
Eggs Don’t Cause Heart Attacks – Sugar Does - ggregoire
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/sugar-heart-attack_b_4746440.html
======
gtrubetskoy
Something I didn't know until recently when I started reading about Dave
Asprey's Bulletproof Coffee (fully expecting it to be bogus initially) is that
surprisingly cells have an alternative source of energy, ketones instead of
glucose (sugar), and that in the olden days when food was not as abundant, our
bodies spent a fair amount of time in _ketosis_
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketosis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketosis)),
a metabolic state where the body breaks down fats to produce ketones as fuel
for cells. (Not to be confused with _ketoacidosis_ , which is bad).

It seems plausible to me that since WW2 in developed countries where food and
especially sugar became commonplace, a whole set of diseases, coronary,
metabolic ones such as diabetes, obesity, possibly cancer, possibly
Alzheimer's are all related to us not spending enough time in ketosis.

~~~
acconrad
Dave Asprey is a bullshitter. He's trying to sell you expensive, high-calorie
coffee. No matter what you eat, if you eat too many calories, that is also bad
for you.

Ketosis can also raise your resting blood sugar levels to prediabetic states,
I have observed it myself in my own blood tests after trying it for nearly 6
months.

Moderate carb (low GI, low GL variety), protein and fats from whole,
unprocessed foods, will always win out over fad diets like paleo, keto, zone,
or anything else that pops up.

~~~
Shorel
What's moderate carbs for you? 30% 10% 5%?

Keto simply considers 30% of calories from carbs too high, while otherwise
agreeing with your 'will always win' diet.

I don't get why you seem so angry while being fundamentally in agreement with
what you call 'fad diets'.

------
superswordfish
> Most of us don’t know that a serving of tomato sauce has more sugar than a
> serving of Oreo cookies

Most store-bought jar sauce has sugar in it (and tastes gross). You can
absolutely make sauce that doesn't have sugar in it, and some of the nicer jar
sauces are that way also.

> or that fruit yogurt has more sugar than a Coke

Again, maybe if it's Dannon, but you can also buy plain yogurt and put fruit
in it. Sweeten to taste.

> or that most breakfast cereals — even those made with whole grain — are 75
> percent sugar

Maybe Post/General Mills sugar cereals, but again it's not that hard to find
cereal with low sugar content.

This article argues that the problem is solved with regulation, but a lot of
what we eat is influenced by government subsidy (i.e. corn/corn syrup), which
makes many of the unhealthiest foods inexpensive. The article makes it sound
like all processed food is loaded with sugar and that grocery shopping is
dangerous. That may be true of "food deserts" but it isn't generally true.

The nutrition facts are already there. If somebody can't be bothered to see
that whatever they are eating has 30g of sugar per serving, what can you
really do about it?

~~~
bigredhdl
I'm always surprised how hard it is to get artificially sweetened yogurt. I
know of only one brand at only one chain of grocery store in my area. It seems
like a natural combination.

~~~
michaelmior
I'm always surprised how hard it is to get completely unsweetened yogurt
(natural or artificial). The only brands I've seen locally are "organic"
yogurts with a hefty price tag.

~~~
vlod
Making unsweetened yogurt (plain or greek style) is surprisingly easy. It
takes about 1/2 hour and I leave it overnight (in a cooler) to 'develop'.

I would recommend more people try it. It's generally better than store bought
plain style yogurt and super-cheap.

I can get a gallon of milk (on sale, non hormone BST stuff) for about $2 (in
CO, US). That will yield the same in yogurt (4 quarts.. I use quart mason
jars).

~~~
michaelmior
Any pointers to a good recipe?

------
mrob
No breakfast cereals are 75% sugar. The USDA Nutrient Database allows you to
list breakfast cereals by sugar:

[https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/nutrients/report/nutrientsfrm?m...](https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/nutrients/report/nutrientsfrm?max=25&offset=0&totCount=0&nutrient1=269&nutrient2=&nutrient3=&subset=0&fg=8&sort=c&measureby=g)

The most sugary breakfast cereal is only 56% sugar. The database doesn't list
every breakfast cereal sold, but it includes all the popular ones, and it's
implausible that any could be so much more sugary than those included to be
75%.

Even a cereal where sugar is the main selling point (Kellogg's Frosted Flakes)
is only 35% sugar.

~~~
ihsw
Does that include sugar substitutes, aka sweeteners?

~~~
eco
Sugar substitutes are generally hundreds of times sweeter than the sugar they
replace so they wouldn't even be a blip on the composition by mass. This is
why cans of diet coke float in water but cans of regular coke sink.

------
zaroth
A bit breathless for my taste; "Just one 20-ounce soda increases your risk of
a heart attack by about 30 percent."

How did that sentence survive editing? Is that per hour, per day? I assume
they are trying to say '65g of added sugar to your daily intake' \-- note the
recommended daily intake is about 35g of added sugar.

