Which is worse for our bodies, sugar or fat?

[mike8675309]

Early Americans ate VERY high fat diets (as do the french and others) and were healthy. As soon as everything got stuffed with sugar and bleached flour it all went downhill.

I call B.S. on that statement. Average life expectancy of American's in 1900 was 47 years old. In 1970 it was 68. Today it is 75. Early American's didn't live long enough to identify any real trends in their dietary intake.

Humans weren't designed to eat lots of pure sugar, so we store it as a fat called a triglyceride. This conversion causes inflammation. Sugar has also been shown to be as addictive as cocaine in certain studies.

Lots is pretty generic. how about sticking to Excess? Excess means more than your body needs to function. Excess Carbohydrate intake, excess fat intake, and excess protein intake will all result in stored fat.

ALSO, You can eliminate sugar from your diet and your doctor will say, that's good. If you tell your doctor you want to "eliminate" fat from your diet, he will tell you that is a bad idea.

You can eliminate "added" sugar to your diet and feel better, and your doctor will say great. You shouldn't eliminate any particular macro nutrient but if you did tell your doctor you are eliminating saturated fat, I bet he would be very happy to hear that.

 

[skyking]

thanks for mentioning the inflammatory effects of sugar, it is often overlooked in favor of talking about heart disease, obesity, etc.
It can wreak havoc, and people with inflammation in various conditions almost always get positive results from cutting out sugars.

 

[Ancalagon44]

but if you did tell your doctor you are eliminating saturated fat, I bet he would be very happy to hear that.

Well we need saturated fat to manufacture the hormones we use, such as testosterone. This is why cutting fat too aggressively can cause people to become tired and irritable.

There are loads of fats which are considered essential to our diets - notably the omega fats, omega 3 and 6. If you don't those, you cannot survive. Quite simple.

If you cut out carbohydrates, you won't die. As long as you eat sufficient fat and protein, and get the right vitamins and minerals, you will be just fine.

There is not a single carbohydrate which will cause your death which you don't eat it.

However, if you literally did cut out all fat, you would get sick and die pretty quickly.

 

[LPCTech]

The short answer is that sugar is more harmful than fat, although even fat, especially saturated fat should be eaten in moderation.

But unequivocally sugar is more harmful than fat for many many reasons and in addition is not needed. Carbs yes, pure sucrose, fructose? never needed.

 

[Nash Edgerton]

i am pretty sure both of them are bad to our health if we consume too much of them. However, we should be ok if we consume an amount less than the daily intake standard.

 

[mindless1]

It's shades of gray and it would be silly to expect an internet forum to agree on a comprehensive diet.

Having written that, fat is a REQUIRED part of a healthy diet. Sugar is not. Either can be consumed in excess, and neither consumed in moderation is a problem for an otherwise healthy, reasonably active person.

So, the question is invalid. Anything that's good for your body is also bad in excess.

 

[skyking]

It is a rather pointless distinction really. Get your macros from whole foods, cut down on red meats, and you solve all those little pepsi vs coke questions

 

[Kaido]

As for the original question. Sugar is WAAAAY worse for you than fat.

You are supposed to eat fat, you are evolved to eat "some" meat and that has fat. There are good fats and bad fats but overall the detrimental effect to a healthy person from frequent eating would be sugar.

Early Americans ate VERY high fat diets (as do the french and others) and were healthy. As soon as everything got stuffed with sugar and bleached flour it all went downhill.

Humans weren't designed to eat lots of pure sugar, so we store it as a fat called a triglyceride. This conversion causes inflammation. Sugar has also been shown to be as addictive as cocaine in certain studies.

Try eliminating sugar from your diet and watch how much better you feel.

ALSO, You can eliminate sugar from your diet and your doctor will say, that's good. If you tell your doctor you want to "eliminate" fat from your diet, he will tell you that is a bad idea.

Because sugar is unnecessary and fat is, and sugar is therefore far worse for you than fat.

