4 ms·

I do a ton of review of nutrition studies and here's the conclusion I've come to: The primary concerns are the biggest killers: cancer and CVD. The main causa

I do a ton of review of nutrition studies and here's the conclusion I've come to: The primary concerns are the biggest killers: cancer and CVD. The main causal pathway by which carbohydrates (of which simple sugars have the largest effect) affect CVD incidence is via the simultaneous lowering of HDL and raising of blood serum triglycerides. This is much more important for predicting CVD episodes than the 'low LDL' you hear touted a lot. The connection between sugar and cancer is less well established.

ams6110 15y ago
Refined sugar has only been a big part of our diet for the past couple of hundred years (not even a blink of an eye on an evolutionary time scale). Breads and grain-based foods have been part of our diet for somewhat longer, but highly refined white flour is also comparatively novel in our diet. I cut all added sugar and all flour (bread, pasta, pizza, etc) and most other grains and processed food from my diet about 18 months ago. I basically went on the paleolithic diet, though I'm not really fanatical about it except for the sugar and flour. I mainly eat unprocessed meat, eggs, leafy vegetables, nuts, some fruit (try to stick to berries) and minimal dairy. I went from 215 lbs to 165 without any real effort (exercise, etc). I'm convinced that the obesity "epidemic" and the need for so many people go on Lipitor and similar drugs as they get older is directly attributable to our sugar- and flour-laden diets. I do miss freshly baked bread but on balance I think it's worth it. Will I live longer? Who knows, but I feel better eating what my body is evolved to consume.
- baddox 15y ago
  I don't think that something being "comparatively novel in our diet" is a sufficient or even useful argument.
  - paul-woolcock 15y ago
    Definitely. However, that doesn't mean he is wrong. For more actual evidence of this stuff, The Eades' book `Protein Power'[1] and Robb Wolf's book `The Paleo Solution'[2] offer some pretty compelling evidence of how grains and related foods are detrimental to our health (among other topics). I, too, am a Paleo success story, having gone from 210 to 185 in 2 months, and feeling better than I have ever felt. All I have is anecdotal evidence for myself, though, so I always refer others to these books. [1]: http://www.amazon.com/Protein-Power-High-Protein-Carbohydrate-Health/dp/0553574752 http://www.amazon.com/Protein-Power-High-Protein-Carbohydrat... [2]: http://www.amazon.com/The-Paleo-Solution-Original-Human/dp/0982565844 http://www.amazon.com/The-Paleo-Solution-Original-Human/dp/0...
  - barry-cotter 15y ago
    It is sufficient to make it much more probable that we can't process it very well assuming one believes in evolution.
    - chc 15y ago
      You seem to have an odd idea of how evolution works. If it were the way you seem to think, we'd have a harder time picking up water bottles (which are very recent) than water outside of a bottle (which has existed for millions of years). In fact the opposite is true.
      - barry-cotter 15y ago
        Water bottles were designed[0] to be easy to use. Our digestive system (and everything else about us) are a series of hacks on top of hacks on top of hacks that happened to make their carriers more likely to have descendants. That an abundance of simple sugars is novel in our diets is at least weakly suggestive that we will be poorly adapted to them. There's even evidence for this; in general the shorter a time a population has had agriculture the higher the prevalence of (Type 2) diabetes. Aboriginies, Pacific Islanders, Native Americans all have way, way higher rates than Asians or Europeans. The Arab world has had agriculture for at least as long as anyone else and they have diabetes out the wazoo though in the more developed parts, perhaps a side effect of really, really liking sweet tea and incredibly sweet treats. [0] Designed things and evolved things are not even remotely equivalent in an argument about evolutionary changes. Minds can make things better ludicrously faster than the Blind Idiot God. http://lesswrong.com/lw/kr/an_alien_god/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/kr/an_alien_god/
        chc 15y ago
        You seem to have found a weird comparison that I didn't intend in my comment. The point I was trying to make is that the man-made thing, water bottles, is better suited to our evolved hands than the natural thing, free-flowing water. Similarly, there is no reason why any food we made ourselves is likely to be worse for our evolved body than any food that was around when the digestive system evolved. That idea, that "paleo" foods are inherently better for us, feels right, but is ultimately fallacious. (I mean, some might turn out to actually be ideal, but it isn't deductively true in the way that many advocates want it to be.)
- nazgulnarsil 15y ago
  have you tried prunes? cheap, keep forever (powdered prunes are added to other foods to make them last longer) and loaded with antioxidants and fiber. I found it much easier to keep a bag of prunes around than trying to find decent quality berries.

