Sugar

[lob]

I may have to moderate my beer consumption somewhat after watching this 90min video : (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

Here's the NY Times article that directed me to Dr Lustig's lecture/video:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magaz ... f=homepage

[warra48]

I haven't taken the time to watch the 1½ hours video on Youtube, but I have read the article. I believe the conclusions drawn from sugar consumption and the various health problems it allegedly causes is correct.

It's essentially the same information as in the book Sweet Poison by David Gillespie, and published in Australia.
http://sweetpoison.com.au/

Having read that book, and taken the message on board, I have dropped 10 kg since May last year, simply by cutting out sugar wherever I can from the foods I consume.
I still consume my 1 longneck of beer a day, and I enjoy it.

[barrelboy]

By the sound of all this the article and video may be depressing therefore should be avoided. Good on the weight loss Warra must admit did the same a year ago, then gave up smoking and put it all back on.
BB

[lob]

I'll summarize for you then bb:

What he's saying in the YouTube Video is that since around 1982 [when the media/Government intervention BS regarding fat is the cause of everyone getting fat, heart disease etc started) the processed foods industry has been lowering the fat content, but to make the food more palatable including sugar (where previously there was non) and/or increasing the % of sugar dramatically. An obvious example would be "lite yoghurt": 97% or so fat free, shitloads of added sugar. In fact, check out almost every item at the supermarket and you'll see added sugar. Whether it's corn syrup or normal granulated cane sugar doesn't matter. (In the US there's this BS in the media at the moment that cane sugar is natural and good/corn syrup unnatural and bad argument. - Arsenic is also natural, I wouldn't sprinkle it on my cornflakes.) BOTH corn syrup and "normal" sugar contain approx. 50% fructose. Fructose is metabolized 100% by the liver, unlike glucose (the good sugar) which gets metabolized by every cell in the body. Basically two bad things about all of this fructose in everyone's diet: (i) a high % of this ends up as fat with all sorts of resulting health problems (type 2 diabetes etc), and (ii) it also clogs your arteries. - I know the video is 90mins, but jump to [Ooops EDIT:] 36:30 where he's talking about Large Buoyant LDLs* (mostly harmless), and the small dense LDLs that clog up arteries. Guess which substance, fructose or fat, is more closely associated with an increase in small dense LDLs? Not fat....

*Wikipedia: "Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) is one of the five major groups of lipoproteins, which in order of size, largest to smallest, are chylomicrons, VLDL, IDL, LDL and HDL, that enable lipids like cholesterol and triglycerides to be transported within the water-based bloodstream."

Interestingly, the day after I read the NY Times article on sugar, I was in the Belconnen Shopping Mall, eating at "Grill'd Healthy Burgers". (Had a 2 for 1 voucher to celebrate their opening in Canberra.) I was reading their menu and they state: "100% lean beef...buns contain no added sugar." And btw most of their burgers contain plenty of fat via cheese, bacon, etc, it's just the beef which is lean.) Prices vary from $9.50 for the Simply Grill'd up to $13.50 for the cheese and bacon packed "Almighty". Almighty healthy? .......Anyways, I do tend to ramble a tad, I'm eating the burger and I can taste shit-loads of sugar. I go online when I get home, and I read under their Nutritional Information PDF: 11grams of sugar (Simply Grill'd Burger.) This compares to 9grams for a Big Mac. Wtf? Then I figure it out: 100% lean beef, and they mix it with their "relish" to make it palatable. There you go, you can eat a burger with say 100grams of beef containing 11grams of fat at an unhealthy burger joint, or you can eat at Simply grilled and have a burger that's lean beef mixed with shitloads of sugar. Apparently the first burger is unhealthy whereas the later, Grill'd, is good for you.

I really hate being hoodwinked by unethical capitalist wankers and their BS marketing. And btw, if you ask me, Grill'd is basically expensive Subway. The only TWO differences being that (i)Subway put their sugar in their bread rather than the meat, and (ii) Subway are 1/2 to 1/3rd the cost.

[squirt in the turns]

Intersting stuff, lob, cheers. I haven't looked at the links properly yet, but they're on my to-watch/view list.