I think excessive sugar is probably one of the worst things for your body there is. Part of the problem is that it's hidden in everything we eat and because most people don't track their macros, they have no idea how much sugar they are actually eating (or drinking) every day. And like you said - pure, refined sugar and bleached white flour are kind of what has made things go downhill. I mean, as far as fats go, eating fried food all the time isn't healthy either, but I think sugar is a lot worse.

With that said, I used to think sugar was more or less evil, but now I've shifted over to excessive sugar is really what is bad. Same thing with HFCS...I thought those commercials about corn syrup being "just as bad, but not worse" than sugar were stupid, but really...it's just sugar. I use corn syrup in my baking projects on a regular basis, like in my peanut-butter rice krispie treats:

http://catch42.pbworks.com/w/page/104312639/PB Rice Krispie Treats

Granted, I don't eat half a pan anymore like I did when I was a kid, I just eat a few (at most) so I don't overdo it these days. Following a macro-based diet has really helped me steering my eating in a better direction than all of the stuff I had tried previously, mostly because it lets me still enjoy stuff that I like to eat without having to ban it completely.

 

[J.Wilkins]

The worst possible thing is a 50/50 caloric combination of the two in one meal.

I've tried most diets in my life and pretty much all of them worked fine for me but the easiest to stick with for me is the ketogenic diet simply because I favour meat over rice/bread/other carbs and I don't feel like I'm starving 24/7.

I'm going to have to load back carbs into the equation soon because I can't get the amount of calories I need when I'm not injured without carbs as well.

 

[mazeroth]

Please do yourselves a favor and set aside 1 hour to watch this. It's VERY eye opening and quite possibly life-changing. It answers this debate in detail:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QrWzaf6lRc&feature=youtu.be

 

[J.Wilkins]

Please do yourselves a favor and set aside 1 hour to watch this. It's VERY eye opening and quite possibly life-changing. It answers this debate in detail:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QrWzaf6lRc&feature=youtu.be

Dr. Schmidt is a charlatan and a fraudster. He is a Chiropractor and nothing else.

He has no medical training, no doctorate in anything and he isn't trained in nutrition or anything relevant to nutrition.

Let's look at his first claim: "Chronic disease is cell death which is most commonly caused by poisons crowding out oxygen in blood, especially in the capillaries. Lactic Acidosis is the main condition causing this. As lactic acidosis increases in your body, the number of diagnoses increases also but it's all the same physiological process."

There is not a single thing in that claim that is true, it's bullshit from a Scientologist chiropractor out to make money.

So how does he make money? Selling shit to gullible fools.

"The supplements consist of herbs, homeopathics, glandulars, whole food concentrates, etc."

http://www.scientologynews.org/press-releases/meet-a-scientologist-darren-schmidt.html
http://thenutritionalhealingcenter.com/about-us/our-doctors-and-practitioners/dr-schmidt/

 

[bigi]

Quite frankly I am shocked that this is even a question. Don't take it personal, but it really shows how media propaganda has shaped knowledge of the masses.

If you haven't, PLEASE see https://www.ted.com/talks/jamie_oliver

And then there is high fructose corn syrup which is just pure poison.

 

[J.Wilkins]

Quite frankly I am shocked that this is even a question. Don't take it personal, but it really shows how media propaganda has shaped knowledge of the masses.

If you haven't, PLEASE see https://www.ted.com/talks/jamie_oliver

And then there is high fructose corn syrup which is just pure poison.

HFCS and regular granulated sugar is pretty much the same thing, 50/50 glucose/fructose. I'd take either over Stevia/aspartame/other artificial sweeteners which raises insulin without raising blood sugar which is a sure fire way to lower insulin sensitivity.

 

[Kaido]

Extremely long but good read:

The sugar conspiracy

 

[J.Wilkins]

Dont consider fat as a bad thing. It is a reserve fuel for your body. on the other hand, sugar is considered to be a bad thing. It can increase you body fat level and create obesity

Fat, protein and carbohydrates will all do that if you ingest more energy than you expend.

