Is sugar making us fat?

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

[Incorrigible]

Relayed thread:

Farmers' sweet deal makes for fat Americans [Corn syrup vs sugar]

[Lee'sGhost]

OK, what about beer? How many beers a day can I have on the Atkins diet?

[najida]

Hey,
Whatever works for you...

Most folks don't get enough calcium.

[Lee'sGhost]

"Number two, if that's the case, how would you explain the fact that I'm consuming more calories than I did six weeks ago, yet losing weight?"

You doing the Atkins diet?

[LibertarianLiz]

No longer have heartburn......no longer need prevacid.

I have experienced this same improvement (only with Prilosec). When I was in the induction phase, I realized that all the years I thought it was the "evil" bacon that was upsetting my stomach I was wrong. It was the toast that I was eating with it. I avoid bread since I have discovered that my stomach problems stem directly from eating the stuff.

[aruanan]

Is sugar making us fat?

Neither sugar (sucrose, which is glucose and fructose in a 1:1 ratio) nor high fructose corn syrup (which has a greater than 1:1 ratio of fructose) is making us fat. A diet with an energy intake that exceeds an individual's energy output is what makes him fat.

The truth is relatively simple, but that won't stop this thread from being filled with outlandish nonsense. The following can be used to separate fact from nutzoid nutracrap.

Fructose* (a six carbon sugar) enters the glycolytic pathway and is used in exactly the same way as glucose (another isomer of the same molecular formula and known as dextrose, grape sugar, or corn sugar). In fact, glucose is phosphorylated on the 6 carbon to become fructose 6-phosphate. Fructose 6-phosphate is phosphorylated again on the 1 carbon to become fructose 1,6 diphosphate. Dietary fructose (whether it comes from sucrose or from honey or from fruit or from high fructose corn syrup) is phosphorylated on the 1 carbon and then on the 6 carbon, ending up as fructose 1,6-diphosphate, the same as glucose.

Neither glucose nor fructose is made into fat in the human body. Fat cannot be converted into glucose. The human body makes very, very little fat de novo. The way one gains fat is principally from fat in the diet that is stored in adipose tissue. If you took a sample of all the fats you ate over a year's period and compared their types and relative quantities to the fat in a tissue sample of your adipose tissue, you'd find they were almost exactly the same.

The way you accumulate such fat has to do with your body's storage capacity for the three macro-nutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, and fat) when faced with dietary excess. The body has no real storage form of protein. Protein intake in excess of physiological needs for protein synthesis results in the constituent amino acids being deaminated and catabolized either in the glycolytic or lipolytic pathways depending on the type of amino acid. Carbohydrate intake can be buffered through about three days worth of storage in the form of glycogen, a polymer of glucose molecules. Relative to proteins and carbohydrates, fat has almost unlimited storage capacity.

When ones energy intake exceeds output, the body compensates by prioritizing the catabolism of macronutrients. Proteins have most immediate priority, followed by glucose, followed by fats. If the continued excess of caloric intake threatens to overtax the glycogen storage capacity, the body shifts substrate usage away from fat oxidation (nearly all your resting metabolic rate is accounted for by fat oxidation) and toward glucose oxidation. The result is that energy intake that exceeds energy output is preferentially saved by the storage of dietary fat.


*So any time you have one unit of sucrose, 1/2 of that is fructose. And it is principally the fructose in sugar, not the glucose, that makes it taste sweet. This is why it takes much less fructose to sweeten something to the same degree as it does sucrose. Maltose is two molecules of glucose. Lactose is one molecule of glucose and one of galactose. All hexose dietary sugars (fructose, glucose, and galactose) are eventually converted into fructose 1,6-diphosphate.

[Aquinasfan]

How many fruits and veges do they eat a day?
How much fiber are they getting in their diets?
How many mg of calcium?
How much water?
How much activity? How much mono and omega-3 fat?

I think people on low-fat diets have these same deficiencies. Atkins recommends supplements in his book.

Personally, I do berries and salad. I use psyllium husks and fish oil supplements. I get calcium in my liberal use of cream. Don't know if it's enough, although I didn't drink any milk before. Don't drink much water though.

