To think sugar is slowly killing us?

[Notcontent]

Ok, that may sound dramatic, but this is something I have been thinking about a lot...

The fact is that most of us are getting fetter. And I think it’s pretty easy to see why, but we are all in denial about it. Redently I have seen threads where people discuss their own typical diet or the diet of their DC, and lots of people will say “oh, that sounds really healthy”, “children need the extra calories”, etc. But the fact is that most people are losing sight of what normal food is and ar drinking and eating huge quantities of sugar without realising it.

I don't think sugar is any worse than artificial sweeteners. At least sugar does not give me the shits. And isn't it interesting that the sugar tax does not actually apply to bags of sugar?!

Sugar itself is not the issue. It is the reliance on 'processed' foods which have sugar, salt and everything else for preservatives and flavour.

We seem to be living longer being elderly used to be mid 70 80s now we have old women on the news celrbrating their 107th birthday do i buggery want to live to 107

San Pelegríno is ruined for me too, and Orangina - disguising artificial aftertaste now.

After getting diagnosed with gestational diabetes and having to change my diet I have felt much better and lost weight.
It was a real eye opener seeing where the hidden sugars are even in so called healthier cereals are etc. Even fruit and some veg cause a huge sugar rush In my case

I grew up in 50s. Breakfast: rice crispies. Dinner: meat and 2 veg followed by pudding - usually stewed fruit and custard. Tea: Jam sandwiches and sponge cake. In summer, additional fresh strawberries soaked in sugar and served with evaporated milk. I'm currently 8 and a half stone.

So I think there's a lot to be said for lack of physical activity being part of the problem. But we're not going to go back to the physical activity levels of the past, so we need to adjust our diet to suit.

Something else that seems shocking nowadays is (I'm talking pre-school and primary age) my mother gave me a choice of having sugar in my morning coffee or as a delicious lump of soft brown sugar to eat separately. I eventually gave up the lump of sugar, but I've never wanted sugar in either tea or coffee, although that was probably the norm at the time.

We seem to be living longer being elderly used to be mid 70 80s now we have old women on the news celrbrating their 107th birthday do i buggery want to live to 107 Yeah, there was something in the news the other day about the decline into ill health later in life, with women affected more than men and spending 25% of their life in old-age-ill-health. I wish medicine were more concerned with quality of life and less with simply prolonging it.

Totally agree, mere - if I get any awful incapacitating and incurable disease of old age past about 80, just kill me! I would rather be dead than a burden. Obv I’d love to live into my 90s in good health but I’d also hate to be a lonely old woman too with friends having all died and family far away.

I agree with you mere we don't need to be long lived to have had a happy life 80 would do me with or without sugar.

I think it is a combination of things. Some of the things that I found concerning:

I find it a bit sad that most our friends (who are in their 40s) can't cook from scratch.

Some keep snacking "to keep metabolism up" and end up overeating.

A colleague once told me that a lot of women don't realise that they gain a kilo a year, then at 40 are surprised that they are 20 kilo's overweight. I have seen this in some people as well.

Some people really have no idea about the contents of food. My own brother doesn't like eating fruit, so his GP said he could drink fresh pressed juice instead for the vitamins. He feels that fanta etc. are the same thing because they contain some juice . He doesn't believe his wife and me when we tell him to compare the contents.

Along with everyone this is just speculation but in the late 19th/early to mid 20th century when a much higher percentage of foods were carbs and alcohol, our buildings were much more poorly heated. Few people had cars. We did a lot more activity (physical housework and making things, not sport), shopping could only be done at certain times and eating out was rarer. So habits /family behaviour were developed which are not needed/helpful in this obesogenic culture

Sugar is a problem but it alone is not the issue. It’s a combination of the following:

Sugar
Stress
Pre prepared food
Junk food

Junk food, takeaway, and prepared convenience food have made overindulgence too easy. People will always choose the easy option especially if they are overworked and stressed

People are living longer and longer. Life expectancy is increasing. I think we are now just more aware of what's healthy what is not.

Yes we have an obesity epidemic, and yes we know the impacts and risks of that.

But a lot of folks don't care. Look at some of the threads on here. Competitive eating, a recent one was about rhe love of donuts ffs, or thinking you're some sort of tiresome fool if you don't want to shove Yorkshire pudding and roasties down your neck and eat low carb..