I don't think anyone eating at Macca's, Subway or Grill'd should be under any illusions that they're getting a healthy meal. There are obviously degrees within that spectrum. A Subway salad is probably pretty good (scrub that statement if you put dressing on it, though ). However, I do like Grill'd for the ease with which their veggie options can be veganised.

I also like to tell myself that both the capitalist marketing BS and the research telling us not to eat processed crap is largely irrelevant to me, as SWMBO and I prepare 90% of everything we eat ourselves, from scratch. That said, I might have some sweet chilli sauce (99.9% sugar) on my grilled veggies and tempeh today.

[lob]

Here's just three example of how we're all being taken for a ride by Corporate Australia/USA. Three products most people would think are similarly made, but are actually very different. You could actually significantly lower your fructose [the bad sugar] intake by eating the EXACT same things, just switching brands!

Mayonnaise (Sugar per 100grams):
S&W: 1g
Woolworths 97% Lite: 21.9g
- 2200% more Sugar than S&W!!!








Mild American Mustard (Sugar per 100grams):
French's: Less than 1g
Masterfoods: 8.2g
- 820% more sugar than French's mustard!








Tomato Ketchup (Sugar per 100grams):
Heinz: 25.2g
Woolworths Select: 36g
- 68% more sugar than Heinz

[drsmurto]

You could, with minimal effort, make all three of those products at home. I know i do.

Salad dressings are a shocker. How hard is it to whisk some oil, vinegar and spices together prior to making a salad? 1 min of work for something that tastes 1000s of time better.

[gregb]

Salad dressings are a shocker.

You could, with even less effort, enjoy the salad undressed. I am not sure if I am salad elitist, or just plain lazy.

[lob]

Salad dressing isn't listed above. But yeah, I agree, normally I just use olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and cracked pepper. "Salad Dressing" is one of the most pointless manufactured food-stuffs. I haven't looked, but I bet most of them contain various levels of sugar.

Mayo though? Tried making it once, it was okay, but not nearly as good as S&W.

And as for mustard powder. Weston Creek (Canberra) Woolworths (where I took the pics) doesn't stock actual mustard powder anymore.

Time to start a blog...Shitfoodatwooliesandcoles. Update 1 product a week. Should only take 10mins in the store. If they ask me what I'm doing I'll just tell them: "I'm buying some cat and dog food, and thought I'd take a few pics of the brands of baked beans you stock while I'm at it. Later I'm going to upload them to a blog where I detail how much crap [sugar] is in your products, especially your own-brand ones. Do you have a problem with that?"

[lob]

Time to start a blog...Shitfoodatwooliesandcoles. Update 1 product a week.

Think that must have been those beers in my system talking. Damn you Easter holidays and early drinking session...

Still, maybe I'll put up 2 or 3 products ranges on a blog for a laugh.

[wrighty]

Go get em Lob,
I know a lot of poeple have to shop at the big 2 but i think in the not too distant future its going to bite us all on the arse.
$2.00 milk ,no hormone beef ,great stuff unless your a farmer. Not only do they monopolise food they also have done it with petrol and alchahol
As for the CCC what a toothless f&*%#* tiger that is Whats it stand for CCC i think i know.
Coldly
Crusifying
Consumers

Rant tbc.

[speedie]

lob the momment that any starch enters your body geuess what
it turns too sugar
potatoe pasta pizza corn just about any of these things thay our bodies live on
so dont be so hard on the big end of business

[wrighty]

lob the momment that any starch enters your body geuess what
it turns too sugar

No it doesnt Speedie it turns into one of your posts.


SH!T

[lob]

lob the momment that any starch enters your body geuess what
it turns too sugar
potatoe pasta pizza corn just about any of these things thay our bodies live on
so dont be so hard on the big end of business

There's good sugar (glucose) and bad sugar (fructose) speedie.

The point Dr Lustig is making is that 30 years ago we consumed very little fructose. We got some in fruit, but that's mitigated by the fact we also get fiber so the fructose doesn't hit your liver so fast. And we used to get some from sweets and soft drinks. Fast forward to 2011: Boost Juice, soft drink sizes are huge, every 2nd item at the supermarket promotes itself as being fat free or 99% fat free etc, with high levels of sugar added (containing around 50% fructose.) His point - in plain English - is that fat in our diet has gone down, fructose has shot way up, and everyone's getting fatter. And, also, government and industry doesn't want to know about it because it's all too hard. Bit like Climate Change.

