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Comment by hrodriguez | Hacker News Reader

I didn't watch the film or do other research except for reading the article. I just wonder what the effects of a lifetime of bad eating, smoking and who knows what else... did to his body previously. He may have already built-up some medical issues.

Any problems he had previously weren't reported and analysed in the article. A "healthy" diet for 3 years doesn't miraculously erase his past. To suddenly go into a divergent new shock diet without a slow adjustment period could have the body reacting in ways that were unforeseen as a way of protecting itself.

I'm not suggesting, in the least, that 40 teaspoon of a sugar every single day is good for anyone(LOL). It just seems that lots of people in that range would have off days where they hit that high for a day or two... followed by lower sugar intakes for several days (giving the body time to heal or adjust).

It just reminds me of the "Deadly Facts about Water" meme:

https://imgur.com/gallery/hv8sL2J

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The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is today. As for adjusting you don't need a period of adjustment to go from a sugar riddled diet to a non-sugar riddled diet. Or to ease into it. I have never read anything to suggest something like that. You need to do that with exercise because the fat built up in your arteries might break off and clog your heart. Or the arteries are too narrow as it is and exertion might cause problems in you won't get enough blood running properly in your system which could cause other cadiovascular problems.

I think hrodriguez meant that it was the shock of going from a ~3 year low-sugar diet to a 40-tablespoon-per-day diet that was responsible for the sudden influx of negative effects, one that might not have been seen if he gradually eased into the high sugar diet.

Exactly. For example, I don't consume alcohol. When I do so on the rare occasion, just a little hits me very hard. Regular drinkers don't have this issue. I would never think of going from zero alcohol to consuming a bottle of vodka every day.

I also enjoy a pretty healthy diet/lifestyle - low-salt, low-fat, fruits, veggies, plenty of fiber, regular exercise... I find that my body reacts very badly if I "treat" myself and indulge throughout the day in whatever everyone else consumes so freely. No such issue if it's just a single meal.

I need to taper in (ie, the Holidays are a good example). High salt, high-fat meals are especially hard hitting. I can counter this with lots more water, fiber for example. I also know that if I remained on these richer diets, eventually my body wouldn't react so strongly but I would also need to make other dietary changes. Damon Gameau admits he did not make other changes to his diet.

The experiment was a non-stop, high-dose, sugar binge (40 tsp is incredibly high) that went from 0-100 mph in a microsecond.

I imagine this to be a problem as well. One of the things I've been starting to hypothesize a lot about is gut biome effects on diet and nutrition. If you just up and change your overnight, your gut flora doesn't have time to evolve to the new conditions. I'm also starting to suspect, based on the popularity of month long elimination diets, that a month is the amount of time it takes for gut flora to significantly change, and that at the least you'd want at least that much ramp up time.

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