[Lee'sGhost]

"Damn. Does that mean I have to postpone my ice dancing lessons?"

No, but no more back flips and somersaults while kicking bad guy butt? (Sorry, that was too obvious. Won't do again.)

[Xenalyte]

It's salt with citrus in it. I'm used to drinking Honey Brown, which has a good taste, and Michelob Ultra just isn't - what's the word? - I guess "beery" enough.

Also, my Conquistadors all drink Tecate and Corona with Twang, and they've gotten me used to it.

[Snerfling]

Corn syrup is great for the food processing industry

The absolute key to losing weight is to avoid processed food as much as humanly possible. That means anything in a package and/or container. Bread is an obvious item; but so to are things like ketchup, BBQ sauce, salad dressing, etc.

Since I must have bread on my sandwich, I've gone back to horrible Wonderbread. The reason is because 2 slices of the small size is only 110 calories. Ditto for ketchup, BBQ, et al. Can't live without it, but be cognizant of what's in there.

Carbs aren't really that bad, and in fact are an essential part of any diet. Just don't load a potato/rice with too much butter/margarine, and defininitely do not eat anything like potato chips (*sniff/tears*).

If you grilled meat every night along with a small side of potato/rice and a big bowl of veggies, everyone would look pretty fit & trim.

[Lee'sGhost]

I live for a glass or real cranberry juice every morning. I mean the world is out of balance if I don't get it, and studies show that it has great benefits (anti-cancer or something I don't remember right now.)

And what about caffine?

[Aquinasfan]

The truth is relatively simple, but that won't stop this thread from being filled with outlandish nonsense.

Like the two recent studies in the New England Journal of Medicine that support Atkins' diet? Sheesh.

[najida]

I am not a big advocate of supplements for major nutrients.... God made us to eat food....

There is less than 10 mg of calcium in a tablespoon of cream....I recommend getting about 1000 mg (to females)....

As for fiber, that is another thing that best comes from foods sources (there are five kinds, each with a different purpose)....

[tuna_battle_slight_return]

The three reasons why we are fat today...

1. Corn syrup in everything

But, but, but, but Warren Buffett swears by Tootsie rolls. And they're loaded with corn syrup (he's not fat).

2. Hydrogenated fats

What?

3. White carbs...flour,white bread

I need my bread. Not giving up toast for anything, ever.

[js1138]

I still have my nightly two beers.

Do you make your own?

[jpl]

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

Yep. In addition, our bodies are designed to eat several small meal portions throughout the day as opposed to two or three large ones. Recent evolutionary history has gradually tended more and more to the latter.

The most amazing thing of all (which you'd never know just listening to the doomsayers) is that in spite of our fat epidemic, our American lifespan is higher than ever and still on the rise.

[Xenalyte]

You doing the Atkins diet?

A modified version - low carb, high protein.

[Desdemona]

Caffiene?

They say to cut back. Atkins eliminates it. Frankly, I gave up coffee for tea about three weeks ago and it's made a difference. But, I've always taken it black.

If you have any doubts on calcium, Os-Cal. I've taken it for years due to lactose intolerance.

[scouse]

Just imagine: If Karen Carpenter would have eaten a few Big-Macs or a couple of sugar coated jelly donuts, she might still have been making CDs today.

[Tailback]

I agree, I have been fluctuating between the "Induction phase" of the Atkins diet and a "modified Atkins" where I simply watch the carb content of what I eat. I was only 30 pounds overweight to begin with so my weight loss goals were fairly modest. So far, by going on induction for 2 weeks and then watching what I eat (as far as carbs are concerned) for a month or so, I have lost 20 pounds over the last 5 months. I haven't changed how I exercise over that time period so the weight loss is purely from diet. I also switched from beer to vodka for my daily two afterwork drinks (with sugar free mixer) and started drinking sugar free Pepsi. I generally have lost 10 pounds during the induction phase and maintained my weight afterwards except for my week of vacation when I went back to having a couple beers a day.