> no dietary need for sugar
Can I assume you mean simple sugars that are added for taste? If you literally meant what you said, well you will die without carbohydrates (sugar).
Can I assume you mean simple sugars that are added for taste? If you literally meant what you said, well you will die without carbohydrates (sugar).
2. You can live even without carbohydrates as such, only some fats and proteins are essential. Traditional Inuit diet consists of fat and protein; they are fairly healthy as long as they do not adopt modern Western diet.
https://theiflife.com/the-inuit-paradox-high-fat-lower-heart...
“Traditional Inuit diets derive approximately 50% of their calories from fat, 30–35% from protein and 15–20% of their calories from carbohydrates, largely in the form of glycogen from the raw meat they consumed.
This high fat content provides valuable energy and prevents protein poisoning, which historically was sometimes a problem in late winter when game animals grew lean through winter starvation.
It has been suggested that because the fats of the Inuit's wild-caught game are largely monounsaturated and rich in omega-3 fatty acids, the diet does not pose the same health risks as a typical Western high-fat diet.
However, actual evidence has shown that Inuit have a similar prevalence of coronary artery disease as non-Inuit populations and they have excessive mortality due to cerebrovascular strokes, with twice the risk to that of the North American population.
Indeed, the cardiovascular risk of this diet is so severe that the addition of a more standard American diet has reduced the incidence of mortality in the Inuit population.
The ‘everything is sugar’ meme really frustrates the conversation about nutrition and does lead to people making bad nutrition choices, as I’ve personally observed IRL.
One can argue that you might be healthier in the long run with carbohydrates, I’m inclined to disagree, but to argue that you can’t get energy without them is just objectively incorrect.
0 - There is a tiny percentage (10 cases) of the population with the inability to build up body fat thanks to the Mardanoid-progeroid-lipodystrophy syndrome. Those with the syndrome can’t store excess calories in the form of body fat, and must eat continuous small meals to meet their metabolic needs. Curiously it seems like the lack of body fat makes their metabolism incredibly inefficient, as they are reported to average 5,000 to 8,000 calories a day. I presume this is because every calorie they eat is “use it or lose it”, resulting in a lot of waste.
1 - Humans can store some glucose in their liver and muscles for immediate use. But strenuous activity can easily exhaust this supply, so it’s not a reasonable source of energy for even moderate fasts.
Popular treatment is to eliminate sugar as a starting point. Then move onto other inflammatory foods.