Good article on the scary effects of sugar (especially blood pressure)

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Kaido

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Feb 14, 2004
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There's some excellent reading from a fellow pilot on the actual effects of sugar on flying. If you have a few minutes, read through the whole thing: (it's kind of in a TL;DR format, but it's worth finishing)

http://fatfat.us/

Pretty much boils down to this:

Do you want your blood pressure to be normal? Then do what I say. Do you want to pass your flight physical? Then do what I say. GET THE SWEETS OUT OF YOUR DIET. Not just a few, ALL OF THEM!!!

Passing your physical is a very serious thing for pilots because it's a make-or-break kind thing; if you're denied your medical certification, that cuts you off from a lot of classes of flying. This guy is interesting because he's over 80 years old and is still flying, which is fairly rare these days.

He also brought up something interesting I had never seen before, that people are addicted to the sugar in cigarettes and not the nicotine. I read a really interesting book called Potatoes, Not Prozac about the effects of sugar and how they found that sugar addiction showed itself as not only an addiction to sugar, but also to bread, pasta, and alcohol. They found that alcoholics were actually addicted to the sugar, not the alcohol itself, so the combination of sugar addiction and buzz created a vicious cycle. Very interesting. He also has this to say about salt:

THEY say that salt causes high blood pressure. Well if you have 36 teaspoons of RCs saturating our blood then it may be true. But I am here to tell you that I have BP of 119.6 over 75. I'm now 81 years old. I salt my eggs, hash browns, tomatos, grapefruit, oatmeal, beer, meat and I use salted butter. Apparently if salt raises your blood pressure then it is my guess that it is because you have "SWEET BLOOD" eternally in your veins.

Which is interesting, because CNN had an article a few years ago about how sugar, not just salt, was causing hypertension:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/07/01/glucose.blood.pressure/index.html

With the amount of sugar they're packing in literally everything these days, it's no wonder our diabetic & obesity rate has skyrocketed. It was really interesting reading a pilot's take on the effects of sugar. He has lots of interesting little tidbits in the article like this one:

The same diet of sugars that causes pilots to have poor altitude tolerance also affects SCUBA divers. I have no medical proof of this, just some personal experience. I have a little retreat in Baja California, Mexico. On more than one occasion I have SCUBA dived to a depth of 80 feet in the morning and then get into my airplane and fly up to as high as 10,000’. I’ve never had any symptoms of the bends. (Nitrogen narcosis).

I don't know of too many 80-year-old dudes who go diving then flying. Like, none at all. I have a friend who flies turboprops commercially and went off sugar completely (nothing, no sugar, cupcakes, brownies, donuts, anything) and said it's had an amazing effect on him, he has energy all day & just feels great and is in a great mood all the time. Pretty neat stuff :thumbsup:
 

CPA

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I've tried to really cut down on the amount of sugar I've been taking in, but it won't be all of it. Sorry, I like a little candy everyone once in a while.
 

BeeBoop

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I know in diabetics or anyone who is insulin resistant, high glucose levels causes high blood pressure. It's not just the sugar. It most likely doesn't have the same affect on insulin sensitive people though. One third of the American population is estimated to be insulin resistant.
 

Kaido

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I've tried to really cut down on the amount of sugar I've been taking in, but it won't be all of it. Sorry, I like a little candy everyone once in a while.

Like he said at the end of the article, everyone dies eventually, it's the quality of life you enjoy in the meantime. I don't think sugar in modern is bad for you, I mean, there's fruit sugar and everything else that converts to sugar, so you're getting it one way or another.
 

Kaido

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Feb 14, 2004
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I know in diabetics or anyone who is insulin resistant, high glucose levels causes high blood pressure. It's not just the sugar. It most likely doesn't have the same affect on insulin sensitive people though. One third of the American population is estimated to be insulin resistant.

Do high glucose come from eating glucose, aka sugar, or is that trigger by something else?
 

BeeBoop

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Do high glucose come from eating glucose, aka sugar, or is that trigger by something else?

High glucose is triggered by being insulin resistant, not really based on eating sugar or carbs in general. Normal, insulin sensitive people shouldn't have this problem as their muscles absorb glucose really fast. One theory, supported by evidence, on what causes insulin resistant is that there is too much fat in the liver and pancreas. This is normally caused by eating too many calories. Sugar or carbs, often gets the blame for this because it is the macro-nutrient that is abundant, cheap, taste great, and easy to over consume. Some people are also born insulin resistant, or have the gene for it at least.


So how do you know if you are insulin resistant? Buy a blood glucose kit and test three times within 2 hours after consuming 75grams of carbs. Track your glucose level and if at any time your levels go above 140, you can consider yourself insulin resistant. Normal, insulin sensitive people, should have low glucose levels after eating a high carb meal which is generally believed to be below 120 at all times and rarely hitting 140.
 
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