Sickeningly Sweet

[gnicholas]

> “I have a very simple rule,” he says. “I eat fruit, but I don’t eat anything that has sugar added to it.

I'm curious to know how people actually draw lines around sugar intake. Presumably fruit juice is not allowed? What about foods that have fruit juice as an ingredient? Do you decide based on what the ingredients are, or how much of the ingredient there is? Seems like there's a number of reasonable ways to make rules, but it isn't immediately apparent which one is most principled, or easiest to stick to.

EDIT: Any explanation on the downvotes? I'd love to know how folks draw lines around eating sugary foods. If you've got it all figured out, please share your secrets!

[PinkMilkshake]

I think it's a totally reasonable question because there lots of nonsense out there.

I keep it simple. The heuristic I use for sweets is, if a child would cry for it in a supermarket, then I can't have it.

I've been losing ~1 kg a week since I cut out sweets like this 3 weeks ago. Was at 81kg, slightly overweight for my sex/age/height, now at ~78kg.

So no candy, chocolate, biscuits, cookies, potato chips, cake, cordial, fruit juice, soda, milkshakes including "breakfast shakes" which aren't actually food, even if you want to believe they are like I did. Also dessert versions of real food, like flavored, sweetened yogurt.

I still have takeaways once or twice a week and still drink alcohol if I feel like it.

My main cravings are soda and candy, so I have some sugar-free alternatives I use to satiate that.

[ipython]

We are sugar free in our house w/3 kids and draw the line at fruit juice. Not allowed in our house. We will blend our own smoothies that have some bananas and berries but also include greens.

It is very hard to avoid sugar completely. It’s in everything especially anything marketed toward kids.

[chillwaves]

Fruit is not processed, contains fiber (necessary to slow absorption), is more compatible with our biology.

[jtreminio]

Watermelon, bananas, melon. These fruits are basically water + sugar + pulp in convenient packaging.

[imartin2k]

To me, it’s about the quantity. If I drink a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice, it’s like eating 3 oranges at once (reduced by some of the good stuff which is in the fruit but removed for the juice). While this won’t kill or harm anyone, it’s obviously not what one usually would do or what would be necessary from a health perspective, and there is little point in doing it other than indulgence. Which is fine if one wants to indulge.

[randomacct3847]

There are low glycemic fruits and high glycemic fruits...stick with the low ones. I’m on keto and will ocassionally have berries (all considered low). Avoid fruits like grapes, mangos, watermelon...etc.

[micael_dias]

Sugar really is an addiction and it's very hard to escape it due to its vicious cycle. You may stop eating for a while but as soon as you think "just this once" it's very hard to stop again. Or maybe it's just me and my lack of will power but I did quit tobacco. I think tobacco not being sold and advertised everywhere I go probably helped.

[baroffoos]

I haven't totally given up sugar but I eat foods with less sugar now and whenever I try something with a high sugar level again its really disgusting.

[currymj]

After the Brian Wansink thing, I have a natural skepticism of nutrition science coming out of Cornell, especially with a hypeworthy subject, glossy photos and a PR campaign.

[mindfulplay]

I am more wary of any nutrition study though .. A lot of these scientists aim for newspaper coverage than actual honest research or science. Most of these are touchy-feely social science stuff that shouldn't be in the category of science to begin with.

[skybrian]

I'm not quite sure if this is talking about the same research but it seems relevant:

"Important note: there’s a lot of craziness out there around “keto” diets, and this does not mean that a ketogenic diet prevents cancer or is a treatment for it. No, what it means is that if you’re a cancer patient taking a PI3K inhibitor, a ketogenic diet could help the drug to work, and that’s it. In fact, in at least one rodent model (AML), putting the animals on the diet actually accelerated the cancer before the PI3K inhibitor treatment began, so be aware."

http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2018/11/16/pi3...

[paulcole]

Is this the thread where we humblebrag about how we find desserts (sometimes even bread) too sweet?

[geowwy]

I think everyone agrees sugar is bad, but I'm pretty sure it's only part of the picture.

The amount of sugar (and other sweeteners) we eat has actually gone down in the last 20 years, but we haven't seen a drop in obesity or other metabolic diseases at all.

My gut feeling is vegetable oils are another part of the problem. Unlike sugar, we keep eating more and more of them. And unlike sugar, we only started eating them around 100 years ago.

There are a few nutrition people talking about vegetable oils but it doesn't have the same mass consciousness as sugar. Maybe because there are still old school nutritionists telling us we should avoid saturated fats.

[bkovacev]

In Serbia, at least the northern part, a lot of people (used to) cook on pig's (or mangulitsa's) fat instead of vegetable oil. We rarely used any oil aside from pumpkin seed oil and olive oil for salads. Unsure what's the popular opinion on that, but it's a worthy replacement.

[curun1r]

Isn’t the issue with vegetable oils the omega-6 fatty acids? IIRC, our diets are supposed to be somewhere between 1:1 and 2:1 omega-6 to omega-3 ratio since omega-6 is inflammatory and omega-3 is anti-inflammatory. If you over-consume either, you’ll be unhealthy. So vegetable oils aren’t completely bad, but when over-consumed without the corresponding omega-3 consumption, you get inflammation and a lot of the modern maladies.

And it’s not all vegetable oils that contain omega-6, so using olive oil, coconut oil and a few others should be fine and healthier than cooking with animal fats.

[randomacct3847]

Not sure where you got the stat on sugar consumption...it’s not really just sugar it’s carb consumption in general and I would be very surprised if that was trending downward at all.

Vegetable oils are not good but would not say that by itself is the issue. It’s the carbs you’re eating that is being cooked in vegetable oils.

[mey]

Am I reading this wrong or has the study not actually started yet?

[cryptonector]

If you get sugar lows easily, as I do, you learn to hate sugar. I try hard to avoid sugar.

[ars]

I can give up sugar, but I can't give up chocolate, and chocolate without sugar is inedible.

I did get some 70% chocolate though, just enough sugar to be edible, but not sweet exactly.

[nightski]

Try Lily's Chocolate. It's incredible and has very good ingredients. They have dark or sweeter versions and are sweetened with stevia & erythritol.

[cauliflower2718]

Trader Joe's sells Montezuma's 100% dark chocolate, which I enjoy, and I sometimes eat sweets.

[burke]

I tried a 100% dark chocolate bar on a whim a couple of weeks back. As expected, it was not great. It was like over-extracted espresso in solid form.

[abawany]

Ghiradelli's 86% was surprisingly awesome imo, compared to the corresponding Lindt, which took some effort to finish off.

[cryptonector]

I eat 100% chocolate only. I can't stand the sugar even in 87% chocolate -- I find that inedible.

Not all 100% chocolate is great, but some brands are excellent.

[RickJWagner]

Sad but true. All those Reese's Peanut Butter eggs that are now being sold are deadly.

If you have some, send them to me. I'll dispose of them.

[randomacct3847]

I’m on a lazy keto and never been one to crave sweets so it wasn’t that difficult for me to give it up completely. Occasionally if I’m having a rare drink I’ll make a margarita with truvia and can’t really taste any difference between it and real sugar.