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Comment by GavinMcG | Hacker News Reader

“It’s possible that consuming glucose (and other forms of sugar) has an effect on weight gain, but based on the fact that MANY different foods exhibit similar weight-related effects, it seems more likely that it is the actual experience of flavor that makes the body convert calories to fat.”

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Wasn't there something about artificial sweeteners causing the brain to release hormones that lead to insulin resistance? So the brain is reacting to the "flavor" rather than the actual sugar (or more precisely, the neurological pathway that consciousness experiences as sweet taste is also linked to this sugar-related physiological chain reaction).

I think this might've been a myth.

I wore a constant glucose monitor for a while (Veri), and drinking soft drinks filled with all kinds of artificial sweeteners caused no glucose changes. If sweeteners caused a spike in insuline, I would see glucose levels fall.

I tried finding research on the subject once, and couldn't find anything legit.

> I wore a constant glucose monitor for a while (Veri), and drinking soft drinks filled with all kinds of artificial sweeteners caused no glucose changes.

It doesn't cause immediate changes, it causes long-term changes to glucose response by altering the gut microbiome. Here's a recent double-blind randomized controlled trial showing these effects that was discussed on HN a few weeks back:

https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(22)00919-9

This is the first study that I think showed this pretty conclusively.

Yes, it was on the frontpage of HN a few weeks ago. Off the top of my head the results were that certain artificial sweeteners spike insulin and some don't.

This doesn’t pass the smell test for an in vivo result. If they spiked insulin in a physiological meaningful way without actual glucose you’d expect hypoglycemia. It’s not like insulin resistance is an acute process.

You should read the study: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(22)00919-9

Did you? It doesn’t contradict anything I stated.

I don’t think the GPs informal synopsis characterizes the gist of that paper in any meaningful way.

I thought it was that the reduce insulin sensitivity, so you’re affected when you DO have sugar on the future?

I heard an interesting counterploint the other day. I think the statement is completely unfounded but figured I'd share because it sounds reasonable...

"Memories are formed by neural pathways, and it is these memories / correlations that form a basis for (some) mental illness. Taking psychedelics can help take another perspective on these memories and rewrite these these pathways / correlations."

This is specifically true for some phobias:

https://ec.europa.eu/research-and-innovation/en/horizon-maga...

Wow this sheds some new light on an anecdotal experience if mine:

I once watched a climber free climb a moderate 30 meter route me and my friends had just completed with ropes, and he mentioned his LSD hallucination was peaking as he saw us at the top.

I considered that maybe climbers like him have exceptionally higher risk tolerance or a habituated comfort with psychedelics and climbing. However, as someone with a reasonable amount of exposure to both of those (separately), it still baffled me. This feels like a more palatable explanation in tandem with higher risk tolerances and habituation.

Great read. Thanks for sharing!

While this is a completely fair counterpoint, the part that GP didn’t mention is that a patient’s subjective experience is usually ignored or minimized in psychological research, which prefers to focus on behavior and biological phenomena (because they are easier to measure).

It seems to me like the “trip” aspect is at least worth some investigation.

Not really a fair comparison. How can you compare weight gain to a mental illness?

...except sweetness isn't what all those foods have in common?

Precisely. That's why the placebo effect is so effective.

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