Sugar overload

What we all know
Children eat too much sugar .
We all eat too much sugar
Hence the rise in diabetes which is at epeidemic levels ..

Here's one child's solution .

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-46739905

But how much sugar to you eat a day ?

I drink at least five or six coffees a day with one spoon of sugar in for starters.

Re: Sugar overload

Well done that young man!

I don't add sugar to anything - and I don't drink cola or other fizzy drinks - so I suppose most of my sugar intake comes from fruit/veg and the occasional cake/biscuit.

Re: Sugar overload

I'm careful with my diet and sugar is the main thing I'm concerned about after the all too sudden rise in people I see and know who have developed Type 2 Diabetes withing the past few years.
When I'm shopping I am aware of the 5-band colour-coded guidelines on the front of food products and stay away from anything higher than 'green', especially those with high sugar content.

My only real downfall is having sugar in my coffee, which I have now got down to just half a teaspoon, and I do enjoy a couple of chocolate digestive biscuits with it. Apart from that it's my social afternoon with my pals on a Saturday when I drink a few pints - but I now only go for the 'blond' real ales which are far less sugar-laden than darker beers.
Diet and exercise go together though and being active is just as important as cutting down on sugar, fat and unwanted additives in our food.

People need that mindset more and more in this day and age, although the third (mostly unseen) problem nowadays though are the harmful toxins in the atmosphere we breathe in.

Re: Sugar overload

None of us have sugared drinks but we do like a slice of cake a few times a week. I try not to make kids dependent on it when young, teach them to like vegetables rather than chocolate but the chocolate is forbade just not a daily thing. They haven't been allowed to buy sweets with pocket money food and sweets we provide. I wonder if that's where some parents go wrong ? if they have money in their pocket they will buy food I think so we just don't allow that.

Mind we've been lucky all of them love sport despite both of us loathing it we managed to engage them in various sports. Nathan and Jordan were almost professional basket ball players at one point but both turned away for careers that didn't provide them enough time to go in that direction.

I know we are supposed to think all kids are fat but I think we are measuring them wrongly, I see little muscle packed boys being told they are obese when what they carry is muscle, girls weighed when they are bloated with a period due or again more muscly than their counterparts.

One young man at Gracie's school was deemed obese when he was simply so skinny it looked painful, what they failed to look at was his height, he's huge, nearly as tall as the teacher and only 10 !

Re: Sugar overload

Let's not get too carried away, sugar does not necessarily cause type two diabetes.
I'm no doctor, but as an ex marathon man, nutrition has been as important to my performance as hard training so before everyone boycotts their nearest Tate & Lyle there are a few things you should consider....

As we get older some of our bodily functions are not as efficient as they used to be. Eyes and ears sometimes need a little help, muscles and joints are not as flexible as they were intended to be and even things we can't see or feel that are on the inside have deteriorated and are less able to cope with fats and carbohydrates as efficiently as they once did.

Cutting out sugar will not make an apeth of difference to anyone on this forum provided they are not obese to start with. The rise in diabetes in the young is however a matter for concern but sugar is only a small part of the problem. Sugar does make you fat if you eat too much and don't exercise, and a fat person is more likely to develop diabetes than a thin one. Yes I know that some thin people develop diabetes, and that just goes to show how complex the problem is...

The brain needs carbs! and if you deny or restrict them you will be in deep excretia.
Also, by denying or restricting carbohydrates your body will stop producing insulin, and that will make you more susceptible to diabetes....there have been experiments with fit healthy people who have restricted their diets and only eaten fats and proteins for one month and have ended up being borderline diabetic...

So before you start doing some DIY dieting, don't take my word for it....Ask your doctor, or read this.....

Insulin (from Latin insula, island) is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets; it is considered to be the main anabolic hormone of the body.[5] It regulates the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats and protein by promoting the absorption of carbohydrates, especially glucose from the blood into liver, fat and skeletal muscle cells.[6] In these tissues the absorbed glucose is converted into either glycogen via glycogenesis or fats (triglycerides) via lipogenesis, or, in the case of the liver, into both.[6] Glucose production and secretion by the liver is strongly inhibited by high concentrations of insulin in the blood.[7] Circulating insulin also affects the synthesis of proteins in a wide variety of tissues. It is therefore an anabolic hormone, promoting the conversion of small molecules in the blood into large molecules inside the cells. Low insulin levels in the blood have the opposite effect by promoting widespread catabolism, especially of reserve body fat.
Beta cells are sensitive to glucose concentrations, also known as blood sugar levels. When the glucose level is high, the beta cells secrete insulin into the blood; when glucose levels are low, secretion of insulin is inhibited.[8] Their neighboring alpha cells, by taking their cues from the beta cells,[8] secrete glucagon into the blood in the opposite manner: increased secretion when blood glucose is low, and decreased secretion when glucose concentrations are high.[6][8] Glucagon, through stimulating the liver to release glucose by glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis, has the opposite effect of insulin.[6][8] The secretion of insulin and glucagon into the blood in response to the blood glucose concentration is the primary mechanism of glucose homeostasis.[8]
If beta cells are destroyed by an autoimmune reaction, insulin can no longer be synthesized or be secreted into the blood. This results in type 1 diabetes mellitus, which is characterized by abnormally high blood glucose concentrations, and generalized body wasting.[9] In type 2 diabetes mellitus the destruction of beta cells is less pronounced than in type 1 diabetes, and is not due to an autoimmune process. Instead there is an accumulation of amyloid in the pancreatic islets, which likely disrupts their anatomy and physiology.[8] The pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes is not well understood but patients exhibit a reduced population of islet beta-cells, reduced secretory function of islet beta-cells that survive, and peripheral tissue insulin resistance.[5] Type 2 diabetes is characterized by high rates of glucagon secretion into the blood which are unaffected by, and unresponsive to the concentration of glucose in the blood. Insulin is still secreted into the blood in response to the blood glucose.[8] As a result, the insulin levels, even when the blood sugar level is normal, are much higher than they are in healthy persons.
The human insulin protein is composed of 51 amino acids, and has a molecular mass of 5808 Da. It is a dimer of an A-chain and a B-chain, which are linked together by disulfide bonds. Insulin's structure varies slightly between species of animals. Insulin from animal sources differs somewhat in effectiveness (in carbohydrate metabolism effects) from human insulin because of these variations. Porcine insulin is especially close to the human version, and was widely used to treat type 1 diabetics before human insulin could be produced in large quantities by recombinant DNA technologies.[10][11][12][13]
The crystal structure of insulin in the solid state was determined by Dorothy Hodgkin. It is on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines, the most important medications needed in a basic health system.[14]


