17 ms·

High-sucrose diets contribute to brain angiopathy and higher brain dysfunctions

122 points by WaitWaitWha 5y ago

temptemptemp111 5y ago
ncmncm 5y ago
These are, presumably, more meaningfully characterized as "high-fructose diets". More precisely, "high-fructose, low-fiber". I.e., the glucose/dextrose half of the sucrose is not producing the pathology.
lambdaba 5y ago
"Sugar is a neurotic drug" - http://twitter.com/grimhood http://twitter.com/grimhood
gjm11 5y ago
In mice. Who were fed diets that were > 2/3 sucrose.
- atty 5y ago
  if my diet was > 2/3 sucrose, I’d expect to have far more problems than just those listed in the title.
- chaxor 5y ago
  Your first claim has a very large uncertainty in it's validity for use here, but the second - that second sentence is pretty important.
- moffkalast 5y ago
  Mouse: Sugar... Give me... sugar... in water.
- dylan604 5y ago
  >In mice. But the mice were the ones that had the Earth Computer System built, so we'd want to make sure we're not killing them off.
hairofadog 5y ago
[deleted]
- Gatsky 5y ago
  There are some attempts to correlate with human pathology at least, they examine brains from patients with schizophrenia.
- omginternets 5y ago
  This kind of comment has no substance and just betrays a lack of understanding about the role of animal models. Mouse models are imperfect, but they tell us quite a lot about humans. That's why we use them. Where they are weak, we adjust the experiment and the conclusions accordingly. I apologize if I seem frustrated. In truth, I am. Comments like this lower the level of discourse, and it's frustrating.
  - Sightline 5y ago
    >Comments like this lower the level of discourse His comment was crafted to do exactly that.
    - omginternets 5y ago
      I don't like to infer people's motives, but I suspect it is more exactly a self-aggrandizing "look at how smart I am because I am calling bullshit" reflex. I have been guilty of this in the past, and try very hard not to do it now.
      - hairofadog 5y ago
        It was meant to be a friendly joke. Apologies; It wasn't my intent to bring down the discourse.
        coolso 5y ago
        Your joke was a good one and I think more people appreciated it than you’d think. I considered it to bring up the discourse. I don’t think it’s right for others to attempt to guilt trip and bully you into removing it.
imchillyb 5y ago
Yes, it's 'in mice'. Where else should we study this? Should we study these effects on prisoners, military personnel, government workers, or school children? Perhaps those with this 'in mice' attitude think we should raise primates for these purposes? Mice are not the best model for humans, just like a Representative Democracy isn't the best model for a government. These things are, however, the best we have at this point in time. This is a great study as it conclusively proves not that sugar diets are bad, but HOW they are bad, and WHY they are bad. Sucrose is shown to interrupt key systems in the brain and now we have a model of how this occurs. Now we can try to image human brains that are suffering from these psychosis and we'll know better where to start our investigations. This is a good study with many implications for future human health studies. Great work.
- ivalm 5y ago
  When people start getting 2/3rd of their calories from sucrose..
  - imchillyb 5y ago
    > When people start getting 2/3rd of their calories from sucrose.. @ivalm I don't think you understand how scientific studies are performed. Inducing change is what the study is accomplishing. Monitoring the changes and what changes occur is what the study sets out to document. Both of those goals are accomplished in the study. Correlations between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients with high glucose mice brains were readily recognized. Science isn't a god. Science is a method of study. We follow the method so that others may perform the same experiments in the future and reach similar conclusions, for proofs. The methods we use for testing such things have been in place for decades now, and they've served us well. If you don't understand why mice models are utilized, and why testing is done with such high percentages, then perhaps you should read more into pharmaceutical testing and development. Like I said, we've been doing this for decades now, and it serves us well.
    - ivalm 5y ago
      I’m no against mice models, but I do think that relationship between amount and outcome are important and non-linear and what happens when 2/3rd of your calories come from something is not indicative of an effect when you consume a smaller percentage. That said, your ad hominem attacks on me are not appreciated, do better.
thathndude 5y ago
Sugar. Is. Poison. The more and more we learn about it, the more and more disturbing it is how aggressively we were in denial during the war on fat. And we’ve done a complete 180 on health and wellness. Eggs are good now. Eat all you can. Unfortunately, we didn’t change until we poisoned 75% of the adult population. Get subsidies out of the food supply. Unless it’s broccoli. Then, that’s probably ok
- bigyellow 5y ago
  Reductionist mentality to something as complex as nutrition could make anything you eat poison.
- Grakel 5y ago
  It was all on purpose: sugar and corn syrup are cheap.
  - malkia 5y ago
