This [sugar] is the ‘worst food ingredient for your immune system’—especially during Covid, says immunologist

CNBC ^ | Dr. Heather Moday

[BenLurkin]

A question that puzzled people at the beginning of the pandemic was: Why does diabetes make it harder to fight a respiratory virus?

SARS-CoV-2 virus can make blood sugar control worse in the short term and can potentially throw people with diabetes into a very dangerous blood sugar state, studies show. It does this by binding itself to the receptors found on the beta cells of the pancreas, which produce insulin.

[H]aving diabetes means you’re in a chronic low-grade inflammatory state, which taxes the body’s innate immune system and makes it slower to jump on pathogens when they enter the body.

When you have high blood sugar — which is caused by many factors, but the biggest is consuming too much of it in your diet — it starts a vicious cycle of insulin resistance and obesity that drives up inflammatory cytokines, damages blood vessels, and activates the immune system to repair those areas.

This creates a major distraction for the immune system and paves the way for dangerous bacteria and viruses to slip through our body’s defenses.

[plain talk]

OK. :-)

[Reeses]

often high fructose corn syrup

That's an American thing, due to politics and northern climate. In tropical countries, sugar cane is in everything. For health, it doesn't appear to be any better.

[time4good]

ah, yeah - sorry for the confusion. I was mislead over the years to think that I needed to keep the metabolic rate higher by constantly feeding it. He explains the fallacy of this.