“Note to Mothers: Play safe with your young ones – make sure they get sugar every day.” Egads… P.S. I want to watusi too!!
The next time you’re tempted to mindlessly eat handfuls of chocolate chips or order the extra large soda with dinner or drink syrup straight from the bottle (which… I can’t really judge you for because real maple syrup is delightful), instead science wants you to think about making baby-nuggets with your cousin. Because nothing will pull you out of a junk food binge like imagining sexy times with the kid with whom you not only share grandpa’s nose but also shared the Summer of Boogers.
In what has got to be the best quote by a researcher ever, Dr. Wayne Potts, a biology professor and senior author of a new study about the effects of the “recommended amount” of sugar on mice, opined, “Would you rather be on the American diet … or have parents be full cousins?” In case you aren’t already totally squicked out, he added, “This data is telling us it’s a toss up.”
Even though Dear Prudence says it’s probably okay to play genetic roulette and allow two cousins (Who don’t know they’re cousins! Because of an illicit affair! Do advice columns get any better than this?) to marry, it’s generally considered bad form to double down on genetics from the same family. There’s a higher incidence of birth defects. Children have slighter shorter lifespans. Males are less virile. More females die. And rodent reunions get super awkward because little mice brains totally do not have the capacity to figure out what exactly is a “second cousin once removed but reattached by marriage”.
While previous studies have found sugar has a toxic effect, they generally used amounts much higher than most people actually eat, said the study’s first author, Dr. James Ruff. “I think the big takeaway is the level of sugar we readily eat and think is safe causes major health declines in mice,” said Ruff. “We’re not just talking about some minor metabolic thing. We’re taking about increased rates of death and [lower rates] of reproduction.”
Yep. Birthing and deathing. When it comes to living, those are the two thing you definitely don’t want to screw up.
The researchers gave the mice the equivalent of 500 calories worth of sugar, based on a 2,000 calorie human diet. To put that in perspective, that’s about 120 g of sugar or the amount in one medium Candy Shop Blizzard. After ingesting their daily sugar bomb for six months, the mice had all kinds of systemic problems ranging from fertility issues to early death to not wanting to get up off their furry butts and put down the Xbox controller to defend their territory.
But there was a finding the researchers didn’t anticipate: the sugared-up mice weren’t any fatter than the control group. Since they were all fed the same amount of calories (and all were the same breed thereby having the same general metabolic profiles), they ended up at the same weight. The researchers noted that if you were just looking at the mice, both groups would have “passed their physicals.” But the real differences appeared when the mice were put into “mouse barns” (which I now want one for Christmas, please note) to live their daily lives of eating, pooping, reproducing and fighting over plastic shavings. Which goes to show, again, that weight is not the best indicator of health. (And also explains your old college roommate who ate nothing but Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and stayed a size 0.)
The researchers stopped short of advising people against sugar (or incest) but their findings only lend more credence to the growing pile of evidence that processed sweets kind of are the nutritional devil. Which stinks because a) it’s delicious, b) it’s been shown to be as addictive as cocaine, and c) it’s delicious.
Am I telling you to never eat added sugar again? (We’re not talking about fruit here.) Er no, says the girl who had brownies and ice cream for dessert today. Although I will one-up Prudie and tell you that you probably shouldn’t marry your secret cousin if only for the fact that it’s a rule of nature that you should never bear children with someone you once helped bury a pair of poo-stained underwear. Seriously though, I have nothing but admiration for people who can avoid added sweeteners totally. I once white-knuckled my way through 90 days of total abstinence. You know how they say it gets easier? It never did for me. Every day was a fight and eventually I just threw my hands up and decided to focus my energies on other fights – like the ones between Son #2 and Son #3 that resulted in biting, punching and caterwauling as recently as this afternoon. (Sigh.)
Intuitive Eating has helped a lot with the sugar wars – I’m totally the type to binge if I think I’m never going to get treats again – but it isn’t perfect. I think it’s the addictive nature of sugar (combined with my addictive personality). IE tells you to eat what your body needs (not necessarily wants) but if your brain needs more serotonin and sugar will boost that for you then your body (i.e. MY body) apparently thinks it’s a mortal need, despite any other negative effects – like the resultant crash.