    Yup. - https://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-xpm-2012-jun-27-la-ol-nixon-obesity-epidemic-corn-20120627-story.html https://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-xpm-2012-jun-27-la-ol-nix...
    - ncmncm 5y ago
      Earl Butz has a lot to answer for, in hell. But he has plenty of company.
- jvalencia 5y ago
  The gas from broccoli could increase greenhouse gases?
- bawolff 5y ago
  > Sugar. Is. Poison. I always feel this is a gross oversimplification. There is nothing that isn't poision in sufficient quantities.
  - 5y ago
fasteddie31003 5y ago
Fasting right now for the first time in a while. I'm always surprised how my attention span increases and I get more done.
- forgot_old_user 5y ago
  that interesting. I can concentrate when Im hungry- I get cranky.
  - changoplatanero 5y ago
    Yes same for me. Fasting was incompatible with concentrating.
    - zuj 5y ago
      That means you are pushing your limits. Don't start with a full day fasting. Start slow by doing some form of intermittent fasting or time restricted feeding. I would say go for having early dinner and a late breakfast to begin with. Once you are adapted to log hours of not eating, skip one of the meals in the day, depends on your situation but the easiest one to start with is skipping breakfast. Then you can slowly work your way to full day fasting.
  - Someone1234 5y ago
    In my experience your body "learns" when you normally eat and makes you hungry/cranky at that time. You can re-train it, and the hunger/crankiness disappears. For example when I started doing IM (no eating from 7 pm - 11 am) I'd get cranky around breakfast time for the first few days, and then it went, and my most productive time is now 8 am - 10:30 am. Same thing with OMAD or regular fasting, you can retrain your body into what is normal, and you do gain better focus. You do crash fairly hard around your new eating window though.
  - fasteddie31003 5y ago
    I take exogenous ketones to ease into the fast.
thangalin 5y ago
Sugar: The Bitter Truth (2009) https://youtu.be/dBnniua6-oM?t=66s https://youtu.be/dBnniua6-oM?t=66s
- bigyellow 5y ago
  Oversimplified and overdramatized. Sugar does not cause weight gain on its own.
  - ncmncm 5y ago
    Yet, it causes fatty-liver disease, also called metabolic disorder, on its own. And, the secondary effects -- heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure -- are products of liver disease, not weight gain.
    - bigyellow 5y ago
      It does no such thing and I challenge you again to find any peer-reviewed research NOT funded by animal ag industry that supports your conclusions.
      - burke 5y ago
        Or how about you provide some peer-reviewed research rather than "challenging" everyone else to find it?
        bigyellow 5y ago
        Because the burden is on the one making extraordinary claims.
        burke 5y ago
        Which, of course, is you. Not only are you the sole dissenting voice in this thread, you disagree with the article, and the broad consensus. While there are plenty of cases where a thread, an article, and a general consensus are all wrong, you have absolutely no ground to stand on to claim that everyone else's claims are extraordinary and your claims require no evidence.
nimbius 5y ago
The real substantial issue stemming from the litany of problems with sugar isn't that its harmful in high doses, but rather that it is impossible to avoid a diet in western society that relies on high quantities of sugar as a lynchpin for mass produced food. -the average breakfast cereal is just a dessert. - even the healthiest breads contain refined sugar to mask quality inherently absent from mass production. - sugar is used for its crispening and browning properties, it's shelf stabilizing abilities and its addictive properties in virtually every processed snack. -most yogurt at the store is just sugar. The industry response to this is a resounding punt. That somehow you're fat because you're irresponsible abdicates so much of the real guilt from multinational food conglomerates driven solely by profit, not nutrition.
- wombatmobile 5y ago
  > it is impossible to avoid a diet in western society that relies on high quantities of sugar as a lynchpin for mass produced food. I live in the western society you describe and enjoy a diet with no added sugar. How? I prepare my own food from fresh ingredients.
  - urthor 5y ago
    Yeah I'm very confused. I think the commenter is just an unimaginative American. If you actually cook food from actual ingredients it's not difficult at all to avoid sugar. You can even bake your own bread.
- gruez 5y ago
  >but rather that it is impossible to avoid a diet in western society that relies on high quantities of sugar as a lynchpin for mass produced food. just... don't consume the mass produced food with loads of sugar in them? eg. >average breakfast cereal is just a dessert Is non-sweetened cereal hard to find in your supermarket or something? >even the healthiest breads contain refined sugar to mask quality inherently absent from mass production. I checked around on costco and it seems like their "Kirkland Signature Country French" contain 0g of added sugars per serving (I'm guessing slice?). To your point their regular "Multigrain Bread" contains 2g of added sugar per serving. In any case I doubt you're not getting diabetes from that. >- sugar is used for its crispening and browning properties, it's shelf stabilizing abilities and its addictive properties in virtually every processed snack. don't eat snacks then. >-most yogurt at the store is just sugar. just get plain yogurt? "Kirkland Signature Organic Greek Yogurt" has 0g added sugar. I get it's hard to avoid sugar because it tastes so damn good, but let's not pretend it's "impossible to avoid".
