Sugar, Science and Regulation

[Bestwifeever]

I just received my lipid panel results after 4 months of largely cutting out sugar and simple carbs (junk and processed food, soft drinks, rice, pasta, bread, desserts, etc.) and focusing on vegetables, fruits, meats, cheeses, eggs. One reason I made the changes was to lose a bit of weight I didn't like and the other was to see if my triglycerides would get back to normal range from being borderline high for at least 30 years since college.

Results and experiences after 4 months:

- Triglycerides are indeed in the normal range, as many others eating lower carb find. Yay!

- Healthy cholesterol/HDL is in normal range.

- Other Cholesterols are borderline high, which is new and not what I was aiming for. I suspect this is due to eating more eggs, dairy and red meats. Doc is not worried but my search and adjustments for the right diet for me continues, probably by eating more fish and chicken and maybe trimming eggs and cheese.

- I lost 14 pounds pretty effortlessly and without increasing exercise, hitting my target weight. I also eat as much as I want and have never been hungry. In fact, I don't have the urge to snack as much, because of my substantial, filling meals. I am a light, social drinker and haven't really made any adjustments there. I love Guinness and it is recommended for lower carb eaters, as is dry white wines.

- I feel better, probably because of less junk food and blood sugars spiking all over. I had one gourmet donut last month and felt ill afterward for the rest of the day. My body is already less-tolerant of that kind of "food" now. In fact, it instantly pivoted to craving the healthy stuff, so it has not been a hard transition at all.

- I like some of the substitute foods I've learned about even better than the originals, as does my wife. For example, cauliflower rice is delicious. I also bought a food spiralizer at Target for $10, which makes various tasty vegetable approximations of noodles.

So that is one 51 year old male's experiences to date and I will continue eating this way. If interested, the place I learned the most is https://www.verywell.com/low-carb-diets-4014695

That's great!

DH, 68, just this morning got the same test results back so I am reporting them --his triglycerides (54) and HDL (71) are good and his LDL (141) is borderline high. He just finished eating the first of his high carb low fat meals for the day right now (bran flakes, bananas, skim milk). Like you he avoids junk food but he also never drinks alcohol, rarely eats eggs, and does not eat much red meat. He has been eating like this for a year and a half, before which the numbers were worse and he had been on a statin, which he no longer takes. He's 5' 10" and always stays at 160 lbs, and just left for the gym for yoga and cardio with a dollop of weight training.

So very different paths re diets, same results--congrats to both of you!

 

[MRG]

My recent bloodwork shocked me with a fasting glucose in the pre-diabetic range! No family history, never had the issue before. My total cholesterol is too high also.

Talking with my new PCP about my diet she suggested lowering saturated fats and carbs.

When I was done dropping weight I needed an extra 500 calories daily. I really was quite satisfied with the foods I was consuming; lower carb and lower GI with decent protein, not much for saturated fats. I switched to full fat dairy products and mayo. I also added a serving of Ben and Jerry’s and a serving of Brookside chocolate, pretty much the needed 500 calories!

That's 47 grams of added sugar and 20 grams of saturated fat every night. I'm going to have to figure out a different 500 calories to add now.

 

[braumeister]

- Other Cholesterols are borderline high, which is new and not what I was aiming for. I suspect this is due to eating more eggs, dairy and red meats.

Just FYI, there are innumerable studies that show dietary cholesterol has nothing whatever to do do with blood serum cholesterol. Personally, I don't care about it as long as my triglycerides are low and my HDL is high. YMMV.

 

[razztazz]

Just FYI, there are innumerable studies that show dietary cholesterol has nothing whatever to do do with blood serum cholesterol. Personally, I don't care about it as long as my triglycerides are low and my HDL is high. YMMV.

SO much so that sometime around 2014 the fat Nazis (The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee ) advised the Government to that cholesterol is no longer a “nutrient of concern.” Saturated fat, still a no-no. This makes eggs a super low sat fat food. One huevo=6% of daily sat-fat limits. Several eggs per day would still qualify as a LOW FAT diet. Wooops! So sorry.

This is science. It changes all the time. We don't know what we're talking about but do what we say anyway until "latest studies show".... whatthehellever, then to that. Hey don't blame us. Oh btw, Got insurance? Pay before you come in. Not when you leave.

 

[Lsbcal]

My experience with eating is that when I have something like a donut it feels over the top. It tastes great going down, but the feeling of something being poorly digested is there. Hard to describe this in words. If I had done some very heavy exercise beforehand, that bloated feeling is perhaps not present.

That was the case when pigging out after 10K races I used to run years ago. Sometimes after the race there would be calorific treats at the finish line.

I'm thinking that one somehow overrides these feelings of bloat if overdoing it on a regular basis. Or maybe the fat cells get used to the added load? I'm imagining an arterial pathway that is developed just for the purpose of storing all that excess reserves. Haven't done any reading on this so I may be way off base.

 

[Chuckanut]

Cutting highly refined carbs also did away with my acid reflux.

 

[Winemaker]

My recent bloodwork shocked me with a fasting glucose in the pre-diabetic range! No family history, never had the issue before. My total cholesterol is too high also.

Alcohol will mess with your blood sugar readings. I avoid all blood testings during wine season because my results are always pre diabetic.

 

[audreyh1]

I didn't know this:

As a general rule, patients should avoid eating or drinking anything other than water during the 12 hours prior to any blood test. Blood tests specifically prohibiting alcohol consumption in the 24 hours prior to the administration include the triglyceride test and the gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT) test.

 

[Chuckanut]

I didn't know this:

No alcohol 24 hours before a triglyceride check! Really?

There must be a zillion people worried about their trigs for no good reason.

 

[Chuckanut]

The whole cholesterol/trigs thing is fraught with uncertainty and new findings from what I have read.

