Is sugar making us fat?

TCPalm.com ^ | July 1, 2003 | Lance Gay and Lee Bowman Scripps

[SamAdams76]

This article fails to make a distinction between sugar and high fructose corn syrup, which is a "cheap" alternative to sugar and found in most processed food products today. High fructose corn syrup is nasty stuff and they seem to put it in everthing these days. But whether you are talking about sugar or HFCS, you are talking carbohydrates. This is what is making America fat (our increasingly sedentary lifestyles only making a bad situation worse).

Sugars are almost always found in processed foods in large quantities. Especially foods that are labeled "low-fat." Having lost 44 pounds since April 1, I have started paying much more attention to food labels. I was surprised, for instance, to find high fructose corn syrup as a major ingredient in even my barbeque sauce. As a result, I have eliminated virtually all processed foods from my diet and this has accelerated my weight loss.

But instead of being obsessed with sugars (carbohydrates), our society is obsessed with fats. It is almost amusing to watch, as I have lost my 44 pounds while having all the things that the "fat" police try to warn us about. Eggs, steaks, pork, sardines, dark chicken meat, etc. I eat all that stuff and I don't bother taking the skin off the chicken or trimming the fat from the beef. I especially don't eat "egg whites." Who the heck came up with the idea that you should discard the best part of the egg? I also use butter instead of margarine and plenty of olive oil, also high in fat.

Now my diet is not the Atkins plan but simply a modified version of it. For example, I will still have rice from time to time and I still have my nightly two beers. But I have cut back on carbs drastically and it has made all the difference. I also walk several miles a day for exercise.

[kaktuskid]

The three reasons why we are fat today...
1. Corn syrup in everything
2. Hydrogenated fats
3. White carbs...flour,white bread

[DAnconia55]

Michelbo Ultra is not beer. :)

[Bluntpoint]

The three reasons why we are fat today...

Because Mcdonalds owes me a settlement payment.


Because Kraft owes me a settlement payment.


Because Coke owes me a settlement payment.

[Bluntpoint]

My attorney assured me that when the check clears I will be wearing size 28 jeans again and dancing like Travolta.

[caisson71]

Sugar doesn't make us fat. Fat makes us fat!!

[Bluntpoint]

Sugar makes you sticky and attractive to ants.

[EggsAckley]

Kudos to you! And you're absolutely right on. Count the carbs. It's much easier than counting calories. I went on a diet like that for a while and lost about 50 pounds, quite easily too. It wasn't a pretty sight to watch me eat a sandwich and then have two pieces of bread left over. LOL!
But that bread is 14 carbs each....I was on a 70 carb max diet and I sure wasn't going to use up my "budget" on two lousy slabs of bread.

You've encouraged me; I'm going to think about going back on that diet.......gotta lose that 50 pounds again. heheheh

[blackdog]

Sperm makes my wife pregnant. What lawyer referal line do I call?

[DannyTN]

"Sugar doesn't make us fat. Fat makes us fat!! "

The problem is sugar. Go read Dr. Atkins. He's been making people thin for 35 years.

[SwinneySwitch]

Calories In > Calories Out, makes us fat!

[blackdog]

That diet made me insane(er). I craved Atlanta Bread Company with more intensity than my will to breathe after three days on a low/no carb diet!

Hey maybe that explains Hillary's hypoxia referenced in her book?

[Shooter 2.5]

There's 9 grams of suger in a Burger King Whopper and 35 grams of suger in a milk chocolate Slim-Fast.

Anyone on the Atkin's diet should watch their cholestral. It isn't just fat that kills.

[Skywalk]

Yeah, sorry about that. She told me she was loading up on protein.

[Senator Pardek]

To heck with the lawyer - punch Sperm right in the face - that's your job he's taking!

[Dante3]

But it is so tempting to be fat:
No need to exercise.
Eat everything you want to and as much as you want to.
Then sue the grocery store or whoever and become rich.

[EggsAckley]

Pleas don't think of it as a "no carb" diet. 70 carbs per day is VERY low; a normal diet probably has around 200 to 250. Even dropping down to 100 will cause weight loss. I just saved my carbs for pasta or potatoes. Why waste them on bread.

[SamAdams76]

I agree. High fructose corn syrup is a poor substitute for sugar. Great for the food processing industry (reduces expenses and increases profits) but a lousy deal for the consumer who puts that junk into their stomachs.

Hydrogenated fats (or trans-fatty acids) are another thing that the educated consumer should avoid. In fact, the FDA will soon be requiring that food products have the amount of trans-fats on the labels. Now I'm not saying that the government should get involved in what we can and should eat. But I think the food labeling is a good idea. The consumers ought to know what is in the food they are buying so that they can make their own choices.

During this diet, I have totally eliminated bread and just about anything else made with white flour. That includes pies, cakes, cookies, pasta etc. My only exception to that is rice, but I only have that once or twice a week.

[Capriole]

A lot of people theorize that America is fat now because of our sedentary lifestyle. But we've been sedentary for as long as I've been alive, which is (I hate to admit it) well over forty years. I remember when I was a kid NOBODY ever jogged; people drove everywhere. They even went for Sunday drives to nowhere as a form of recreation, which is something that is simply not done today, with gasoline pushing two bucks a gallon. They drove to go on vacations and sat on the beach for two weeks. So sedentary living in urban and suburban environments isn't new.

Today millions of people exercise frantically--joining gyms, playing tennis, biking for recreation, buying exercise videos and equipment. They're probably getting more exercise than their parents did in the suburbia of the 1950s or '60s. So why are they fat? Look at their diets. We ate garbage back in the 1950s, too (remember Coke and jello salad, marshmallows, Twinkies?). But now we not only eat huge portions, our portions are that worst of all combinations: carbohydrates AND fats together. This combination is perfect for fueling the muscles of a farmer who is about to spend the day loading hay, but it's disastrous for someone whose evening will be spent surfing the Net. Half an hour with the rowing machine won't work off the Supersize french fries.

Sam, I agree with you again. Carbohydrates are the devil if you're trying to lose weight.

[Senator Pardek]

4. Little or no aerobic and muscle development activity.

The human body is designed to spend its day running around to find enough to eat.