zuj 5y ago
Peter Attia has a eye opening podcast on the role of fructose and sugar in general on health. https://peterattiamd.com/rickjohnson/ https://peterattiamd.com/rickjohnson/
makeitdouble 5y ago
> in mice deficient for glyoxalase-1 (GLO1), an enzyme involved in detoxification of sucrose metabolites. This is for me the missing part of the title. I often think reading pop science that they’re making absurd shortcuts and we should get to the actual report, but here TBH I am reading the study and don’t really understand what I’m looking at or what’s the take from this, apart that mices with specific deficiency got some specific illnesses. I saw mentions of human brain analysis but it didn’t seem to go beyond sheer comparison. Does anyone see more interesting stuff in this piece ?
- vericiab 5y ago
  Someone who works in medical research once pointed out to me that some research is intended to be confirmatory (i.e. confirming a hypothesis) but other research is actually intended to be hypothesis-generating. This definitely seems to be the latter. My read on this is that we really don't know what causes things like schizophrenia, so much so that we're not even sure what to study to try to determine the cause. But the authors of this study found that a specific diet in mice with specific genes causes something that looks sort of like human psychiatric disease. They also found similar brain changes in both the mice and humans with psychiatric disease and that aspirin prevented some of the symptoms and brain changes in mice (which possibly suggests the brain changes are related to the behavioral symptoms and not just coincidental). Based on these results further study of, for example, GLO1 deficiency and/or the brain changes they found might be justified. So basically the takeaways are questions about whether/how these finding relate to human disease. In the end, like most hypothesis-generating studies this strikes me as vaguely interesting but probably only really meaningful to other researchers in the field.
- aaron695 5y ago
andy_ppp 5y ago
I’m trying to give up sugar now and it’s worse than giving up smoking so far and almost exactly the same feeling for me, inability to sleep, joint pains, headache, disorientation, mood swings and so on (obviously hunger too). I had a small amount of mass produced bread with stew for dinner and the bread was insanely sweet in a way that can only be described as like a fix for a drug addict - pure pleasure - but it was so extreme that I think any bread is out too until I’m able to break my addiction.
- gurumeditations 5y ago
  The craving for sugar is so difficult to resist as well, and low sugar attractive food is hard to find. And as soon as you have to eat socially with a partner, friends, family etc it basically becomes impossible to avoid sugar because the only way to do it is basically handcraft your own diet.
  - codr7 5y ago
    That's not impossible, though; just inconvenient.
    - ncmncm 5y ago
      As a public health crisis, it's currently impossible. A few people can cut their sugar intake by self-discipline, but not enough to move the needle.
- thathndude 5y ago
  Addiction is definitely the word to use. Sugar is a crazy substance. More addicting than many illicit drugs, like cocaine. Good luck breaking the cycle.
- halpert 5y ago
  I LOVE sugar. I can easily eat two pints of ice cream in one sitting. When working, I can consume ungodly amounts of sugar to keep my mind running. When my blood sugar would get low, I would literally eat 3 snickers bars out of sheer desperation. I started doing a keto diet to lose a little weight, and it's actually been extremely easy. Apparently, having a high fat, low carb diet causes hormones to be released that suppress appetite and sugar cravings. I really would enjoy eating some sugar, as I miss the food I love, but I don't have a single craving.
tyronehed 5y ago
iex_xei 5y ago
For those who would like to break away from sugar, I'd recommend first trying intermittent fasting to reduce the time window for eating. I tried to remove sugar from my diet permanently before IF and it takes considerable effort to maintain your distance all day, and in the long run it doesn't stick. My longer experience was 15 months before. After doing one year of IF, it felt much easier to completely eliminate sugar from the diet, and sticking doesn't require tons of willpower. It's been 18 months but I know I can continue this indefinitely. I'm in that phase of sugar elimination where donuts look disgusting.
WaitWaitWha 5y ago
To the comments regarding unable to purchase foods that are healthy - maybe we should re-introduce "home econ" to middle and high school? Let us teach our children how to cook their own food. Maybe this will allow them to eat healthier. Clearly the "food pyramid", scientific articles, or scare tactics do not seem to work.