So I recently discovered something interesting that helps me with sugar cravings. I gotta admit I’m super hesitant to blog about this because I don’t want you to think I’m pushing pills on you. So take this next bit with the huge caveat that I’m NOT a doctor, I’m not qualified to give you health advice and I’m really not all that smart sometimes. Anyhow, during an interview with an Ivy League biochemist a couple of months ago for an article for Shape we got talking about supplements, his area of expertise. (And you know how I love me some supplements…) He said most of them were garbage but there were a few he had found to be genuinely effective. And one of those was Garcinia Cambogia. You may have heard of it on Dr. Oz. And while I’ve seen it pop up on a few health sites/research articles it hasn’t become super mainstream yet. It’s an extract derived from a squash and while the claims for it are pretty broad (different sources say that it suppresses appetite, promotes fullness, blocks the storage of carbs as fat, boosts mood/serotonin, improves sleep, mitigates PMS, teaches you to dance like a leprechaun etc) what I’ve found after taking it for a couple of months is that it really helps me manage those MUSTEATJELLYBEANSNOOOOWWWW moments I get around 4 p.m. every day.
I can’t recommend a brand but if you’re curious this is the one I’m currently using. (Link is NOT affiliate) I did not receive any samples for free, I’m not being paid and I have no ties to this or any other GC manufacturer. It was something I decided to try on a whim because of the high praise of this particular doctor and honestly I like it. It’s not major – clearly I haven’t lost any weight using it, as evidenced by my recent blarghhhh-I-gained-weight post – but I do notice a difference in food cravings when I use it as directed. (Which can be a pain since you’re supposed to take it on an empty stomach 30-60 minutes before a meal. So I forget fairly often.) It hasn’t suppressed my appetite at all but it has almost completely eliminated my omnipresent candy cravings which is nice because then I don’t ride the sugar-hell ‘coaster all day. Maybe it’s the placebo effect. Maybe it only works because it’s forcing me to be more mindful about when I eat. Anyhow, take this for what you will. There are no stimulants in it (no caffeine of any type) and the most common side effect is pooping more often – which I personally have not experienced.
What’s your sugar philosophy: Everything in moderation or abstinence? What’s your best tip for avoiding added sugars? Anyone else tried Garcinia? P.S. If you know something terrible about it please let me know, stat!!
Super interesting that garcinia works that way for you. I am currently working as a research dieititan on a study using it to see if it works for weight loss on humans. I will let you know in two years or so how that worked out- its double blind and placebo controlled so I dont know if it is working or not.
I’ve heard if you are craving chocolate eating almonds will help with those cravings. So I tried it, and wouldn’t you know, it actually helped… Until I needed chocolate cause of stress and hormones. Then only chocolate works. I have a stash, and I’m the only one who knows about it lol.
I am an “all in moderation” kind of eater. The abstinence wouldn’t work for me. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a Watusi class to attend.
I looked into this supplement. Yes, a paper summarizing many clinical trials found evidence that the supplement is more effective than other plant-based supplements, but the abstract doesn’t give magnitudes for how much weight loss for each substance. I didn’t download the paper.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23876572
Wikipedia cites another summary paper as leading to at most 1 kg decrease and potential GI problems. It cites another paper saying this substance is potentially toxic for the liver.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambooge
Which is too bad! I was hoping that it would be effective. I used to take an Rx that had weight loss as a side-effect. When I stopped the medication to try to conceive, I gained 15 pounds putting me into the overweight category, which hurts fertility. I am tempted to take it again for the side-effect long enough to get back to a more fertile BMI of 24.
I’ve been experimenting with cinnamon supplements. Nothing super exciting, just taking them as directed on the bottle. I researched a bit and saw it had little to no side effects (most happened only if you had pre-existing health concerns, which I don’t) and it was on sale at the Food Co-Op so I gave it a go.
I’ve been taking it for about a month now and I think it is helping keep my blood sugar more even which is helping me have less sugar cravings. And when I do have a craving, it’s satisfied with less sugar. I’ve also been off pop (or soda, if that’s the term you use) for 80 days now, and I KNOW that’s helping too.
I’m going to read up on Garcinia. If the side effects are low to none (and I can get some at a price I feel is fair) I’m open to trying it.