I think the powers-that-be are frozen and don't know what to do for several reasons:

1. The science while trending in new directions is still not firm.

2. They don't want to admit they were wrong. ( Has a certain heart association ever apologized for labeling sugar bomb cereals as healthy for our hearts? I think not.)

3. They don't want to get sued. Think of all the years we age high-transfat margarine instead of butter. All the years we did not have eggs for breakfast and instead ate 'healthy' sugary yogurt over a bowl of sugary processed carbs. All the low-fat chocolate milk we drank instead of regular whole milk. How much damage was done? Their lawyers have probably advised them to shut up and start searching for alternative facts concerning their prior recommendations.

 

[audreyh1]

No alcohol 24 hours before a triglyceride check! Really?

There must be a zillion people worried about their trigs for no good reason.

Exactly what I was thinking!

 

[audreyh1]

The whole cholesterol/trigs thing is fraught with uncertainty and new findings from what I have read.

I think the powers-that-be are frozen and don't know what to do for several reasons:

1. The science while trending in new directions is still not firm.

2. They don't want to admit they were wrong. ( Has a certain heart association ever apologized for labeling sugar bomb cereals as healthy for our hearts? I think not.)

3. They don't want to get sued. Think of all the years we age high-transfat margarine instead of butter. All the years we did not have eggs for breakfast and instead ate 'healthy' sugary yogurt over a bowl of sugary processed carbs. All the low-fat chocolate milk we drank instead of regular whole milk. How much damage was done? Their lawyers have probably advised them to shut up and start searching for alternative facts concerning their prior recommendations.

Not to mention feeding growing children skim or low fat milk and sugary cereals!

 

[MRG]

Alcohol will mess with your blood sugar readings. I avoid all blood testings during wine season because my results are always pre diabetic.

I didn't know that.

 

[MRG]

Exactly what I was thinking!

+1

 

[audreyh1]

Alcohol will mess with your blood sugar readings. I avoid all blood testings during wine season because my results are always pre diabetic.

I didn't know this either. I think I'll carefully observe the 24 hour rule. Maybe longer .

 

[Markola]

Me too. I had a white wine on the plane with dinner the night before my test but then I fasted for about 11 hours. My triglycerides were way down in the normal range for the first time in 25 years. Go figure! It was crappy wine, too.

 

[audreyh1]

Interesting triglycerides were down!

I read for blood sugar alcohol can raise it for small to moderate amounts, but lower it for large amounts.

But it's supposed to boost triglycerides.

 

[Lsbcal]

Me too. I had a white wine on the plane with dinner the night before my test but then I fasted for about 11 hours. My triglycerides were way down in the normal range for the first time in 25 years. Go figure! It was crappy wine, too.

White and not red, interesting.

Maybe 1 glass of wine is good for you? That seems to be a recommendation in recent years.

 

[Winemaker]

White wine is generally much lower in alcohol 10.5-12%, bold reds can be 13-15%.

 

[bjorn2bwild]

White and not red, interesting.

Maybe 1 glass of wine is good for you? That seems to be a recommendation in recent years.

Then again, maybe not -especially for members of this forum -

We generally assume moderate drinking (two standard drinks per day) is good for our health.
This idea comes from studies over the past three decades showing moderate drinkers are healthier and less likely to die prematurely than those who drink more, less, or don’t drink at all.
I would be glad if this were true.
But our latest research challenges this view. We found while moderate drinkers are healthier than relatively heavy drinkers or non-drinkers, they are also wealthier. When we control for the influence of wealth, then alcohol’s apparent health benefit is much reduced in women aged 50 years or older, and disappears completely in men of similar age.

Maybe moderate drinking isn't so good for you after all

 

[braumeister]

When we control for the influence of wealth, then alcohol’s apparent health benefit is much reduced in women aged 50 years or older, and disappears completely in men of similar age.

Oh, those poor New Zealanders!
I'm sure those findings don't apply to the rest of the world.

LA LA LA LA LA LA LA I'm not listening any more!

 

[HadEnuff]

Alcohol will mess with your blood sugar readings. I avoid all blood testings during wine season because my results are always pre diabetic.

Wine has a season??

 

[HadEnuff]

a few years ago a relative of mine (one generation younger than I), caught me emptying a packet of Splenda into my coffee. She was aghast, and asked me if I'd read the "Duke Study" on the ill-effects of Splenda.
I hadn't. But I did Google it and found a slew of criticisms of it...some being...

1. it was funded by the organization that promotes sugar use (i.e. the "sugar industry")
2. The agenda was clearly to keep forcing Splenda into lab mice until they could measure a DNA change. As it turned out the dosage was ridiculous. I don't remember the exact numbers, but it was something along the order of 300 times the amount I used to sweeten my cup of coffee, on a daily basis, into an animal that weighs about as much as 3 of my fingers.

if anything, they managed to demonstrate how safe the stuff is, but still spun it the way they wanted to spin it to make the point they were being paid to make.

Gotta love that kind of objective science.

 

[6miths]

Yes that's not really science... bias is everywhere and it is only relatively recent that serious attempts have been made to address it. For years interested parties have been getting around some of the early attempts to control bias by simply selecting which studies get made public or get promoted. Some of this also occurred rather innocently, who wants to hear about something that doesn't work?

 

[Winemaker]

Wine has a season??

Yes, wine season. I acquire my Chilean and South African grapes late April, early May, so my vintages that have aged from the prior spring must be tasted, blended, and bottled to make room for current vintage. I have worked too hard on my wines to taste and spit. Besides, after working in the coal mines for 35 years, a lot of my co w@rkers used oral tobacco and spat all the time, yuck.
The California and New York grapes come in about early September until mid October, so the prior years vintage has to be bottled in August to make room. It's a tough job but someone has to do it.