122 points by WaitWaitWha 5y ago

These are, presumably, more meaningfully characterized as "high-fructose diets". More precisely, "high-fructose, low-fiber". I.e., the glucose/dextrose half of the sucrose is not producing the pathology.

lambdaba 5y ago

"Sugar is a neurotic drug" - http://twitter.com/grimhood http://twitter.com/grimhood

gjm11 5y ago

In mice. Who were fed diets that were > 2/3 sucrose.

atty 5y ago
if my diet was > 2/3 sucrose, I’d expect to have far more problems than just those listed in the title.
chaxor 5y ago
Your first claim has a very large uncertainty in it's validity for use here, but the second - that second sentence is pretty important.
moffkalast 5y ago
Mouse: Sugar... Give me... sugar... in water.
dylan604 5y ago
>In mice. But the mice were the ones that had the Earth Computer System built, so we'd want to make sure we're not killing them off.

hairofadog 5y ago

[deleted]

Gatsky 5y ago
There are some attempts to correlate with human pathology at least, they examine brains from patients with schizophrenia.
omginternets 5y ago
This kind of comment has no substance and just betrays a lack of understanding about the role of animal models. Mouse models are imperfect, but they tell us quite a lot about humans. That's why we use them. Where they are weak, we adjust the experiment and the conclusions accordingly. I apologize if I seem frustrated. In truth, I am. Comments like this lower the level of discourse, and it's frustrating.
- Sightline 5y ago
  >Comments like this lower the level of discourse His comment was crafted to do exactly that.
  - omginternets 5y ago
    I don't like to infer people's motives, but I suspect it is more exactly a self-aggrandizing "look at how smart I am because I am calling bullshit" reflex. I have been guilty of this in the past, and try very hard not to do it now.
    - hairofadog 5y ago
      It was meant to be a friendly joke. Apologies; It wasn't my intent to bring down the discourse.
      - coolso 5y ago
        Your joke was a good one and I think more people appreciated it than you’d think. I considered it to bring up the discourse. I don’t think it’s right for others to attempt to guilt trip and bully you into removing it.

