Comment by gassius | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gassius | Hacker News Reader

BOOM the smoking gun goes off.

As a nicotine addicted person, currently on recovery (but very aware of the lifelong fight that it is for me), and as a LCHF dieter, to me the relation is very clear. In my case, sugar has the same addictive effects than nicotine, and apparently, it has as most or even worst malign effects.

This is not to say that everyone should follow a LCHF diet, or that it will work for everyone. I do think that if you keep your carbs under 100g daily, and they are low profile insulin type, you should be good and safe. But for me, as an addicted person, if I deviate from 15g is very easy to get into a slippery slope and the next thing I know I am eating donuts and flurries. If I smoke a cigarette on a night out, the next thing I know I am smoking a pack daily or more.

The thing is, as with tobacco before, the sugar industry (which is probably the 90% of volume of the whole food industry world wide) has gone ways and beyond to hook us to their products and to cover the negative effects. Too many people is addicted to High Carbs without even knowing it.

I hope this studies get more and more attention in the mainstream media and many more people could at least review their lifestyle with more information and asses what is best for each of them.

As I recall, sugar is part of the Kreb's Cycle and is the brain's primary fuel. Nicotine is present in trace amounts in some plant matter, but is irrelevant for human physiology. Sure, sugar overconsumption in its raw form is probably bad for you, but it's not really on the same wavelength as smoking.

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors are present throughout your body's nervous system and nicotine is an agonist for them. Thus nicotine is relevant for human physiology.

Glucose is part of the kreb's cycle; sucrose (table sugar) is made up of glucose and fructose. The metabolism of fructose is much more complicated, and ends up producing byproducts that can be linked back to metabolic syndrome. The discussions I've heard about sugar are really more focused on the toxicity associated with fructose and not that of glucose - I think some researchers would argue that fructose consumption is on par with nicotine with respect to ill health effects.

How does one review their lifestyle?

I was told I've got Rheumatoid Arthritis after extensive testing and doctor visits with specialists over a few months. I'm shopping around ideas on how to review and track my day to day life.

I'd look at WFPB for food (I'm NOT a HFLC or keto promoter at all) and some strength training (most bang of your hour of commitment -- see reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness) for starters. That will get most to a place of general wellbeing (both in not toxifying your body and posture) in a few months.

The basic idea I believe many of the "cronic", "infammetory", "auto-immune" and/or "unfixable by MDs" diseases lies in a diet that is not for humans. Hummans are frugavores (fruit eaters, that can only tolerate minescule, bug-size, amounts of meat), like primates. Technically frugavores are a sub-category of omnivores, but in practise there are a lot of differences (dog/bear/swine = omnivore). Herbivores are different too: they graze and have multiple stomachs. Understand that you are a frugavore, and live up to it, or --as I understand it-- the "unfixable by MDs diseases" will get you. They cannot fix it, because you need to stop something, not add a drug or cut-out/radiate a piece of body.

You can look for natural remedies of RA. Flax seed powder (high in ALA-O3) and high DHA-O3 algae extract oil capsules are great. So is turmeric.

More info see Dr Greger and Dr Bergman. They have videos on the topic of RA. These guys base their advice on science.

Then there is the, not so well scientifically supported, next level (first eat "clean" for a while) and that is detoxing. This basically starts by a colon cleanse and "getting your kidneys to filter". Dr Robert Morse is your guy here. This will involve some types of fasting for most people. Once your colon and kidneys can properly eliminate waste, you lymph system will be able to drain the acidic waste from you inflamed joints and your body will heal you RA, naturally.

G'luck! You can fix this 100%. With the emphasis on you, as your condition is due to a lack of some pharmaceutical (patented medicine). It is MOST probably due to your body's been obstructed in fixing itself somehow.

Yep, there definitely aren’t any human populations such as the Masai or the Inuit who live primarily on animal products. That would be completely crazy and no one would survive such a diet.

They have exactly the disease patterns that come with those diets. Clearly not in the "blue zones" (= places with lots of centenarians) too.

I'm not talking about survival. Some people survive smoking for 50 years. I'm talking about us being frugavores, and thus being most healthy on a frugavorous diets like the primates.

Edit: changed my mind about posting, sorry about that.

> That diet may be just you body responding well to it.

I believe different. We are frugavores.

> Sugary stuff, forget it.

Indeed, bad for ever human. (I took it as processed sugary stuff, not fruit which is great for humans)

> Got fat when I became officially dad.

These things are unrelated, you're a man. Lol. Jokes aside, a frugavorous diet can melt your fat. And the health impact from bad diets can take years to show (like smoking or exposure to heavy metals).

if I where you I would have a look at this video playlist from Dr Greger, for what he says your condition can be very improved - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5TLzNi5fYd8asBilI_Aj...

I think there is value in traking the intake to your system, but is of course a chore. I used myfitnesspal for a year and its great to have a data driven approach, but is also exahusting.

Also traking your physical activity could be done with several combinations of devices and apps.

But also, very important, is to track your mood and overall feeling and wellness (or lack of). Again several apps are out there, but a old good pen and paper diary goes a long way.

Then, is a matter of correlate, and review back to when you were feeling better and try to replicate and optimize.

Of course this is nothing new, Tim Ferris and several other authors had dedicated a lot of ink to the subject of traking and self-improvement.

The other way to do it is hear your body, and do what you know it works. It's a lot more relaxed, but prone to biases.

This is not to say that any condition can be treated with lifestyle adjustments. I don't know about your condition and I am not giving any medical advice. But for sure I will try to see if any specific diet helps me to feel better if I were in your situation

Try taking probiotics for the sugar cravings. After I started taking them desserts started tasting uncomfortably sweet and I stopped getting a high from sugar.

You might add to try different strains. I found that certain strains actually increased my "sweet-tooth". It took a few tried to find the right one for me. I believe it has to do with each persons existing bacteria in their gut and finding the probiotics that don't upset the balance in the wrong direction.

Which probiotics are you taking? There is a huge variety and not all are created equal (or even similar).

> Too many people is addicted to High Carbs without even knowing it.

Not to mention, and probably worse, refined sugar. It is basically crack cocaine.

> refined sugar. It is basically crack cocaine.

To put this into context. I've been on refined sugar for about 50 years now. The health effects are - I have 2 fillings and and a BMI somewhat above the recommended.

It's basically not crack cocaine.

Science right there.

An interesting thing about sugar: though a key part of certain delicious recipes (e.g. cake, ice cream) a cup full of pure granulated sugar does not appeal.

What is it about nutrition that makes people resort to ridiculous hyperbole like this? No, sugar is not like crack cocaine, and red meat is not like cigarettes.

> What is it about nutrition that makes people resort to ridiculous hyperbole like this?

A 2017 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2017/08/23/bjsports-2017-0...

Agree with the sentiment, but there is a valid point to be made about the addictive qualities of sugar vs cocaine.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1931610/

To downvoters: let me know you think about the following study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine: http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2017/08/23/bjsports-2017-0...

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