As with most things in life, it's not just black and white is it......

Re: Sugar overload

I totally disagree with you that cutting out sugar won’t make an apeth of difference to anyone on this forum provided they are not obese to start with but I’m not going to argue the point.

Re: Sugar overload

Good post Bob (have you been talking to Realist?)

Seriously, he's right. Sugar, although very bad for you is not the main cause of type 2 diabetes - it's inactivity.

Slouching all day watching the TV, shuffling around leaning over a shopping trolley instead of briskly walking and basic ignorance of how to keep yourself active. Even spending too much time huddled over a laptop when you could be going out for a walk. These sort of things all contribute to the body gradually shutting down.

I've mentioned before that I notice people whom I work with who do absolutely nothing all day but watch TV and they suffer so much with obesity issues, back problems and at least four of them have developed type 2 diabetes in their early fifties. That is the age where you need to begin to take your health more seriously than you ever have done before. I get regular check-ups at the doctor. I also look online at any ailments I may be concerned about, and even the good members on here have posted some very helpful information to others regarding health-related problems.

Only since turning 50 and appearing on this forum (and Bob and Surfermom in the ‘Post Your Daily Exercise thread” will vouch for this) have I changed my exercise routine around sharply to looking more at ways to retain and maintain my fitness levels in a manner more suited to stamina and weight watching than looking to increase size and strength, which I did for nigh on thirty years beforehand. I now have a good mix of strength, endurance and fitness exercises which I do in the gym, plus my work is physical too. True, the gym is a hobby and keeping oneself strong helps greatly with strengthening the bones and joints in later life especially, so it’s extremely important but it’s far more sensible and realistic to eat a good, balanced diet cutting down on the more sugar/fat/salt/saturates foods to enable you to live your older years relatively free from major ailments. Plus, you’ll feel good too and eager to do more exercise. Being lazy and ‘hoping for the best’ will only create more health issues and they are less likely to be reversible in later life.

It’s never too late to change and if you are perhaps too ill in other ways – emphysema, sciatica, cancer even…you still can vastly improve your health by looking at your diet and I’m sure that can be changed for the better. You think it can't be done? You are wrong: it can. Go for it!
Right, I'm off to the gym!

Re: Sugar overload

I was never into sweet things as a kid, well apart from the occasional things like dandelion and burdock drinks, odd chocolates etc.

As an adult I sometimes had cravings for dolly mixtures at certain times of the month

Now as an old fart, sugar cravings have hit me big time.
Only yesterday I bought those small packets of sweets, (three for a £1) and ate a full packet of dolly mixtures in about 5 seconds flat.

I don't take sugar in beverages and don't ever buy fizzy drinks. Never bought them for my daughter either.

Re: Sugar overload

I just see it as another excuse for a government tax. Anything is bad for you if you have too much of it. Last time it was butter but the experts appear to have got that wrong. This consuming too much sugar scare seems to have come about in the last few years, about the same time as the 'five a day' campaign was launched. People forget that fruit contains sugar albeit natural.

As Floydy says, being active is most important even just to keep your joints working.

Re: Sugar overload

The problem these days is even in savory things there are spoonfuls of sugar. If they used quality ingredients they wouldn't need it IMO also they are breeding veggies to be sweeter, super sweet sweet corn, super sweet peas and carrots, all carry a lot more sugar than the normal ones used to.

One of my boys went through a stage of going to a coffee shop when we pointed out the sugar in a simple latte he swapped to a smoothie from same chain, that when we investigated had 22 spoons of sugar in it, the healthy alternative that was advertised as !

I remember when I was about 3 being given a cooking apple and after first grimace realising it wasn't so bad, try that with a child these days they couldn't eat it their palettes are so corrupted.