imchillyb 5y ago

Yes, it's 'in mice'. Where else should we study this? Should we study these effects on prisoners, military personnel, government workers, or school children? Perhaps those with this 'in mice' attitude think we should raise primates for these purposes? Mice are not the best model for humans, just like a Representative Democracy isn't the best model for a government. These things are, however, the best we have at this point in time. This is a great study as it conclusively proves not that sugar diets are bad, but HOW they are bad, and WHY they are bad. Sucrose is shown to interrupt key systems in the brain and now we have a model of how this occurs. Now we can try to image human brains that are suffering from these psychosis and we'll know better where to start our investigations. This is a good study with many implications for future human health studies. Great work.

ivalm 5y ago
When people start getting 2/3rd of their calories from sucrose..
- imchillyb 5y ago
  > When people start getting 2/3rd of their calories from sucrose.. @ivalm I don't think you understand how scientific studies are performed. Inducing change is what the study is accomplishing. Monitoring the changes and what changes occur is what the study sets out to document. Both of those goals are accomplished in the study. Correlations between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients with high glucose mice brains were readily recognized. Science isn't a god. Science is a method of study. We follow the method so that others may perform the same experiments in the future and reach similar conclusions, for proofs. The methods we use for testing such things have been in place for decades now, and they've served us well. If you don't understand why mice models are utilized, and why testing is done with such high percentages, then perhaps you should read more into pharmaceutical testing and development. Like I said, we've been doing this for decades now, and it serves us well.
  - ivalm 5y ago
    I’m no against mice models, but I do think that relationship between amount and outcome are important and non-linear and what happens when 2/3rd of your calories come from something is not indicative of an effect when you consume a smaller percentage. That said, your ad hominem attacks on me are not appreciated, do better.

thathndude 5y ago

Sugar. Is. Poison. The more and more we learn about it, the more and more disturbing it is how aggressively we were in denial during the war on fat. And we’ve done a complete 180 on health and wellness. Eggs are good now. Eat all you can. Unfortunately, we didn’t change until we poisoned 75% of the adult population. Get subsidies out of the food supply. Unless it’s broccoli. Then, that’s probably ok

bigyellow 5y ago
Reductionist mentality to something as complex as nutrition could make anything you eat poison.
Grakel 5y ago
It was all on purpose: sugar and corn syrup are cheap.
- malkia 5y ago
  Yup. - https://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-xpm-2012-jun-27-la-ol-nixon-obesity-epidemic-corn-20120627-story.html https://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-xpm-2012-jun-27-la-ol-nix...
  - ncmncm 5y ago
    Earl Butz has a lot to answer for, in hell. But he has plenty of company.
jvalencia 5y ago
The gas from broccoli could increase greenhouse gases?
bawolff 5y ago
> Sugar. Is. Poison. I always feel this is a gross oversimplification. There is nothing that isn't poision in sufficient quantities.
- 5y ago

fasteddie31003 5y ago

Fasting right now for the first time in a while. I'm always surprised how my attention span increases and I get more done.

forgot_old_user 5y ago
that interesting. I can concentrate when Im hungry- I get cranky.
- changoplatanero 5y ago
  Yes same for me. Fasting was incompatible with concentrating.
  - zuj 5y ago
    That means you are pushing your limits. Don't start with a full day fasting. Start slow by doing some form of intermittent fasting or time restricted feeding. I would say go for having early dinner and a late breakfast to begin with. Once you are adapted to log hours of not eating, skip one of the meals in the day, depends on your situation but the easiest one to start with is skipping breakfast. Then you can slowly work your way to full day fasting.
- Someone1234 5y ago
  In my experience your body "learns" when you normally eat and makes you hungry/cranky at that time. You can re-train it, and the hunger/crankiness disappears. For example when I started doing IM (no eating from 7 pm - 11 am) I'd get cranky around breakfast time for the first few days, and then it went, and my most productive time is now 8 am - 10:30 am. Same thing with OMAD or regular fasting, you can retrain your body into what is normal, and you do gain better focus. You do crash fairly hard around your new eating window though.
- fasteddie31003 5y ago
  I take exogenous ketones to ease into the fast.

