Two articles recently came out. One linked beverages with high sugar content with oral cancer. The other linked "high glycemic index" foods with more aggressive forms of lung cancer.
Oncologists have long suspected links between sugar and the spread of cancer. My friend Jim was diagnosed with prostate cancer almost a decade ago. His oncologist put him on a "diabetic diet" and together they agreed to heightened monitoring with no other treatment. The tumor "stalled out" for almost nine years before resuming growth.
Super Size Me
In the 1950s, Coca Cola took the radical step of adding a "King Sized" bottle to their existing mass-marketed bottle size. The "King Size" was 10 ounces and the "regular" size bottle held 6.5 ounces and 21 grams of sugar. (Source)
Today, a "Medium size" Coke at McDonalds holds 21 ounces and has 70 grams (3 ounces) of sugar.
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| We are far more sedentary than previous generations, regardless of our current age |
Additionally, muscle-mass is the largest blood-sugar sink in the human body with the potential to absorb five-times as much sugar as the human liver. That only happens if there IS muscle-mass. Without significant muscle-mass, blood-sugar levels peak at higher levels and stay high for longer periods of time.
I have two family members that stopped drinking soda pop. Individually, they were each drinking about one, 2-liter bottle of soda-sweetened-with-sugar a day. That resulted in 285 grams (10 ounces) a day of sugar in their diets. Their weight loss was marked after dropping the sugared soda.
Bottom line?
Be mindful of what you put in your mouth.
Change your habits. The 2-liter bottles of pop were more of a habit than a conscious choice.
Move your body. Use your muscles or lose them.
Not only the amount of sugar, but the type. HFCS?
ReplyDeleteI am not convinced that High Fructose Corn Syrup is that much worse than sucrose (cane sugar).
DeleteSucrose is a disaccharide that is quickly broken into a glucose molecule and a fructose molecule.
I think the problem is the gross amounts of sugar in the diet. Very cheap HFCS enabled the economic viability of all that sugar, but on a gram-for-gram basis I don't think sucrose is any safer than HFCS.
I know that I am in the minority regarding this opinion. But there you have it.
As I understand it HFCS is a by-product from running corn through a refinery, I can make sugar in my kitchen from sugar cane.
DeleteI'm uncomfortable with HFCS because it requires a refinery.
HFCS is only cheaper than sugar because of tariffs and subsidies. Government thumbs on the scale produce unintended consequences.
DeleteI'd like to see how much pesticides used in commercial corn for HFCS gets into the final product.
ReplyDeleteI know that stats from farmers themselves have very high cancer issues.
Farmers and their family members are diagnosed with certain cancers at higher-than-normal rates compared to people in other professions, and researchers believe this may be due to increased pesticide exposure
https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/10-jobs-that-are-linked-to-the-highest-risk-of-cancer
Check the research of Dr. Otto Warburg, 1920's through 30's.
ReplyDeleteMany years ago, I used to have one can of cola with my lunch, every day. I wanted to lose some weight, so cut out the cola and switched to water, at lunch, no soda otherwise. I lost 5 lbs in about 10 days. I was surprised at the difference. Activity level was the same, diet generally the same.
ReplyDeleteSouthern NH
I give a hearty “hurrah “ to those in the Idaho Legislature and the Bobby Kennedy gang at HHS who are trying to eliminate pop and candy from the foods that are allowed to be purchased with food stamps/EBT. I think it’s not the sole cause, but certainly a major factor in obesity of the lower class
ReplyDeleteIdaho Bob
Interesting ERJ. The Oral Cancer study suggests that light or non-smoking women were even more impacted than smokers due to the drinks.
ReplyDeleteSugared drinks are at best a treat for me anymore. most often on airline flights where there is a controlled amount.
One wishes that, in lieu of all the other Sturm and Drang that occupies so much of our social media and conversation, we made a true effort towards all aspects of health, both nutrition and, as you point out, exercise.
I don't even drink tap water anymore.... I refill the 5gal jugs for 2.50 at the grocer, have a little battery pump, it sits on the counter. Feel a lot sharper since switching!
ReplyDeleteI don't even give my dog tap water.
DeleteI fill my 5-gallon jugs at the ice house intown. It's reverse-osmosis (RO) filtered, rendering it just less than distilled water for purity. I also use a Zero Water filter at work, which produces water almost as pure as the RO filter. Once you start researching what kinds of contaminants are "permissible" in tap water, you'll never want to drink it again!
Deleteour local school no longer has the sugared drinks in the vending macine. They wont allow kids to drink them if they bring them from home.
ReplyDeleteI used to drink a couple Dr. Peppers a day when I was running the roads for my company. I was about 250#. I finally quit them cold turkey, and lost 20# without effort. If I try and drink a coke now, it's bitter. Cokes are liquid candy. And diety fizz water is poison to me. Aspertame gives me Sling Blade level headaches.
ReplyDeleteI only drink water now, with an occasional cup of coffee most of the time. I guess my nemesis is beer and I also have a bit of a sweet tooth.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever looked into the effect of 'artificial' sweeteners?
ReplyDeleteI've nearly completely substituted sugar-based sodas for the zero-calorie alternative (though still limiting my intake of that).
I held off for a while because of the rumors that there were some adverse effects. Though, I came up short of finding anything credible or too concerning when compared to sugar-based sodas.
I have no opinion on artificial sweeteners.
DeleteSorbitol and mannitol have issues with diarrhea and gas.
-Joe
I gave up cokes several years back when I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic. Every now and then I will reward myself with one, maybe once every 2 or 3 months. Funny thing is, I can't even finish a 12 oz can anymore without almost getting sick. Half the time I wonder why I even crave them, they taste like crap. I drink coffee, water, tea, bourbon. All unsweetened by anything. I did lose weight when I stopped with the cokes, unfortunately I gained it back but there it is.
ReplyDeleteI spoke with an Inuit woman in Kaktovik- she had lost 100 lbs of weight in a year simply by stopping drinking coke. IIRC it was one sixpack per day -not sure on that.
ReplyDeleteCancer LOVES sugar. So much so, in fact, that the "contrast" used to distinguish benign from possibly cancerous tumors in a PET scan is glucose-based, with a hint of radiation. The tech injects you with the solution and then waits about an hour. The cancer cells will glom onto the sugar in the solution and therefore the radiation, which will "light up" on the PET scan. A benign tumor won't pick up any more sugar than the rest of the body.
ReplyDeleteThere is NOTHING good about "soft drinks!" Drink tea. Better yet, drink WATER.