Is Sugar Toxic? (A 60 Minutes Report)

person

The chances are good that sugar is a bigger part of your daily diet than you may realize which is why our story tonight is so important. New research coming out of some of America's most respected institutions is starting to find that sugar, the way many people are eating it today, is a toxin and could be a driving force behind some of this country's leading killers, including heart disease.

Video: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7403942n&tag=contentBody;storyMediaBox

This may be enough to get me to try to break my sugar habit.

person

Web extra interview with Sanjay Gupta with more stuff about sugar.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-57407203-10391709/sugar-and-kids-the-toxic-truth/?tag=segementExtraScroller;housing

Dakini

I think there's no question that sugar is toxic, an sugar is a drug. I just read somewhere today about a doctor who, decades ago, declared sugar to be a poison.

Thanks for bringing us 60 Minutes, @person.

Dakini

What a coincidence--it was Dr. Lustig who I read about in the newspaper today, on hormones and sugar.

How common is it to drink sugary beverages and eat processed foods? I haven't eaten or drunk that stuff since I was a kid. I think it's important for people to be aware that refined grains (anything made from white flour or white rice) metabolize in the body as sugar. Eating egg noodles, white rice, white bread, even rice cakes is just like eating sugar. Those foods covert to sugar in your body.

AMH

I am more and more aware of hidden sugars. I hate it when you get something simple like pasta sauce or peanut butter and it has added sugar in it. I am even more careful now that I cannot digest the high fructose corn syrup that is in so many things. I read lots of labels and cooked from scratch for my kids, then when they got older I just cooked what filled them up and did not cause complaints. Still we have so much less sugar than most average americans, and it is still too much.

Now the white flour, rice, etc. I am not so good on. I am being super careful for a few weeks to try and drop some belly bulge that is not healthy. It has been a baby step forward and 2 back for a week now.

DaltheJigsaw

Awesome! This is awesome! Might push me to quit my sugar intake!

Dakini

Always read labels. It's easy to make your own pasta sauce. Regular tomato sauce doesn't have sugar, but if it's called "pasta sauce", it will have sugar. All breads except sourdough have sugar. It's only "Skippy" peanut butter that has sugar. Most peanut butters I've seen don't have sugar, but maybe it depends on where you shop.

If you get foods that are prepared by the grocery store, like in their deli section, soups and such, also read the label (I think they're required to provide labels listing ingredients) or ask. The food service that delivers Whole Foods' soups and prepared dinners puts sugar, corn starch, white flour and other fillers in all the soups.

Hey, @LeonBasin, how did you do with your sugar detox a month or so ago? Did the sugar win?

DaltheJigsaw

Always read labels. It's easy to make your own pasta sauce. Regular tomato sauce doesn't have sugar, but if it's called "pasta sauce", it will have sugar. All breads except sourdough have sugar. It's only "Skippy" peanut butter that has sugar. Most peanut butters I've seen don't have sugar, but maybe it depends on where you shop.

If you get foods that are prepared by the grocery store, like in their deli section, soups and such, also read the label (I think they're required to provide labels listing ingredients) or ask. The food service that delivers Whole Foods' soups and prepared dinners puts sugar, corn starch, white flour and other fillers in all the soups.

Hey, @LeonBasin, how did you do with your sugar detox a month or so ago? Did the sugar win?

No, I have definitely cut it down, but I still eat sugar once or twice a week. A few years back, it was everyday and sometimes twice a day. Thanks for asking!

Invincible_summer

I think that there's way too much sugar in lots of our foods and it should be reduced through lobbying food producers or something, but at the same time if one doesn't know how to look out for it and moderate their own intake, that's sort of one's own problem, IMO.

federica

I take a lot less sugar than I take salt.....

vinlyn

I'm at that point in life when I have had to begin giving up some "food". No more caffeine, reduce and balance the amount of salt, etc. So far, sugar is not an issue for me, so I'll continue to enjoy it...for now.

ownerof1000oddsocks

I bought some delicious bourbons the other day; Wheat, dairy and gluten free. Incredible taste BUT they were just too much. I could have just carried on eating and eating, but I know they make me very sick.

Sweeties can be a drug addiction, but it's usually a few minutes pleasure followed by massive craving. Big energy high followed by a crash; your energy levels are all over the place. They're just too much and too sweet.

But if you give up sweets there are so many less sweet options. Figs, for example- wonderful. Dates, Watermelon, Yogurt with cherries or vanilla. Fruit flapjacks. A nice bowl of cornflakes with milk. Even baked beans on toast with butter can satisfy your sweet cravings.