thangalin 5y ago

Sugar: The Bitter Truth (2009) https://youtu.be/dBnniua6-oM?t=66s https://youtu.be/dBnniua6-oM?t=66s

bigyellow 5y ago
Oversimplified and overdramatized. Sugar does not cause weight gain on its own.
- ncmncm 5y ago
  Yet, it causes fatty-liver disease, also called metabolic disorder, on its own. And, the secondary effects -- heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure -- are products of liver disease, not weight gain.
  - bigyellow 5y ago
    It does no such thing and I challenge you again to find any peer-reviewed research NOT funded by animal ag industry that supports your conclusions.
    - burke 5y ago
      Or how about you provide some peer-reviewed research rather than "challenging" everyone else to find it?
      - bigyellow 5y ago
        Because the burden is on the one making extraordinary claims.
        burke 5y ago
        Which, of course, is you. Not only are you the sole dissenting voice in this thread, you disagree with the article, and the broad consensus. While there are plenty of cases where a thread, an article, and a general consensus are all wrong, you have absolutely no ground to stand on to claim that everyone else's claims are extraordinary and your claims require no evidence.

nimbius 5y ago

The real substantial issue stemming from the litany of problems with sugar isn't that its harmful in high doses, but rather that it is impossible to avoid a diet in western society that relies on high quantities of sugar as a lynchpin for mass produced food. -the average breakfast cereal is just a dessert. - even the healthiest breads contain refined sugar to mask quality inherently absent from mass production. - sugar is used for its crispening and browning properties, it's shelf stabilizing abilities and its addictive properties in virtually every processed snack. -most yogurt at the store is just sugar. The industry response to this is a resounding punt. That somehow you're fat because you're irresponsible abdicates so much of the real guilt from multinational food conglomerates driven solely by profit, not nutrition.

wombatmobile 5y ago
> it is impossible to avoid a diet in western society that relies on high quantities of sugar as a lynchpin for mass produced food. I live in the western society you describe and enjoy a diet with no added sugar. How? I prepare my own food from fresh ingredients.
- urthor 5y ago
  Yeah I'm very confused. I think the commenter is just an unimaginative American. If you actually cook food from actual ingredients it's not difficult at all to avoid sugar. You can even bake your own bread.
gruez 5y ago
>but rather that it is impossible to avoid a diet in western society that relies on high quantities of sugar as a lynchpin for mass produced food. just... don't consume the mass produced food with loads of sugar in them? eg. >average breakfast cereal is just a dessert Is non-sweetened cereal hard to find in your supermarket or something? >even the healthiest breads contain refined sugar to mask quality inherently absent from mass production. I checked around on costco and it seems like their "Kirkland Signature Country French" contain 0g of added sugars per serving (I'm guessing slice?). To your point their regular "Multigrain Bread" contains 2g of added sugar per serving. In any case I doubt you're not getting diabetes from that. >- sugar is used for its crispening and browning properties, it's shelf stabilizing abilities and its addictive properties in virtually every processed snack. don't eat snacks then. >-most yogurt at the store is just sugar. just get plain yogurt? "Kirkland Signature Organic Greek Yogurt" has 0g added sugar. I get it's hard to avoid sugar because it tastes so damn good, but let's not pretend it's "impossible to avoid".