(I’ve also been eating chia seeds for the past month or so, which I think is helping my weight loss efforts–I add them to my daily applesauce to make it more like food. I like that they give a good boost to fiber and omega 3s–I hate fish/seafood so. . .)
I started taking it a few months ago….went into my herb shop looking for something to help ‘calm’ my nerves around food. When I saw the product was endorsed by Dr. Oz I was a little hesitant because I didn’t want to buy into the hype….but since I was looking for something else and found it I decided I would try give it a chance. It did help. I felt more in control. It wasn’t a appetite suppressant like diet pills…just a calm feeling. it was nice. I wonder if 50% of the effect was having to take it 30-60 minutes before eating…just making myself ‘walk-away’ from the food….not anything the pill did…but just re-directing my attention. hope that made sense.
So glad to hear your biochemist friend recommended it. I read a lot on the internet about it but everyone is jumping on the Oz train and trying to make money so it was hard to tell if it was legit.
I have tried the go completely off sugar thing. On the up side, my digestion worked better, I easily lost pounds and inches and my head was clearer. On the down side, it was a constant fight for the months I was off sugar. From the time I got up, til the time I went to bed there was a conversation in my head that went something like this. “I want chocolate!” “No, you can’t have it” “Oh yeah :(” A few minutes later, “I could make brownies and have just on…..no you can’t” I’d go to the store and it was a constant fight to NOT PICK UP CANDY! After awhile, I gave up the fighting and started eating it again. For awhile, my weight and size didn’t change. Over the last several months that has changed due to IV Iron treatments and probably hormones tho I haven’t had any testing to determine that piece of the puzzle. So, logic would tell me to go OFF the sugar to lose the inches and weight that are a constant source of angst, but the thought of going off sugar makes me feel stressed. I am a mess. LOL
I did a sugar detox earlier this year! I really loved it and learned a lot, but it didn’t really change my biggest strategy: don’t have it in the house. When I was in college, I’d buy a box of Poptarts and expect to enjoy them as treats for a few weeks… wrong. Gone in 3 days. I’m an abstainer, not a moderator, so I just don’t buy sugary junk. I don’t even buy processed/white sugar anymore! If I bake, it’s sweetened with dates or maple syrup. So my trick is to keep it out of the house. It’s easier to pass it up once at the grocery story than every single time you walk past it while at home.
I’m in the cool-it-on-the-sugar camp. I don’t eat it at home, but I do let myself indulge in dessert from time to time! But it has to be healthy (i.e. sweetened with dates, made with chickpeas, something vegan and so full of roughage it’ll scrape your insides out) OR really fancy and fun (vegan cheesecake at a fancypants restaurant). But ain’t nobody got time for sugar in my freaking veggie broth (eff you, store brand).
Don’t worry about sugar. All you have to do is eat cold food. I read this on notalwaysright.com.
Lukewarm Science
COFFEE SHOP | INDIANA, USA | FOOD & DRINK, HEALTH & BODY
(A customer orders a large mocha, but only lukewarm. After receiving it, she takes a sip, grimaces, and sighs.)
Customer: “I really miss hot coffee.”
Me: “I can heat it up more if you like.”
Customer: “Oh, no, it has to be lukewarm. I’m trying to lose weight. I read that calories are a unit of heat!”
If it was that simple I guess we could give in to those ice cream cravings more often 🙂
I’ve never tried that. I will say that I have taken chromium to level out my blood sugar when PMS craving get nutso, but I must admit sugar has never been something I crave. In fact, unless it’s fruit or a few favourite desserts I’d rather have something salty or carby. I love me some scones or pretzels….
I find the only thing I can do is not have things I have no resistance to in the house.
I haven’t tried that supplement, though I have used chromium and glutamine. I found glutamine to be reasonably effective if I took it consistently.
But really, my sugar cravings hinge on four major things: restricting vs. eating; getting enough sleep; managing stress; and recognizing my hunger.
The restricting one is obvious, and you mentioned it above.
If I don’t get enough sleep, I know my body tries to bridge that “energy gap” with sugar. If I get at least 7 1/2 hours a night (8 is better), my sugar cravings go WAY down.