It's the law.

 

[J.Wilkins]

Well we need saturated fat to manufacture the hormones we use, such as testosterone. This is why cutting fat too aggressively can cause people to become tired and irritable.

No, we don't need saturated fats, they are not essential. Your body doesn't use the fats you eat to make hormones, it makes it's own cholesterol from which it makes the hormones. Your diet being rich in it or not doesn't actually matter.

There are loads of fats which are considered essential to our diets - notably the omega fats, omega 3 and 6. If you don't those, you cannot survive. Quite simple.

No, there are exactly two, one Omega-3 and one Omega-6 and you don't need much of them either.

If you cut out carbohydrates, you won't die. As long as you eat sufficient fat and protein, and get the right vitamins and minerals, you will be just fine.

Basically this is true, there are 8 essential amino acids which the body cannot produce on it's own and there are two essential fatty acids but there is no such thing as an essential carbohydrate. That said, for some activities your body WILL need carbohydrates and so it will either convert amino acids from your diet into glucose or it will break down muscle protein to convert to glucose.

The reason that Glutamine is considered an conditionally essential amino acid (under great stress such as serious injury or illness) is because it readily converts to glucose when needed.

Glucose IS essential, just not in dietary form but if you do any intensive exercises (like lifting weights) it's a good idea to ingest carbohydrates before that.

 

[ChrisKC]

Sugar gets my vote. Particularly processed sugars. But carbs break down into sugars too, so watch out for them too.

 

[Muse]

I figure sugar is more dangerous when abused, the evidence has been overwhelming in recent years. Myself, I don't avoid sugar like it's poison, but I don't eat a lot of it. A little candy won't kill me but I don't eat much of it. I don't have a "sweet tooth." I can go without added sugar at all and not feel deprived.

I look at labels and if something has a relatively high fat percentage (creeping over 25% of the caloric contribution), I begin to definitely look askance at it. Over 50% and I think of it as egregious and I try to limit what I would eat. If it's 75% or above (e.g. some sausages, bacon, hot dogs) I really think I should think about avoiding it and usually do.

There's no denying that eating fatty foods can make you feel not hungry for a lot longer than if you eat carbohydrate rich foods. That can help keep your overall caloric intake within bounds. However, I still try to limit fat and carbohydrade intake, very especially refined sugar. I figure that getting your calories from foods that supply needed protein, minerals, vitamins and fiber is wiser than getting it from fat (much less sugar). That's my reasoning in limiting fat consumption.

 

[William Gaatjes]

I think large amounts of sugar are worse than letting yourself go once in a while on some (healthy) fat food.

Take for example yogurt, there is normal fat yogurt and 0% fat yogurt that is loaded with hcfs ,sugar and sometimes even added artificial sweeteners.

It is better to eat nice creamy yogurt with for example strawberries(fresh or ready made) and added nuts and muesli and some cocos than to eat 0% fat crap and remain hungry all day.
I have a healthy diet and cut out all cookies since now they all have hcfs added at least next to sugar or as replacement. As replacement for cookies i eat some pieces of very old cheese and pieces salami.
I have alsways drinked mainly water or carbonated water with a lemon flavour. I eat just as much yet, i have almost no more digestive problems and i lost 7kg in 3 months without exercising (Which i started today again). I went from 117 kg to 110 kg.
The whole nonsense that fat is worse than sugar is just that nonsense. Both in moderation is not an issue but processed foods with added sugar or hcfs and sometimes the hcfs has a higher fructose amount and sometimes, in the though of being "healthy" extra fructose is added.
And that is next to all the sucrose that a person consumes when eating daily fresh fruit and vegetables.

When you eat a meal mostly made out of sugar, you stay hungry or are hungry again within the hour.
When it is fat and protein and minerals, you feel satisfied very quickly and are no longer longing for food.

Edit:
I should note that i consume fats from walnuts/hazelnuts/ and other nuts.
No added salts or sugar.