree that it isn't that moderate carbs is bad and low carbs is good. The one thing that I feel is not talked about enough is the human aspect. Some people can limit themselves to a small helping of carbs, others can't. For a lot of people, the only good strategy is denial. If I know I'll be tempted to eat too much pasta or drink too much orange juice, I have to just not buy it or order it at all. I always talk about this analogy. It is really hard to eat 8 medium oranges with a meal, it is trivial to drink a 16 oz bottle of orange juice. It is also pretty easy to have a second 16 oz bottle of orange juice (but no one is likely to eat 16 medium oranges). Most people struggle because life is stressful and eating the whole bag of chips is a release. It is hard to stop after 10 chips when your day was sh!t. Just my two cents....