Hacker News Reader

Comment by rjh29 | Hacker News Reader

No it doesn't.

The wheels of insulin reaction starts when you taste sweets, (both in your mouth and receptors in the intestines), not when the sugar hits your bloodstream.

Your body is affected by the experience of sweet, not just the fact of sugar.

> The wheels of insulin reaction starts when you taste sweets,

That's completely nonsense. Insulin is produced in the pancreas, in reaction to your blood glucose levels, and has nothing to do with your taste buds.

Source: I use a Dexcom G7 CGM. I know exactly what creates a glucose spike, and most truly sugar-free / carbs free foods (e.g. sugarfree Jell-O) cause 0 spike.

The pancreas is part of the endocrine system and blood sugar is far from the only signalling pathway. I'm not sure why you would think I was suggesting a 'spike' in blood sugar from this. Wouldn't it be a reduction?

I'm referring to, among other things:

taste receptors in the gut: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24131638/

what is apparently called Cephalic Phase Insulin Release, it's probably discussion of this paper where I first heard of it: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28148491/ though other papers found no clear link ("conjectural") between CPIR and "family history of type 2 diabetes" (whatever that means): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5348013/

Diabetes is not a solved field of medicine, and rates are still rising dramatically.

Fair point. The link seems still conjectural at best, but appreciate you elaborating and providing the links. My comment was indeed too reductionist.

Thank you for this. It confirms a lot of the issues I've been experiencing lately.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com