It's very hard to avoid sugar, even when you've given it up. Can you handle only protein and green leafy vegetables?

DaltheJigsaw

I bought some delicious bourbons the other day; Wheat, dairy and gluten free. Incredible taste BUT they were just too much. I could have just carried on eating and eating, but I know they make me very sick.

Sweeties can be a drug addiction, but it's usually a few minutes pleasure followed by massive craving. Big energy high followed by a crash; your energy levels are all over the place. They're just too much and too sweet.

But if you give up sweets there are so many less sweet options. Figs, for example- wonderful. Dates, Watermelon, Yogurt with cherries or vanilla. Fruit flapjacks. A nice bowl of cornflakes with milk. Even baked beans on toast with butter can satisfy your sweet cravings.

It's very hard to avoid sugar, even when you've given it up. Can you handle only protein and green leafy vegetables?

Great suggestions! I need to look into other options. More natural options.

Invincible_summer

A nice bowl of cornflakes with milk. Even baked beans on toast with butter can satisfy your sweet cravings.

Speak for yourself

Dakini

A nice bowl of cornflakes with milk.

It's amazing how addicting cornflakes with milk can be.

It's very hard to avoid sugar, even when you've given it up. Can you handle only protein and green leafy vegetables?

Fructose is ok, as long as it's still in the fruit! It's when it's squeezed out and concentrated that it's a problem. Protein and green veggies, if you include starchy veggies, like artichokes and avocados (I know, technically a fruit), carrots, are good, along with a little brown or red rice, or rice bread toast with cheese or peanut butter. Carbs can help satisfy that sugar craving a little, you're right. Actually, I splurge on fruity tea w/milk, a variety of caffeine-free tea. It's amazing what's out there tea-wise, once you take a look around.

AMH

It's very hard to avoid sugar, even when you've given it up. Can you handle only protein and green leafy vegetables?

Yes, if I plan ahead to bring my own lunches and snacks. I actually just did this for an entire week and I felt really good. I had way fewer moments of being really hungry, and almost no midnight nightmares from low blood sugar.

Dakini

It's very hard to avoid sugar, even when you've given it up. Can you handle only protein and green leafy vegetables?

Yes, if I plan ahead to bring my own lunches and snacks. I actually just did this for an entire week and I felt really good. I had way fewer moments of being really hungry, and almost no midnight nightmares from low blood sugar.

:clap:

MsJeni

I read a study a while back, if I remember right, it from over in Europe. Anyway, it compare sugar withdrawals to be chemically the same in the body as cocaine detoxing. Of course you would never actually hear anyone say something like that it sounds kind of crazy. However about 20 years ago started the introduction to vast products using High Fructose Corn Syrup. I have read how they produce the stuff, they may use things that grow in nature to make them (so they are classified as "all natural"), but this stuff would never occur naturally. I am one of those people that believes you can have anything in moderation, but on that note, it should be anything that would occur naturally, with minimum processing like churning for butter, or drying and pulverizing a cane stalk to get sugar. I do firmly believe (this is one of the few things I do firmly believe) until we get back to what mother nature provides for us to eat, and in moderate amounts, then our society is just going to get more ill over all.

Sugar is not evil, Marijuana is not evil, corn is not evil, fat is not evil, meat is not evil but anything over indulged and/or manipulates to far from the way it is mean to be naturally is inevitably going to bite you (us) in the butt.
I hear there is some really awesome green algae they are growing that has all the protein among other nutritional needs to survive, maybe that will help with the worlds growing food shortage. Supposedly this algae has been around a very long time and has a very religious and historic significance to it. Something to make ya go hmmm

ownerof1000oddsocks

@Dakini

I manage to fill up on (gluten free) oatcakes, wholegrain rice cakes, almonds, porridge and if I'm really desperate clean crisps. I try to at least reduce the sugary and heavy starchy stuff like potatoes although jackets are good. Also raw unpasteurized milk and cheese is less sweet and therefore is lacking in lactose, which can be problematic especially for adults.

I really like Waldorf type salads, or salads consisting of mayo, fruits, nuts, celery. Very good with some crispy leaves and a small amount of starchy food. I guess the trick is to use a high nut and leaf to fruit and starch ratio to avoid gustatory nightmares..

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On another note I found this brilliant ted talk about the effects of sugar. You know we would probably live quite a bit longer were it not for our immodest appetites (and graveyard of genes). Is there such a thing as moderation? The statistics say in general , no.

person

Great talk^^. Check out Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution season one and two over at hulu.