The FastDay Forum

Just listened to this - really struck a cord, and I think it was well presented.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01slqcm

Sheila Dillon finds out why the debate about the role of sugar in our lives is hotting up. Recent books and news stories have re-awoken a forty year debate about what makes us fat.

Robert H. Lustig is a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California, San Francisco. A lecture he gave on sugar has attracted more than three million hits. He makes a case that sugar is problematic, not just because it contains calories, but because the fructose component of sucrose interacts with our bodies in a very specific way.

His claim that sugar not only causes obesity but a wide range of other conditions including type 2 diabetes, is disputed, but he's succeeded in capturing public attention. Sheila Dillon speaks to Robert Lustig about his research, and she explores other reasons why sugar is back in the headlines.

Thank you, I'm trying to go sugar free so I'll listen to this later, I need as much motivation as I can get!

Last week I bought the book 'Pure, White and Deadly' by John Yudkin and it contains an introduction by Dr Lustig so I am keen to hear this later. Thanks for the link

Ballerina x

Gotta ask... how much sugar do people in England eat???

Have a read through this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2424

There are other Lustig links in there, including more sciency ones. Can highly recommend his own book: Fat Chance.

The basic message from his book is exercise + fibre (whole foods & grains - soluble & insoluble) & ditch all the sugar (i.e. processed foods).

Ballerina - I bought "Pure, White and Deadly" by John Yudkin a few months ago.

Excellent read.

I can't imagine many people, in general, cutting out all sugar, never mind buying this book.

I remember the original book from 40 yrs ago when Yudkin first published. Lustig has done the intro for the re-release and is promoting it along with his own books written on similar lines isn't he? I lost a heap of weight in the 60s following Yudkin's low carb diet.

Gotta ask... how much sugar do people in England eat???

They've just said on the program its 27kg per person per year in the UK, in the EU its 33kg, worldwide 25kg.

[Betsysgr8]

Gotta ask... how much sugar do people in England eat???

They've just said on the program its 27kg per person per year in the UK, in the EU its 33kg, worldwide 25kg.

Somebody must be getting my portion because I gave up on sugar years ago. I read labels and don't buy products containing sugar where none should be, I mean, really, sugar in spagetti sauce? why?! Sugar in ice cream perfectly acceptable but I only have ice cream once or twice a year. This thing of adding sugar to foods that don't require it is ridiculous, they use the ignorant and uninformed to sell more product by subtly appealing to our 'sweet tooth'.

[Betsysgr8]

If you check out the ingredients of something like KFC, there could be 3 or 4 different "sugars" in there, all with different names.

Sneaky, or what? More to the point....why???

Agreed! Why? My theory because sugar in itself is unsatifactory as a food source so the body responds by saying it's not full eat more and/or when we have sugar we seemed to always want more so with this KFC can sell more because we won't be satisfied with just one piece.

Since I have reduced the amount of sugars in my foods, I find that I can only have a tiny amount of something really sweet. Even a full size cupcake will be cut in half and shared because it's just too much otherwise.

Some of the sugar in KFC will be for browning effect I guess, and in some cases for preservative properties (ketchup, sauces) as well as the more obvious sweetening.

It isn't a cheap ingredient, so it's usually there for a reason.

Betsy, my great-grandmother used to say "sugar and yeast ask for sugar and flour asks for salt". I use sweetener in tomato sauce, to be honest, because I don't like sugar but if I eat a tomato sauce without something to sweeten it I will definitely not like it.

Gotta ask... how much sugar do people in England eat???

They've just said on the program its 27kg per person per year in the UK, in the EU its 33kg, worldwide 25kg.

Somebody must be getting my portion because I gave up on sugar years ago. I read labels and don't buy products containing sugar where none should be, I mean, really, sugar in spagetti sauce? why?! Sugar in ice cream perfectly acceptable but I only have ice cream once or twice a year. This thing of adding sugar to foods that don't require it is ridiculous, they use the ignorant and uninformed to sell more product by subtly appealing to our 'sweet tooth'.

That's the food industry for you, I've recently started checking food labels for diary products since turning sort of vegan and the amount of dairy in odd places is shocking, and I have recently read that the same thing happens with wheat and I know it happens with corn... I wouldn't mind but I'm not talking about ready meals or baked goods where these ingrediants 'should' be, I'm talking about things like canned vegetables...it seems that mass producing anything makes it OK to add ingredients which have no business being there. To make things worse they all have carefully worded slogans like 100% natural which actually doesn't mean very much at all, to trick people into buying things.

It's difficult but it seems to me the only way forward is more or less to make everything yourself, and never buy anything with an ingredients list!

Ok, this is my game plan as I am a driven sugar seeker due to taking Cymbalta and my natural sweet tooth. I actually feel good when I eat sweet things as it lifts my serotonin levels.
To date I have still incorporated sugar into my 5:2 WOL.

From this fast day on I will remove sugar out of my diet and substitute it with carbs, eg a slice of whole wheat bread.
Intuitively I think this will be my breakthrough as I have yo-yo'd around 73 kgs sine my initial weight loss. The scientific evidence points this direction, therefore I should lose weight now.

Am a sample of one, but so are we all here as we have different bodies and brain chemical mixes. I will let you know if I am successful or not.

Many thanks to all on this thread.

I'll be interested in how you get on Mstrious.

I have found it relatively easy to drop savoury carbs and rarely eat bread/rice/pasta, but still have a piece of cake now and then, and occasional dark chocolate. And I do buy ready meals sometimes, and eat out, so I'm doubtless having hidden sugar.