Question:
Sugar goes donw real easy, Can somebody tell me why it 's so bad for you ?
Someone said that sugar immediately absorbs in the mouth and goes straight to the fat cells..need more clarity. — Rhonda N. (posted on October 17, 2003)
October 17, 2003
I have no idea-I have not been brave enough to try sugar. (can do without
the dumping) I look forward to reading the responses.
— Lisa D.
October 17, 2003
Concentrated empty calories with no nutrients or protein. Causes dumping if
your lucky. The more sugar you eat the more you can eat. Early on you will
loose weight no matter what you eat cause you can eat so little. But
eventually it can haunt you with poor weight loss and regain. I myself
started eating oreo cookie bars and gained 10 pounds. That was a wakeup
call for me and at most I buy a single one once a week or less. If its
around I will eat the whole box of 6:( The smart post ops avoid sugar like
its rat poison, because it really is fopr us.
— bob-haller
October 17, 2003
Your profile doesn't state which surgery you had. . . .Duodenal Switch
doesn't cause dumping because you keep the pyloric valve. . . .RNY can
cause dumping (it usually does). . . .Whoever said sugar is absorbed in the
mouth doesn't know a thing about the digestive system. . . .PLEASE PLEASE
PLEASE do some research and reading about the different types of WLS and
the side-effects!!!!!
— Marrilee M.
October 17, 2003
Most processed foods (like sugar and flour) tend to be bad for the body.
We can consume too much of it with great ease and over-consumption of
anything, including protein can be bad for us. Oh, and sugar does begin to
digest in the mouth where salivary glads release digestive enzymes that
start breaking it down there. Sugar is calorie dense and is easily stored.
If you have a very efficient body and burn it well it may not be such an
issue for YOU, but for most MO people it IS poison as Bob pointed out
earlier.
— [Deactivated Member]
October 17, 2003
I can't give you specific examples of why sugar is 'bad' for you, but as a
type 2 diabetic I can state with a certain degree of surity that since I
have stopped eating processed suagr, in any form 4 years ago, I hardly ever
get a cold, and when I do, it is of much shorter duration, days instead of
weeks. The same goes for flu and any stomach ailments that pass through
this house. The one son who loves sugar has a cold, and it seems to go on
for endless weeks. I work at a public desk in a library, and the kids come
in with the sniffles and sneezes, and the chance for contracting colds and
flu are much higher for being in that environment all day long. I cannot
assess as to the why...but I know for a fact that the severity of the cold
and flu season is much shorter when one is sugar free. The same for the
wife, who has cut her sugar intake about 90%.
— track
October 17, 2003
One of the reasons sugar is so bad for us post op is because it does go
down real easy. My surgeon advises that one can "eat around" any
WLS and sugar consumption is one way to do it. Sugar is a highly refined
source of calories that offers little else nutritionally. Even for RNY
patients who dump, repeated consumption of refined sugar will tend to
increase your tolerance and you may find that over time you no longer dump,
or that it takes a larger amount of sugar to cause dumping. Also, for many
of us (myself included) sugar is a trigger food that leads to cravings for
more and more sugar. My sugar addiction was a significant contributor to
my MO and I wanted the "behavior modification factor" of dumping
to help me avoid sugar. Highly refined carbohydrates ("white
carbs" like white bread, pasta, crackers, and rice) are almost as bad
for us ... they are converted to sugar quickly and easily as a result of
the digestive process.
— Lynn T.
October 18, 2003
Rhonda--- In addition to the great advice that Lynn just gave you, I would
like to add a few important things to consider. Given that your posting
implies that you are regularly using sugar and that you don't seem to think
that it's a problem, I would be a little concerned that you may undermine
all the hard work you put into having the surgery. First, if sugar has
been "going down easy" for you, that would probably be an
indication that you have been indulging in it. Maybe now would be a good
time to ask yourself "why?"-- what is about sugar's hold on you
that you would indulge in a food that your body just doesn't need (we can
get our energy needs met through so many other foods). Secondly, assuming
that you were obese enough to warrant surgery (and were subjected to lots
of nutritional advice) and endured (like so many of us) countless attempts
over the years with doctors, dieticians and other weight-loss people to
lose the pounds, didn't the topic of "sugar" come up and didn't
you connect the advice that sugar consumption does not promote weight
loss?
We are all guilty of experiencing that disconnect between the advice we've
been given and the cravings that come from our food demons-- the important
thing, however, is to use your peers here and in your support group to try
to stop relying on those comfort foods and figure out why we turn back to
them after surgery. Good luck.
— SteveColarossi
October 18, 2003
This is interesting. I hear so many people say, "but it goes down so
easy and does not hurt my pouch so it must be a good thing to eat." I
hear this about so many foods that post ops should, while losing, probably
avoid. Just because it goes down easy does not mean that it is good for
you. If you want to read a book that will explain just what sugar does to
your body it is called, Sugar Blues. It explains how cultures that never
ate sugar never had disease until they started eating sugar and other
refined products. They are empty completely non-nutritional calories that
add up fast and will slow or stop your weight loss as well as helping you
to gain back later. There is no food in that food. What was your pre op
diet like? Did it contain a lot of sugar and refined foods? Connect the
dots, we need to completely change the way we did thing preop and adopt
healthier habits in order to make this work.
— Carol S.
October 18, 2003
Sugar and Carbs turn into fat (the stuff your body doesn't need, and your
body doesn't need a lot of either of these!!!!). And as an obease person
we should all know that we DON'T need any more fat!!!! Plus, there is no
nutrional value. Your body isn't getting as much nutrinents (sp?) now as
it once was, so every thing you eat should be to keep yourself a live...and
maybe allow yourself a treat once a month!
— Renee B.
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