Life can be sweeter if you cut out the sugar

Giving up sweets and avoiding vitamins could help you live longer, German researchers said on Tuesday.

They found that restricting glucose -- a simple sugar found in foods such as sweets that is a primary source of energy for the body -- set off a process that extended the life span of some worms by up to 25 percent.

The key was boosting the level of "free radicals" -- unstable molecules that can damage the body and which people often try to get rid of by consuming food or drinks rich in anti-oxidants such as vitamin E, they said in a study published in the journal Cell Metabolism.

Restricting glucose first spurred the worms to generate more free radicals, but then they quickly built up long-lasting defenses against them, said Michael Ristow, an endocrinologist at the University of Jena and the German Institute of Human Nutrition, who led the study.

"During the process, the worm generates more free radicals, which activates defenses against free radicals within the worm," he said in a telephone interview. "The bad thing in the end promotes something good."

Scientists have long known that restricting calorie intake in worms and monkeys increases longevity, and the study narrowed that idea further, to glucose.

The study also for the first time points to a possible reason why antioxidants -- long thought to promote health -- might do more harm than good, Ristow said.

The German team used a chemical that blocked the worms' ability to process glucose in a treatment that extended their life span by up to 25 percent, the equivalent of 15 years in humans.

However, antioxidants and vitamins given to some worms erased these benefits by neutralizing free radicals and preventing the body from generating the defenses, Ristow said.

"These latter findings tentatively suggest that the widespread use of antioxidants as human food supplements may exert undesirable effects," the researchers wrote.

This study may very well be nonsense, but I thought these statements were interesting, debatable:

The worms unable to depend on glucose increased energy power sources in certain cells for fuel. That activity produced more free radicals, which in turn generated enzymes that strengthened long-time protection against the harmful molecules, Ristow said. However, antioxidants and vitamins given to some worms erased these benefits by neutralizing free radicals and preventing the body from generating the defenses, Ristow said. "These latter findings tentatively suggest that the widespread use of antioxidants as human food supplements may exert undesirable effects," the researchers wrote.

From time to time, a member of the scientific community will weigh in on these topics. Those that are still "alive" anyway. :)

Yes, but simple sugars hit the bloodstream quickly, and, I suspect, overwhelm the ability of the pancreas to produce enough insulin to remove them from the bloodstream. I wouldn't necessarily say that sugars in and of themselves can cause health problems, but "recreational eating," particularly involving simple carbohydrates, is very bad in the long run, I think; at least as bad as smoking, and maybe even more.

Wow! It's so NICE to see that I'm not alone!!!! You stated it so very well, superbly! Absolutely SPOT ON.

Many people just can't handle the truth. I've concluded that constant consumption of sodas, diet or not, is probably the cause many ills. To me, a soda is a treat, like a candy bar or a fancy cocktail or an expensive dinner. Personally, I reject the zero tolerance thing. Cripes. Say you eat a donnut a week, thereabouts. No problem. Say you eat one to two donuts a day. You're a fat unhealthy mutt. Problem. It's not the donuts, it's the proportion.

Anyway, I've read that a regular inflow of (I'm assuming machine-pumped, as opposed to naturally fermented, like beer) carbonated drinks in the body leaches calcium from the bones. And I can't tell you how many people I know for whom sodas, diet or not, make up their primary daily hydration. Mine is a couple cups of coffee with sugar and extra powdered creamer, about a quart of milk, and maybe a quart or two of water, depending. I used to drink diet soda all the time, and stopped because it made my stomach antsy -- and wow, I couldn't believe the totally unexpected change after a few weeks in my energy and vitality. So now I drink sodas at parties and such -- all day long, if need be, but only for ONE day, the duration of the party.

What really ticks me off is that thoughtless people who deny functional, physiological truths such as the impacts of the food we eat, people who think they can outfinegle mother nature, want me to do two things:

First, to share the cost of their medical care via mandatory health "insurance" (falsley named because it's more of a prepaid health maintenance plan) which they sorely need because they eat stupidly.

Second, make my health choices in accordance with their own -- to seek tests, have screenings, follow the rules, to spend money on services that personally, I'm not interested in! When I need a doc (and I do at times), I'll go see him and pay him then. And if those people want to go have every screening and test and scan, they can go right ahead. I'm not saying they shouldn't. I'm just saying that I chose to excuse myself.

I know this sounds far out, but I really can see how eventually, nationalized health care, since health is so directly connected to diet, would inevitably result in regulations as to how many sodas you can drink a week, or how many donuts you can have a day.

When you rebel against Mother Nature, you lose.

An interesting sidenote, too -- at the gym, I notice young, not particularly overweight women in thier 20s to 30s, all sludged up with cellulite! Now, I've got a bit of it, but I'm old. And I don't even have a smidgen of what those poor girls have ladled on their haunches! And they're not fat! They're not thin, either, they're just -- normal. I figure it must have to do with what they eat, and my thinking is that it's related to the combination of those very simple sugars and processed white flour. Could be that it's a much bigger part of their regular intake than in me or other women I see (and ask about what they eat) who don't have the cellulite sludge.

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