[speedie]

lob i rarely consume softdrink i eat fruit every morning i dont put sweetner in any of my food, coffee or cereal
i was swimming 1 kilometre per day and i still have an issue if weight

as far as fat kids todate they spend way too much time on electogizzmos
i bet the likes of warra and similar aged people me included rode there pushbikes,played heaps of sport generally were very active when younger

there lies the differance in obesity of todays lard arses today
cheers speedster

[Burt]

as far as fat kids todate they spend way too much time on electogizzmos

cheers speedster

If this is your analysis of a particular generation then what is your reasoning as to the causes of your issues with weight?

[lob]

Speedie they've slowly but surely changed everyone's diet over the past 30 years and mean/average weights have all shifted to the right in all age groups. There's even the previously unheard of phenomenon of obese 6 month olds. (Hmm could it have something to do with high fructose corn syrup in baby formula...)

Have you been into a servo lately and seen all the unavoidable-in-your-face sugary products (coke, iced 99% fat free coffee, magnum ice creams - not how ice creams on a stick have grown in size in the past decade or two, pastries, chocolate bars, etc.) Even if you can avoid it and just want to buy some damn fuel, you'll often find the woolies/coles-trained drone behind the counter saying 2 for $4, 3 for $6 etc as he or she points to chocolates or the Natural Confectionery Company's 97% fat free lollies. On special today mate: 2 for $6. FO.

Exercise (your 'smoking gun'), as Dr Lustig points out, is one of the ways they've hoodwinked us all. It takes 50mins of running at 10mins per mile (a fast jog) to burn up one big mac. Exercise is important, but overrated.

[lob]

Alrighty, done...sort of; Just another 100 or so grocery food items to sort through.

Only completed Baked Beans so far (at Coles and Aldi - I'll add what i find at Woolies later this week.) Baked Beans was a shocker!

http://sugarinyourfood.blogspot.com/

[gregb]

In a similar vein: http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/forum/vi ... f=6&t=6682

[Trizza]

lob i rarely consume softdrink i eat fruit every morning i dont put sweetner in any of my food, coffee or cereal
i was swimming 1 kilometre per day and i still have an issue if weight

as far as fat kids todate they spend way too much time on electogizzmos
i bet the likes of warra and similar aged people me included rode there pushbikes,played heaps of sport generally were very active when younger

there lies the differance in obesity of todays lard arses today
cheers speedster

The problem with packaged foods is that the processed nature reduces the overall flavour resulting in the subsequent additions of sugars, preservatives, chemicals & other nasties.

Being only 23, I grew up with all of these nasties as part of my diet and I was overweight to near obese from 14-17. Typical for my generation I also did get involved in the “electogizzmos” reducing my physical activity dramatically, increasing my weight gain.

Since then I’ve turned it all around, but the incidences of people being overweight is increasing as we all know. People need to understand that exercise is not the only item to maintaining healthy weight. You can’t just eat whatever you want.

All that bullshit about “everything in moderation” is actually true (as I’ve found out lately). If you watch everything you eat AND exercise, you’re going to lose weight. Period.

Cut down on fat & sugar with some exercise thrown in and you’ll lose weight. How are people still having difficulty with this core concept?

Speedie, If you’re struggling to lose weight, try my health regime.
Breakfast – 2-3 Wheat bix with skim millk for breakfast
8-12 Vita-Wheat multigrain crackers or similar (snacks till lunch time) – Note read packaging for salt/fat/sugar content.
Lunch – Salad: 3 Capsicums, 1 cucumber, 150g green beans, 1 carrot, & 1 tomato
95g tin of lite tuna for afternoon tea
Dinner – Lean meat, with veg & potato or Rice/Pasta ect… (Make from scratch, fresh meat & veg, nothing packaged)
Beer & Wine up to 4 times a week in moderation.

If you’re struggling to lose weight, try the above and you WILL get healthier.

Trizza.