Quitting sugar

[merithyn]

It's the insulin that helps you put on weight, and that gets raised by the sugar. Also, falling and rising blood sugar levels make you hungrier and makes you eat more than a level blood sugar would.

Is that how it works in normal people? I've never quite understood the normal system, though I'm pretty well versed in the diabetic one.

My son, who's diabetic, has wildly fluctuating blood sugars some days, and on others, manages his blood sugar very well. His appetite never wavers based on the fluctuations, however. He is always ravenous. How much of this is because he's a 14-year-old boy and how much is because of his blood sugar numbers? I'm not sure.

I will say that the higher his blood sugar, the hungrier he becomes. (It doesn't matter what the fluctuations are. Just a consistent high number.) That is due to a LACK of insulin, rather than an increase in it. A high blood sugar is an indication that the insulin isn't there to help the body absorb the sugars, which means the body is starving, hence the crazy appetites. How that transcribes to a normal system, I don't know.

[merithyn]

Americans love putting sugar on meat. I haven't figured it out yet either.

I take your ham off the bone before I add the honey glaze!

[Martinus]

The problem isn't the obvious sugar in sweet stuff, which we all need for the odd energy boost, it's the hidden stuff in savoury foods. I couldn't eat a load of stuff in the US as it just tasted so sweet with added corn syrup. Sweet steaks? No thanks.

Americans love putting sugar on meat. I haven't figured it out yet either.

WTF

[DGuller]

It's the insulin that helps you put on weight, and that gets raised by the sugar. Also, falling and rising blood sugar levels make you hungrier and makes you eat more than a level blood sugar would.

Is that how it works in normal people? I've never quite understood the normal system, though I'm pretty well versed in the diabetic one.

My son, who's diabetic, has wildly fluctuating blood sugars some days, and on others, manages his blood sugar very well. His appetite never wavers based on the fluctuations, however. He is always ravenous. How much of this is because he's a 14-year-old boy and how much is because of his blood sugar numbers? I'm not sure.

I will say that the higher his blood sugar, the hungrier he becomes. (It doesn't matter what the fluctuations are. Just a consistent high number.) That is due to a LACK of insulin, rather than an increase in it. A high blood sugar is an indication that the insulin isn't there to help the body absorb the sugars, which means the body is starving, hence the crazy appetites. How that transcribes to a normal system, I don't know.

The theory that I read is when you eat something with a lot of refined sugars, your insulin is quickly released in massive quantities to take car of that sugar.  That would prove to be too much, which would eventually drop your blood sugar too far, and make you want to eat more.

[DGuller]

The problem isn't the obvious sugar in sweet stuff, which we all need for the odd energy boost, it's the hidden stuff in savoury foods. I couldn't eat a load of stuff in the US as it just tasted so sweet with added corn syrup. Sweet steaks? No thanks.

Americans love putting sugar on meat. I haven't figured it out yet either.

WTF

Maybe they just want to sweeten the deal for the other person?

[Darth Wagtaros]

eat extra protein with your sugar.  That'll even out the insulin.  So I hear.  Lucidor is the surgeon.  He should be teaching this class.

[DGuller]

Does that mean that I should eat a pack of Jack Link's beef jerky with a bar of Snickers?

[Sheilbh]

I gave up sugar in my tea and coffee for lent and discovered that I don't like tea

[Martinus]

eat extra protein with your sugar.  That'll even out the insulin.  So I hear.  Lucidor is the surgeon.  He should be teaching this class.

yeah but you got the sufficient sugar intake from veggies (especially potatoes) you eat with the meat. No need to add extra sugar (especially something as deadly as fructose corn syrup) to it as well.

[Darth Wagtaros]

eat extra protein with your sugar.  That'll even out the insulin.  So I hear.  Lucidor is the surgeon.  He should be teaching this class.

yeah but you got the sufficient sugar intake from veggies (especially potatoes) you eat with the meat. No need to add extra sugar (especially something as deadly as fructose corn syrup) to it as well.

Was half kidding.

[DGuller]

I gave up sugar in my tea and coffee for lent and discovered that I don't like tea

Same here.  I found out that coffee without sugar is much better than coffee with sugar, at least for good coffee, but the opposite held for tea.

[merithyn]

yeah but you got the sufficient sugar intake from veggies (especially potatoes) you eat with the meat. No need to add extra sugar (especially something as deadly as fructose corn syrup) to it as well.

Deadly? Um.. it's just another form of sugar, and no more deadly than molasses or honey.

As stated by the Mayo Clinic of Minnesota

[merithyn]

WTF

It's tasty.

[merithyn]

The theory that I read is when you eat something with a lot of refined sugars, your insulin is quickly released in massive quantities to take car of that sugar.  That would prove to be too much, which would eventually drop your blood sugar too far, and make you want to eat more.

Okay, then it's very different in a normal person as opposed to a diabetic. When Jeremy's blood sugar is low, food is the last thing on his mind. He just starts to feel drunk, never hungry.

[Caliga]

WTF

It's tasty.

This is the part where Marti will call you crazy, a glutton, or both.