Sugar: The Bitter Truth
December 22nd, 2011 by MarinaMy mind has just been blown by this video and I felt like I needed to get the word out:
Sugar: The Bitter Truth
Yeah ok, fine it’s an hour and a half long. Here’s the summary for you people who somehow still have no time even though exams are over:
Summary:
- Today High Fructose Corn Syrup is used in basically every processed food as a substitute for regular sugar since fructose is much sweeter
- Sucrose (made up of 1 glucose and 1 fructose) is also found everywhere since it is also sweeter and cheaper than glucose
- Fructose is evil
- We eat fructose much more than we drink alcohol but fructose is metabolized ONLY in the liver through a pathway similar to alcohol
- 30% of Fructose turns into fat whereas less than 1% of glucose turns into fat
- Fructose turns off brain sensitivity to hormones involved in feelings of satiety after meals so you never feel full
- Fructose can desensitize cells to insulin to cause Type II diabetes
- One pop drink or fruit juice is basically one serving of food; but you still don’t feel full
The real issue here, I think, is the fact that we’re quite addicted to sugar. I mean a day without cake for me is hardly a day worth living (I exaggerate only slightly). And after checking most of the foods in my apartment at the time, I have discovered that BREAD has glucose-fructose! IT’S EVERYWHERE!!!
And the issue is since it’s so cheap and is “naturally made”, the health industry has yet to crack down on this rather unhealthy substance. I mean really, from the biochemistry it’s as though we’re drinking a beer every time we drink pop or juice. And not to mention all those snacks we eat. But it’s so cheap that banning it will surely cause quite the uproar.
I guess I shouldn’t panic so much; it’s not like I binge eat sugar.. oh wait, maybe I do.
Luckily my regular diet (when parents are cooking) is relatively sugar free, and this video did explain why I’ve suddenly gained 5 pounds since entering university. In a way, I’ve found the reason for freshmen-15: it’s because ever since university came I’ve been eating while studying. And since I study a lot, I eat a lot. I eat candy and chocolate and other high-sugar (high-fructose) snacks not to mention most of the cafe foods are probably soaked with this cheap sucrose sugar that is affordable and tastes good (arguable when we talk about res food).
But to cut sugar completely out of my diet is not going to work… will reducing be enough? It seems fruit juice and pop are the major contributor to this sugar. So I suppose I’ll just have tea instead now. Simple enough. The real issue lies in the fact that as I’m writing this blog I’m also eating Ferrero Rocher that my roommate gave me as a Christmas gift. I’m almost half way done. This can’t be good for me.
But sadly my self-control is not good enough. I’ll just run madly around my house and speed up my metabolism with hopes that the citrate will all get used up before it can leak out of the mitochondria to start the VLDL formation.
December 28th, 2011 at 8:58 am
Kill the sugary drinks: pop, juice and iced tea. We drink them like water, so we don’t think of them as treats.
… but why do you feel you have to eat when you study?
December 28th, 2011 at 2:31 pm
It’s a strange need… either I’ve been conditioned to always be munching on something while studying or the stress makes me feel hungry. Or I could be addicted to sugar…
Actually I get bored when I study for prolonged periods of time and… I’ll let the graph explain: http://outmanned.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/864f66ced3bored.png-450×443.png
January 7th, 2012 at 10:53 am
Even though this video was on the first page of the New York Times, I guess that it did not change things, even though it kind of proves that sugar is dangerous and is the cause of obesity, more than fat.