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Comment by robmerki | Hacker News Reader

Anecdotal, but I recently started a no-sugar diet just to see what would happen, and I saw an immediate improvement in my mood. I wake up feeling excited about my day instead of groggy. I also get less tired in the evenings after work. It's not perfect, but there's a clear difference. I'm not going back.

Also, it made me realize how much sugar/HFCS/etc. is in everything.

I have a feeling the next few decades of research will make us realize how horrible our diets are.

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Even if you can't cut out sugar from your diet entirely (which is really hard given how much added sugar there is in anything that hasn't been pulled directly out of the ground), giving up sugary drinks and candy will make a big difference, as they're the biggest offenders. Even if you switch from a sugary drink to the zero-calorie version of that drink, you'll be doing yourself a favor in the long run; the jury's out on how bad aspartame is for you, but we know very well how bad these quantities of sugar are for you.

I would try to avoid taking I too much sweetener either. I am on a low sugar diet and whenever I eat a lot of stuff with sweetener I gain weight. I think the body starts acting on the sweetness signals it gets but because there is no actual sugar to process, things get out of whack.

Yes, I don't want to suggest that artificial sweetener is harmless, only that (as far as we can currently tell) it appears to be less harmful.

zero-calorie versions sounds like a bandaid, just get on non sweet drinks entirely. Saying this as a water drinker.

The amount of water that goes into creating soda is ridiculous, too.

"[it takes] as much as 132 gallons of water to make a 2-liter bottle of soda" https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123483638138996305

If you do the math, a 2-liter bottle of soda = up to 250, 2-liter bottles of water

> Even if you switch from a sugary drink to the zero-calorie version of that drink, you'll be doing yourself a favor in the long run; the jury's out on how bad aspartame is for you, but we know very well how bad these quantities of sugar are for you.

this statement is logically incorrect - if the 'jury is out' on aspertame, when it 'reconvenes' it could discover that it is worse for you than HFCS, and so no, in fact, the prophylactic switching that you speak of would in fact be detrimental.

Anecdotally, I feel much worse on 0cal/diet beverages than HFCS equivalent - the 0cal/diet ones seem much more likely to trigger headaches/inflammation in me, though it could be that I don't "think" i need as much food so I actually let the diet drink facillitate bad nutrition which in turn triggers these things ... probably the real 'safe bet' is to switch away from both regular and diet soft drinks, since HFCS also is not good

Good 0 cal drinks to try are: water, coffee, and tea.

If we go to the extreme, coffee is potentially carcinogenic (charred beans -> acrylamide, but research is inconclusive), and tea contains mercury, fluoride, and arsenic.

It's hard to say whether aspartame is worse or better than tea and coffee.

People have been drinking coffee and tea for over one thousand years, my friend.

People have been smoking for over seven thousand years and consuming alcohol for over nine thousand years. What is your point?

Probably that if there were bad side effects from coffee or tea, we’d know about it. Like we know about alcohol’s.

Precisely. And we knew about smoking's, centuries before scientific studies conclusively proved the harm.

While I am not trying to shill for artificial sweeteners (drink water, it's good!), this overstates the amount of uncertainty. Many studies have been done on aspartame and have concluded that it is a safe food additive. People have been guzzling aspartame in large quantities for thirty years now; if it had a large-scale effect that was worse than sugar, it would be pretty evident given all the attention that aspartame receives. What my cautious language is intended to couch is that you should not assume that aspartame has no health detriments; some studies have tried to link to aspartame to increased risk of cancer, while others have failed to replicate that result. But even if large-scale consumption of aspartame did lead to increased risk of cancer 30 years later, it would be less dangerous than the risk of diabetes (and its associated comorbidities) from the analogous sugar consumption over that 30 year period.

For me low sugar improves my mood but also reduces inflammation. I used to have a ton of problems with joint pain in elbows, shoulder, knees and wrists. Since I started reducing sugar a few years ago my joints are much better. Even my gums are way better. So is circulation in my legs. Now when I eat sugar, I get restless leg symptoms.

Looking at the nutrition labels of American foods can be pretty depressing. The amount of added sugar in almost any food is really high. Even pasta sauce and breads are full of sugar.

I'm the opposite.

Normally, I never have simple carbs. I'm also usually tired throughout the day, but then I started having sugary stuff, which suddenly energized me again. I've been having a candy bar every day, and I haven't felt day-tired in weeks.

Everyone is different, some people are good at processing sugar , others not so much. If I eat too much sugar i will get a crash in short order

Have you tried any other kind of carbohydrate other than sugar? Perhaps ask your doctor to test if you have mild hypoglycemia.

How long have you been on the sugary diet?

In my experience, sugar high is temporary, and the longer you persist with a sugary diet, the more adverse effects will show. I felt the same way with caffeine too.

Of course everyone is different, and what you are doing may just be right for your body.

Same here. I recently started sipping one to one and a half cans of soda during the work day, my work is half physical and on a PC, and my mood and energy levels are way more stable.

When I remember I substitute dried figs and prunes plus water with a dash of juice or weak cordial to flavour, works just as well and probably way better for nutrients and fibre.

Also anecdotal but seen this confirmed by others: Cutting out seed oils and eating more saturated fat (butter) lessens sugar/carb cravings by a lot and makes cutting out both of those toxins easier.

https://www.reddit.com/r/StopEatingSeedOils/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SaturatedFat/

The process of making those seed oils is disgustingly industrial. Repeated high temperature exposure. And a lot of bottles sit in warm places, plant oils are easy to go rancid.

>I have a feeling the next few decades of research will make us realize how horrible our diets are.

That data is in already. We know it's terrible but how do you change? Sugar is tremendously addictive. If you quit pop and other super sugary things, you'll end up compensating and eating more sugar in a different way.

Even if you do a really good job and only allow sugar through say dairy. Which has lesser sugar and different kind. You'll end up eating cheese all day long.

Worse yet, we have had propaganda from the governments pushing pro-sugar anti-fat diets on us for longer than ive been alive.

Even worse yet, we only have about 40 years left of regular agriculture. http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2015/ph240/verso2/

If our intention is to keep the current diet going... we're going to need vertical factory farming or something.

ah yeah your taste buds suddenly become a lot finer.. Someone said sugar is causing a little sensory overload making you blind.

IMO we're already near there about research, if you take the mean of publications, it points at low amount of simple non processed food, sports and other absolutely stupid things that modern life took away or made pricey (nature).

> Also, it made me realize how much sugar/HFCS/etc. is in everything.

Incredibly, they even add sugar to many brands of salt.

I doubt the amount of dextrose (anti-caking agent) you consume with table salt could ever be nutritionally significant. Have you seen other sugars added to salt? I never have.

I didn't have much of a change in energy or mood, but my allergy issues showed an immediate improvement.

Out of curiosity - how long (days/weeks) did it take you to notice your allergy improvements?

Try a month and you should see dramatic improvement.

Well, I was diagnosed with childhood asthma and I spend the average day with some sort of allergy that affects my sinuses and lungs. But after a few weeks, the allergy symptoms I had were much less severe. My headaches went away entirely.

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