I'm very overweight but I cook pretty much everything I eat from scratch. I had a whole load of tests when I was 40 just to see what state my health was in and everything - BP, resting heart rate, blood sugar, thyroid, cholesterol - was well within the healthy range. Had a liver kidney and spleen ultrasound when pregnant and they were all healthy too. I've always stayed active and eaten fresh food cooked at home. I would love to be thinner (worried about my knees) but I personally think just eating your own home cooked lasagne or fish and chips instead of a takeaway or ready meal is a step in the right direction.

People never used to eat like that.

To be in the 70s people had sugar sandwiches, and jam sandwiches were very much in the scene. By sugar sandwiches, for those too young to remember, or from more well off upbringings (from what I know, it seemed more of a working class food, I mean just that - bread, butter and sugar! I can't even imagine that now! It sounds vile!

Also it's a big factor in working out how badly you really want something. If you don't want fish and chips badly enough to chop up a potato and dredge a piece of fish in flour and egg, you shouldn't have it.

(I do know that not everyone is able to cook and indeed that not everyone wants to.)

Nope, I don’t think that at all. 50 years ago saturated fat was killing us. There is always going to be something, no matter how healthy we get, that will be negative for our health. The trick is not to get all hysterical about it IME

User12879923378 are you kidding? Chopping a potato and dredging fish in flour is NEVER going to be as good as chip shop fish and chips! And what’s wrong with that anyway? We’re talking about sugar, it doesn’t have any.

As a child I definitely had more sugar than my own child has.

Pudding every day at school, before JO took all the sugar away and left us with the far more bland cake offerings schools offer now.
Jam sandwiches, cakes and biscuits for tea, especially at a weekend.
Breakfast cereals
10p mix after school
Pop from the pop man

I suspect our lifestyles are now just far more sedentary with the increase of car use, and more people at work for longer hours, often sat at a desk for hours at a time.

User is correct to an extent, you can control the fat content in fish and chips if you make them at home, not that shop bought ones. And sure rhe thread is about sugar, but fatty carbs also plays its part.

Whether it's as good as is a personal decision, but fish and chips from a chip shop should be a rare treat.

During my lifetime we have been told eating butter, suet, lard, eggs and cheese will kill us, we're all going to die, give up these animal fats and eat these heat treated hydrogenated newly developed oils and margarine instead and live forever. 20 years on, we were told to stop eating those nasty hydrogenated oils, they will kill us, we're all going to die, give up the oils; eat healthy butter, cheese eggs etc., very good for you. But stick to low fat, oh hang on, too much sugar in low fat products, eat full fat. But dont eat sugar. Its killing us,. Were all going to die. I'm absolutely sick of, it. We're fat because we eat too much and barely walk anywhere. Enough already with the food advice.

I think the answer is anything in moderation.

The issue is when you can't moderate.

No. It isn't.
I didn't eat any sugar for a year and it made absolutely no difference to my health. Sugar anxiety is just the latest thing. It will be something else next.

Agree with this^^ and this;

We're fat because we eat too much and barely walk anywhere.

Everyone is looking for the elusive ‘secret formula’ to lose weight abs be healthy while still being able to overeat.

Low carb? Eat limitless fat. Low fat like SW? Eat limitless pasta. I sound like my gran now, but there are people starving in the world - in the uk even. Promoting diets where any food group is limitless makes me .

If you think you ‘gave up’ sugar, you probably didn’t. It’s in most things
Most people know that; it is banged on about enough and there are labels if unsure.
I gave up sugar in an effort to get ride of rosacea. I ate no sort of sugar whatsoever (no corn syrup, honey, fruit juices etc), and I can't eat bread or pasta etc anyway. It was a year of vegetables and Greek yogurt.
After a year I still had rosacea, I was the same weight as when I started, I was still tired, still got migraines.

Chopping a potato and dredging fish in flour is NEVER going to be as good as chip shop fish and chips!

Yours might not be . No, seriously, of course it's not the same thing. And no, I don't think that fish and chips does have any sugar in it although no doubt the low carbers will say that's not the point. The OP said that sugar was slowly killing us and a number of posters have said that they don't think that's right. I also don't think that's right. The point I was trying to make, and I'm sorry if it wasn't obvious, is that I don't think the problem with food now is sugar, I think it's that people eat too much processed food which is loaded with all sorts of additional fats and sugars and salt and not enough food that they've made themselves, although obviously for some people it's harder to cook for themselves than others.

I do respect how much you care about fish and chips, though.