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The key to a great work ethic? Glucose

20 points by herbertlui 14y ago

vinojeyapalan 14y ago
"Building routines means you eventually require less glucose consumption to perform the same tasks. They become automatic habits" - this is genius!
noptic 14y ago
Every byte of bandwidth wasted on this article is a byte to much. Act now! Together we can stop bs (byte slips)
venomsnake 14y ago
So ... they tested whether the participants have more energy on sugar rush or hungry. And the ones having fuel had more mental endurance. Surprise. To actually test the glucose hypothesis you have to compare fast with same calorie intake of sugar/starch/fat/protein/ and see the results. Currently it just means you make better decisions while not hungry.
JshWright 14y ago
Hmm... so the body somehow 'uses' this mysterious 'glucose' to produce 'energy'? This sounds like a major breakthrough in biological studies! </sarcasm> "I think it’s important to build up routines, habits, and things you repeat on a daily or weekly basis so that you’re not wasting glucose or decision-making bandwidth..." Seriously? This person clearly has no idea what 'glucose' is, or how the body metabolizes, stores, and uses sugars.
- vijayjeyapalan 14y ago
  I didn't know that... Can you expand then on what glucose is and how it metabolizes, stores and uses sugars?
  - JshWright 14y ago
    Glucose is 'simple' sugar, like Fructose or Galactose (as opposed to 'complex' sugars which are just chains of simple sugars). Glucose is what your cells oxidize ('burn') to make energy. Assuming you are reasonably healthy (namely, your liver and pancreas are functioning properly) your body will keep the amount of glucose in your blood around 80 to 110 mg/dL (4.4 to 6.1 mmol/L for those of you not in the US). It does this in a variety of ways... You body can produce more insulin to shift the glucose into the cells, and some cells (mostly in the liver) can chain lots of glucose molecules together into a big 'storage' molecule called glycogen. If your blood sugar drops too low, your body will cut back on insulin production and start releasing glucose from your glycogen stores. Another side effect of your blood sugar getting a little low is that you get hungry, and being hungry is distracting. It not that your body is _actually_ low on glucose... A normal healthy adult has plenty of glycogen stores, and long before those are depleted your body will start breaking down stored lipids into their component fatty acids, which your cells can metabolize just as effectively as glucose. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_sugar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_sugar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycolysis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycolysis
    - ArtB 14y ago
      > around 80 to 110 mg/dL (4.4 to 6.1 mmol/L for those of you not in the US) uhm, aren't both metric? mg/dL looks like "milligrams per deciliter" to me
      - JshWright 14y ago
        Yeah, they're both metric (you have the units right), but for some reason the US tends to use the mg/dL convention, where the rest of the world (or at least Canada and Europe) use the mmol/L convention.
bjterry 14y ago
I find it comical that The Globe and Mail, an apparently reputable newspaper, linked to a Livestrong content-farmed post in one of their articles. Also, an alternative to StickK is Beeminder, which is, in my opinion, a superior service.
- Evbn 14y ago
  Revisit your assumption Globe and Mail is Canada's NYPost.
nextw33k 14y ago
My colleagues just pointed out that the study of substituting diet sweetener for sugar in participants is flawed. It doesn't prove that the sweeteners are also having an effect. There should be a control of drink without sweetener or glucose.

20 points by herbertlui 14y ago

"Building routines means you eventually require less glucose consumption to perform the same tasks. They become automatic habits" - this is genius!

noptic 14y ago

Every byte of bandwidth wasted on this article is a byte to much. Act now! Together we can stop bs (byte slips)

venomsnake 14y ago

So ... they tested whether the participants have more energy on sugar rush or hungry. And the ones having fuel had more mental endurance. Surprise. To actually test the glucose hypothesis you have to compare fast with same calorie intake of sugar/starch/fat/protein/ and see the results. Currently it just means you make better decisions while not hungry.

JshWright 14y ago

Hmm... so the body somehow 'uses' this mysterious 'glucose' to produce 'energy'? This sounds like a major breakthrough in biological studies! </sarcasm> "I think it’s important to build up routines, habits, and things you repeat on a daily or weekly basis so that you’re not wasting glucose or decision-making bandwidth..." Seriously? This person clearly has no idea what 'glucose' is, or how the body metabolizes, stores, and uses sugars.

vijayjeyapalan 14y ago
I didn't know that... Can you expand then on what glucose is and how it metabolizes, stores and uses sugars?
- JshWright 14y ago
  Glucose is 'simple' sugar, like Fructose or Galactose (as opposed to 'complex' sugars which are just chains of simple sugars). Glucose is what your cells oxidize ('burn') to make energy. Assuming you are reasonably healthy (namely, your liver and pancreas are functioning properly) your body will keep the amount of glucose in your blood around 80 to 110 mg/dL (4.4 to 6.1 mmol/L for those of you not in the US). It does this in a variety of ways... You body can produce more insulin to shift the glucose into the cells, and some cells (mostly in the liver) can chain lots of glucose molecules together into a big 'storage' molecule called glycogen. If your blood sugar drops too low, your body will cut back on insulin production and start releasing glucose from your glycogen stores. Another side effect of your blood sugar getting a little low is that you get hungry, and being hungry is distracting. It not that your body is _actually_ low on glucose... A normal healthy adult has plenty of glycogen stores, and long before those are depleted your body will start breaking down stored lipids into their component fatty acids, which your cells can metabolize just as effectively as glucose. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_sugar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_sugar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycolysis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycolysis
  - ArtB 14y ago
    > around 80 to 110 mg/dL (4.4 to 6.1 mmol/L for those of you not in the US) uhm, aren't both metric? mg/dL looks like "milligrams per deciliter" to me
    - JshWright 14y ago
      Yeah, they're both metric (you have the units right), but for some reason the US tends to use the mg/dL convention, where the rest of the world (or at least Canada and Europe) use the mmol/L convention.

bjterry 14y ago

I find it comical that The Globe and Mail, an apparently reputable newspaper, linked to a Livestrong content-farmed post in one of their articles. Also, an alternative to StickK is Beeminder, which is, in my opinion, a superior service.

Evbn 14y ago
Revisit your assumption Globe and Mail is Canada's NYPost.

nextw33k 14y ago

My colleagues just pointed out that the study of substituting diet sweetener for sugar in participants is flawed. It doesn't prove that the sweeteners are also having an effect. There should be a control of drink without sweetener or glucose.