zuj 5y ago

Peter Attia has a eye opening podcast on the role of fructose and sugar in general on health. https://peterattiamd.com/rickjohnson/ https://peterattiamd.com/rickjohnson/

makeitdouble 5y ago

> in mice deficient for glyoxalase-1 (GLO1), an enzyme involved in detoxification of sucrose metabolites. This is for me the missing part of the title. I often think reading pop science that they’re making absurd shortcuts and we should get to the actual report, but here TBH I am reading the study and don’t really understand what I’m looking at or what’s the take from this, apart that mices with specific deficiency got some specific illnesses. I saw mentions of human brain analysis but it didn’t seem to go beyond sheer comparison. Does anyone see more interesting stuff in this piece ?

vericiab 5y ago
Someone who works in medical research once pointed out to me that some research is intended to be confirmatory (i.e. confirming a hypothesis) but other research is actually intended to be hypothesis-generating. This definitely seems to be the latter. My read on this is that we really don't know what causes things like schizophrenia, so much so that we're not even sure what to study to try to determine the cause. But the authors of this study found that a specific diet in mice with specific genes causes something that looks sort of like human psychiatric disease. They also found similar brain changes in both the mice and humans with psychiatric disease and that aspirin prevented some of the symptoms and brain changes in mice (which possibly suggests the brain changes are related to the behavioral symptoms and not just coincidental). Based on these results further study of, for example, GLO1 deficiency and/or the brain changes they found might be justified. So basically the takeaways are questions about whether/how these finding relate to human disease. In the end, like most hypothesis-generating studies this strikes me as vaguely interesting but probably only really meaningful to other researchers in the field.
aaron695 5y ago

andy_ppp 5y ago

I’m trying to give up sugar now and it’s worse than giving up smoking so far and almost exactly the same feeling for me, inability to sleep, joint pains, headache, disorientation, mood swings and so on (obviously hunger too). I had a small amount of mass produced bread with stew for dinner and the bread was insanely sweet in a way that can only be described as like a fix for a drug addict - pure pleasure - but it was so extreme that I think any bread is out too until I’m able to break my addiction.

gurumeditations 5y ago
The craving for sugar is so difficult to resist as well, and low sugar attractive food is hard to find. And as soon as you have to eat socially with a partner, friends, family etc it basically becomes impossible to avoid sugar because the only way to do it is basically handcraft your own diet.
- codr7 5y ago
  That's not impossible, though; just inconvenient.
  - ncmncm 5y ago
    As a public health crisis, it's currently impossible. A few people can cut their sugar intake by self-discipline, but not enough to move the needle.
thathndude 5y ago
Addiction is definitely the word to use. Sugar is a crazy substance. More addicting than many illicit drugs, like cocaine. Good luck breaking the cycle.
halpert 5y ago
I LOVE sugar. I can easily eat two pints of ice cream in one sitting. When working, I can consume ungodly amounts of sugar to keep my mind running. When my blood sugar would get low, I would literally eat 3 snickers bars out of sheer desperation. I started doing a keto diet to lose a little weight, and it's actually been extremely easy. Apparently, having a high fat, low carb diet causes hormones to be released that suppress appetite and sugar cravings. I really would enjoy eating some sugar, as I miss the food I love, but I don't have a single craving.

tyronehed 5y ago

iex_xei 5y ago

For those who would like to break away from sugar, I'd recommend first trying intermittent fasting to reduce the time window for eating. I tried to remove sugar from my diet permanently before IF and it takes considerable effort to maintain your distance all day, and in the long run it doesn't stick. My longer experience was 15 months before. After doing one year of IF, it felt much easier to completely eliminate sugar from the diet, and sticking doesn't require tons of willpower. It's been 18 months but I know I can continue this indefinitely. I'm in that phase of sugar elimination where donuts look disgusting.

WaitWaitWha 5y ago

To the comments regarding unable to purchase foods that are healthy - maybe we should re-introduce "home econ" to middle and high school? Let us teach our children how to cook their own food. Maybe this will allow them to eat healthier. Clearly the "food pyramid", scientific articles, or scare tactics do not seem to work.