ams6110 15y ago

Refined sugar has only been a big part of our diet for the past couple of hundred years (not even a blink of an eye on an evolutionary time scale). Breads and grain-based foods have been part of our diet for somewhat longer, but highly refined white flour is also comparatively novel in our diet. I cut all added sugar and all flour (bread, pasta, pizza, etc) and most other grains and processed food from my diet about 18 months ago. I basically went on the paleolithic diet, though I'm not really fanatical about it except for the sugar and flour. I mainly eat unprocessed meat, eggs, leafy vegetables, nuts, some fruit (try to stick to berries) and minimal dairy. I went from 215 lbs to 165 without any real effort (exercise, etc). I'm convinced that the obesity "epidemic" and the need for so many people go on Lipitor and similar drugs as they get older is directly attributable to our sugar- and flour-laden diets. I do miss freshly baked bread but on balance I think it's worth it. Will I live longer? Who knows, but I feel better eating what my body is evolved to consume.

baddox 15y ago
I don't think that something being "comparatively novel in our diet" is a sufficient or even useful argument.
- paul-woolcock 15y ago
  Definitely. However, that doesn't mean he is wrong. For more actual evidence of this stuff, The Eades' book `Protein Power'[1] and Robb Wolf's book `The Paleo Solution'[2] offer some pretty compelling evidence of how grains and related foods are detrimental to our health (among other topics). I, too, am a Paleo success story, having gone from 210 to 185 in 2 months, and feeling better than I have ever felt. All I have is anecdotal evidence for myself, though, so I always refer others to these books. [1]: http://www.amazon.com/Protein-Power-High-Protein-Carbohydrate-Health/dp/0553574752 http://www.amazon.com/Protein-Power-High-Protein-Carbohydrat... [2]: http://www.amazon.com/The-Paleo-Solution-Original-Human/dp/0982565844 http://www.amazon.com/The-Paleo-Solution-Original-Human/dp/0...
- barry-cotter 15y ago
  It is sufficient to make it much more probable that we can't process it very well assuming one believes in evolution.
  - chc 15y ago
    You seem to have an odd idea of how evolution works. If it were the way you seem to think, we'd have a harder time picking up water bottles (which are very recent) than water outside of a bottle (which has existed for millions of years). In fact the opposite is true.
    - barry-cotter 15y ago
      Water bottles were designed[0] to be easy to use. Our digestive system (and everything else about us) are a series of hacks on top of hacks on top of hacks that happened to make their carriers more likely to have descendants. That an abundance of simple sugars is novel in our diets is at least weakly suggestive that we will be poorly adapted to them. There's even evidence for this; in general the shorter a time a population has had agriculture the higher the prevalence of (Type 2) diabetes. Aboriginies, Pacific Islanders, Native Americans all have way, way higher rates than Asians or Europeans. The Arab world has had agriculture for at least as long as anyone else and they have diabetes out the wazoo though in the more developed parts, perhaps a side effect of really, really liking sweet tea and incredibly sweet treats. [0] Designed things and evolved things are not even remotely equivalent in an argument about evolutionary changes. Minds can make things better ludicrously faster than the Blind Idiot God. http://lesswrong.com/lw/kr/an_alien_god/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/kr/an_alien_god/
      - chc 15y ago
        You seem to have found a weird comparison that I didn't intend in my comment. The point I was trying to make is that the man-made thing, water bottles, is better suited to our evolved hands than the natural thing, free-flowing water. Similarly, there is no reason why any food we made ourselves is likely to be worse for our evolved body than any food that was around when the digestive system evolved. That idea, that "paleo" foods are inherently better for us, feels right, but is ultimately fallacious. (I mean, some might turn out to actually be ideal, but it isn't deductively true in the way that many advocates want it to be.)
nazgulnarsil 15y ago
have you tried prunes? cheap, keep forever (powdered prunes are added to other foods to make them last longer) and loaded with antioxidants and fiber. I found it much easier to keep a bag of prunes around than trying to find decent quality berries.