As mentioned in TFA, this brings up an interesting bug in our nutritional
labeling. Sugars are grouped under carbs for calculating the percent of
recommended daily intake, and there's no differentiation between natural and
added sugar. So 39g of sugar in a can of coke shows up as "13%" instead of
"111%". Fixing the label would be a good first step...

------
anexprogrammer
It's been some years since I was in the US, so maybe it's not as bad as it
was, but the hidden sugar in bread was the one that always astonished. US
bread tastes, to me, more like cake and frankly ruins the chance of a good
sandwich.

~~~
_greim_
I wonder if it's a situation in which parents struggling to get kids to _just
eat your damn food_ have created market forces that have gradually pushed
mainstream bread to suit the preferences of children. We parents (at least in
the US) often compromise on food for the sake of our kids, and it seems
plausible that collectively we've unconsciously adapted our preferences to
match our children, and so lost our taste for truly wholesome bread.

~~~
kdamken
It's not. I recommend watching the documentary Fed Up on Netflix, it help
explains how we got to this state.

------
DiabloD3
Not often I see something flagged off the front page, but given how badly
written that article is, I can see why.

------
qaid
What always surprises me is that many obese people don't seem to actually eat
that much more than me. I believe it's their addiction to sodas, microwaved
meals, and basically never eating anything that's fresh.

I have an obese friend who grew up watching a lot of TV (especially sports)
and when he was a kid, he believed that in order to become a famous athlete
like the people on the TV screen, one should drink a lot of soda.

Growing up, I've watched a lot of cereal commercials too. They all have a
memorable theme, and they try to convince the kids that it's both tasty and
full of vitamins and so it's good for your body. But I was so addicted to the
sugar in them -- there was a time in high school where I was sometimes eating
a full box of cereal a day.

I feel sad that Mexico can ban junk-food commercials, make sodas more
expensive by taxing them, and ban sugar-related goods in schools and we
cannot. We should be doing the same things in the States too, and we should
give the children a proper education about nutrition early on.

------
saynsedit
Eggs don't kill humans, but they kill an ungodly amount of chickens: 8 Billion
of them per year, roughly.
[http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/current/PoulSlauSu/Poul...](http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/current/PoulSlauSu/PoulSlauSu-02-25-2016.txt)

~~~
ryandvm
How does eating unfertilized eggs kill chickens? What am I missing?

~~~
saynsedit
The male chicks that are incidentally born in the egg industry are usually
ground up alive or gassed
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick_culling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick_culling)
[http://youtu.be/IOZEP9AGxrw](http://youtu.be/IOZEP9AGxrw)

The scale is literally 8 billion.

~~~
steanne
[http://www.sciencealert.com/us-egg-farmers-say-they-ll-
final...](http://www.sciencealert.com/us-egg-farmers-say-they-ll-finally-stop-
culling-millions-of-newborn-male-chicks)

~~~
saynsedit
Admittedly not holding my breath but even if I were, 32 BILLION chicks will
die before 2020

------
ars
Once thing I would really like to know is if it's Fructose or Glucose (or
both) that causes the problem.

Studies usually look at "sugar" in general without specifying which one.

Based on some reading I've done it seems to me that sugars other than Glucose
are the problem and switching to Glucose would let us have sweet food with
less of a health problem.

~~~
vox_mollis
Fructose is linked to liver problems, and also creates far more glycation end-
products than glucose (which could very well be part of the atherosclerosis
explanation).

One problem is that glucose without fructose really doesn't taste very good at
all. One option might be replacing sugars entirely with sugar alcohols with
low intestinal distress, like erythritol.

Of course, we could always work to become a less decadent society, but that
won't happen.

~~~
mrob
Glucose without fructose tastes perfectly acceptable. It's as flavorless as
any simple sugar. It's about 0.75 times as sweet as sucrose. The mouth-feel is
slightly different but still pleasant.

------
frogpelt
"In my new book, The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet, which will be
released on February 25, I provide an..." blah blah blah blah.

Sugar is poisonous/toxic/carcinogenic and if you buy Dr. Mark Hyman's book he
will give you all of the keys to unlock 200-year life expectancy.

~~~
zardo
Also, saturated fat and cholesterol are no longer risk factors for CVD and
fatty liver disease, so he will free you to eat an egg based diet!

------
upofadown
>This study of more than 40,000 people, published in JAMA Internal Medicine,
accounted for all other potential risk factors including total calories,
overall diet quality, smoking, cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity and
alcohol.

How can a study that ignores physical activity possibly discover anything
significant about heart disease?

~~~
chrisdbaldwin
Perhaps the fuel matters more than running the engine.

------
irrational
As I sit here eating some Stroopwafels and reading this.

~~~
themartorana
I would risk a heart attack for stroopwafels. I love Amsterdam, but I go back
for the stroopwafels.

------
emeraldd
Why was this flagged? I see it as very relevant to people in the startup world
...

~~~
upofadown
Probably because it is basically an ad for a diet book...

~~~
azdle
It's still a well-cited article. If HN banned articles that end with an ad
blurb, 3/4 of the content that makes the front page would violate that rule.