There’s also some research (I’m googling like crazy trying to find the link, but haven’t yet – if I do, I’ll come back and update) that starch and sugar lower the activity of the sympathetic nervous system – so when you feel stressed and eat sugar, it’s your body’s way of trying to mediate the stress. If I manage my stress levels, my sugar cravings decrease right along with the stress.
Finally – this one was weird for me, but after years of restricting, I sort of “broke” my hunger signals. I could go a looooong time without really feeling “hungry.” It took me a while to realize that when I started getting a headache, even though I didn’t feel hungry in my STOMACH, I needed to eat. I did really well for a while with scheduled meal times, which over time, seemed to reset my body’s capacity to feel hunger in a “normal” way (and before the gas needle landed on “E”)! That was actually something Intuitive Eating did NOT help me with: since that mechanism didn’t work properly, I couldn’t intuitively fix it.
TL;DR: Lots of things affect my sugar cravings! 😉
You know, I used to worry about sugar, but these days, I let it go. It’s my one “thing”. I run, I lift weights, I eat well (besides sugar), I sleep enough, I take my fish oils, I don’t smoke, I rarely drink . . . . I feel like I get a freebie once in a while. Mine is sugar. I share your passion for jelly beans, Charlotte!
I think I got rid of a lot of “added sugar” with the elimination of most processed foods. And when I pointedly didn’t eat ANY (fruit or sweets) for a few weeks, the intense cravings and feeling like I’m STARVING between meals went away. That said, I still occasionally eat candy. But I don’t keep it in the house because like some previous posters, I am not good at moderation. If I buy something with the intention of, “I’ll just eat one every day for the next week,” it ends up as, “I ate one every hour for the next 7 hours.” I’m not sure what fuels an “all-or-nothing” personality and I’ve tried to change, but… I haven’t.
Why does the good stuff (sugar, not incest) always have to be bad? Sadly, I don’t think I could go completely without added sugars. I just try to keep it all in moderation. (Can we ignore the fact that my latest post was about muffins? Kay, thanks!)
Oooh, very interesting. I would love to try this but I’m worried about the appetite suppressant effects even though you say it didn’t change yours at all. I’m struggling to eat enough as it is, so an appetite suppressant is the last thing I need. What I should really be taking is a magic pill that transforms sugar cravings into sardine/potato/egg cravings so that I will actually want to eat the amount of real food I need while remaining free from angst over junk food. THAT would be amazing.
100 grams of chocolate only has 5 grams of sugar in it.
Charlotte, I had the same experience with the often touted “you lose your taste for x after a short time”. Nope. When I finally broke my candy habit starting April 2005, it was pure hell and white knuckle for months. Then a few years of still tempting but not in my thoughts continually. I’d say it took 4 years before I felt I truly had it controlled. But like the mice, even though I went from averaging a pound of jelly beans or gummy candy per day to none, I did not drop a single pound. Just ended up replacing those calories with food that had some nutrition other than calories in them.
Oh, and how I got around kicking off that “have to have” feeling when I attempt to deny myself anything? I promised myself I could resume my candy habit on my 80th birthday.
Garcinia cambogia used to be an active ingredient in Hydroxycut, until the manufacturer reformulated it under pressure from the FDA due to a possible association with liver toxicity.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2668789/
Granted, the risk was quite low, and the causative agent might have been one of the other ingredients in the formulation, but you did ask for anything potentially terrible…
You know my feelings about sugar. I hate the stuff but I love it. It is a drug, I really really try to stay away from it; I don’t ever buy it and I avoid most processed food altogether but especially anything with sugar. (I’m kind of doing a Whole30-Lite right now, but SsHHH…I haven’t told anyone.) I do have a raging sweet tooth (obviously, given my blog is 50% cookies) but I use erythritol and stevia almost exclusively. And monk fruit/lo han….the newest coolest natural sweetener on the block.
I’m planning to devote two full days to this in my bio of food class. I’m sure the students will be eating their pop tarts while I teach.
I really like erythritol. It is the best sweetener with near zero calories I have ever tried. Just wonderful. But what and where can I buy this monk fruit that you are raving about?
Monk Fruit is also called Lo Han. I know NuNaturals makes it and several other brands too. You can find it on amazon – http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=monk+fruit
I have been off sugar, about 95% anyway, for about a year and a half. That’s when I started the paleo/primal/whatever diet and I have not looked back. On a daily basis I use a bit of honey in my coffee, every few days ill have a square or 2 of dark chocolate and when there is a celebration/birthday party or the like I will have a forkful of cake. After I have the cake bite, my teeth feel coated in sugar and I do not like that feeling! After reading most of the comments, it seems I’m in the minority but you asked for our experiences and this is mine.
Take care!
I love these old ads, like the ones showing a doctor recommending a certain brand of cigarette
Thank heavens there’s no such deceptive advertising these days!
Well, time to go do my Shake Weight workout. I feel like I need to work off all of that cake I ate last night. But it’s gluten free, sugar free and organic so I’m sure it’s not all that fattening. 🙂
Well, because of your excitement about the Rachel Cosgrove Female Body Breakthrough, I decided to try it, and as you know, she says, “no added sugar.” I’ve only been doing it for a little more than a week now, and I did have an ice cream cone last weekend as one of my splurges. But for me, personally, I think I have to cut it out completely rather than have sugar in moderation. For some reason, my brain can’t do moderation when it comes to sugar. One cookie turns into four. One bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats turns into three. And so on. So in all honesty, I haven’t really been missing the sugar tooooo much. I feel better about not eating it, and it hasn’t been hard to give it up, surprisingly. The only thing that has been hard, and continues to be a struggle, is chewing gum. While I normally chew sugar-free gum all day long, I’ve decided to not chew it since I started the FBB plan. I actually think that abstaining from the gum is helping with my sugar cravings. But I hate the pasty taste and feeling in my mouth after I eat. Maybe I need to start carrying my toothbrush and toothpaste with me everywhere I go.
I too am eager to find safe and effective nutritional supplements to aid with weight control. Dr. Oz and your biochemist are probably right about efficacy of GC: Webmd suggests GC is safe to use for up to 12 weeks. But based on current research is unclear if it’s either safe or effective to use the product for longer periods of time.
As near as I can tell, there have been 5 clinical (human) studies of safety and efficacy in total. 2 of these were completely negative (no change from placebo), 3 positive (greater weight loss in active group) but 2 of these 3 were combinations of GC with an additional agent (G. sylvestre in one and ephedra from green tea in the other). Only the original study done in 2000 has shown positive results with GC alone and hasn’t been replicated, which as a scientist I find very suspicious.
FYI:
Plant extracts with appetite suppressing properties for body weight control: A systematic review of double blind randomized controlled clinical trials. Complement Ther Med. 2013 Aug;21(4):407-16. doi: 10.1016/j.ctim.2013.05.007. Epub 2013 Jun 24.
Results: There were 14 studies that met the inclusion criteria. The findings from published double blind RCTs revealed mostly inconclusive evidence that plant extracts are effective in reducing body weight through appetite suppression. Caralluma fimbriata extract and a combination supplement containing Garcinia cambogia plus Gymnema sylvestre were the only exceptions.
Unfortunately, it looks like the substance is at least as bad for you as sugar in the long run:
Garcinia Cambogia attenuates diet-induced adiposity but exacerbates hepatic collagen accumulation and inflammation. World J Gastroenterol. 2013 Aug 7;19(29):4689-701. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v19.i29.4689.
Conclusion: GC protects against HFD-induced obesity by modulating adipose fatty acid synthesis and β-oxidation but induces hepatic fibrosis, inflammation and oxidative stress (AB: this study was done in mice).
Based on that, my 2cents is to give your body a break from GC if you’ve been using it for longer than 3 months.
I guess, I’m lucky. Where I come from, culturally, we are not too big on sugary stuff or any processed food for that matter. In fact I regularly chew sugar cane in it’s raw form, it gets rid of just about every craving!
Sugar isnt bad. Immense amounts of sugar is bad. Sugar without fiber is bad. Sugar in the context of many modern processed foods in the quantities that a large many of people eat them in – that’s the problem.
And it’s psychologically addicting. Ugh. But if you can cut that cord you can improve so much by making an effort to limit the bad sides of sugar.
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