Sucrose is the primary source of modern disease

[Peatress]

2023 is definitely the year of the anti-peat threads.

Considering the pro-metabolic properties of sucrose I can’t imagine that it would promote cancer growth.

Dr Peat points out that the increases in calories in the form of pufa and starch are the driving force of metabolic diseases including obesity.

In these interview clips he discusses the benefits of high fruit (sucrose) diet which helps prevent a high redox state that promotes lactic acid. Excess lactic acid promotes cancer.

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[Truth]

Hello,

Without quoting specific papers or studies unless requested, it's been very obvious to me that sucrose, which is one part glucose, one part fructose, is the main source of metabolic syndrome, which in turn is the umbrella condition that leads to the other more commonly known diseases such as Atherosclerosis Cardiovascular Disease (ASCVD), Dementia, Diabates, Obesity, Stroke, and Renal disease. These diseases contribute to 25% of worldwide annual deaths, which for all intent and purposes, are almost entirely preventable. I have not included cancer, which is about 15% of total deaths on its own, to sugar given the highly complex and number of pathophysiologies involved to attribute it to one single factor, although I am happy to entertain the idea that it can be significantly reduced, or alternatively is highly predictable through sucrose consumption.

Table sugar, or added sugars are the main component of total sugars consumed by the average person in their diet, although high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), although banned or scarce in most of the developed world, is still being used widely in the US or East Asia, also falls under that category since they are essentially metabolically equivalent in the human body.

This is a thread to discuss and post resources regarding the most convincing, or the latest scientific research regarding sucrose, or fructose consumption.

Hi

Table sugar, and a good part of concentrated sweet foods can make us feel positive and/or negative, depending on the rest of what we eat, this does not imply that they are intrinsically bad for us

Long live the best sweet foods and long live the rest of the diet that provides what we potentially need to feel great

 

[GTW]

This is a very broad question, however I will attempt to explain the biochemical process by which sucrose, to make the distinction more targeted, consumption can lead to inflammation is multifaceted and involves key steps that eventually leads to inflammation, initially transitory, then chronically.

1. Sucrose, a disaccharide composed of glucose and fructose, is quickly broken down in the gut and absorbed into the bloodstream. This rapid absorption can cause spikes in blood sugar levels.

2. The rise in blood glucose triggers the pancreas to release insulin, a hormone that helps cells absorb glucose from the bloodstream for energy. Given the unprocessed nature, and the presence of fructose molecule, it reliably causes the biggest insulin spike of any of the most commonly consumed foods. Overconsumption of sucrose leads to frequent insulin spikes that increases the daily AUC.

3. Unlike glucose, fructose is primarily metabolized in the liver. High intake of fructose (which forms half of sucrose) can overwhelm the liver's processing capacity, leading to several metabolic disturbances:
- Excess fructose can be converted into fats (triglycerides) through DNL. This process can lead to fat accumulation in the liver (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, NAFLD), which is associated with inflammation and the primary cause of hepatic (and consequently) systemic insuling resistance
- Fructose metabolism can lead to increased production of uric acid, a byproduct that, at high levels, may cause inflammation and oxidative stress.

5. Excess energy and DNL from sucrose leads to the expansion of adipose tissue. Overstretched adipocytes (fat cells) can become hypoxic (low in oxygen) and stressed, releasing pro-inflammatory cytokines and adipokines. This is already well established in CRP for overweight and obese subjects.

6. High blood glucose levels increase oxidative stress, leading to the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). These ROS can damage cells and tissues, triggering an inflammatory response.

7. Certain components of the immune system, particularly macrophages and other inflammatory cells, can be activated by these metabolic disturbances caused by high sucrose consumption, further exacerbating inflammation.

8. In insulin resistance, there is an increased production of pro-inflammatory cytokines like IL-1β and IL-6. These cytokines are produced in response to prolonged exposure to free fatty acids (FFAs) and glucose, particularly in the β-cells of the pancreas. This production triggers various transcription-mediated molecular pathways, such as TXNIP, MYD88, NF-κB, TLRs, caspases, and inflammasomes, leading to inflammation.

9. In obesity, which often accompanies insulin resistance, the adipose tissue and liver become key sites for inflammation. This is even more true for visceral fat, it's almost 4x as inflammatory as adipose fat, and hepatic fat is 10x as inflammatory as adipose far. In the liver, steatosis, visceral fat, and obesity activate inflammatory signaling pathways, with cytokines and FFAs produced by hepatocytes or abdominal fat tissue potentially activating Kupffer cells (resident hepatic macrophages). This hepatic inflammation is a significant factor in insulin resistance. Fructose (and alcohol sugar) is known to increase hepatic and visceral fat the highest, regardless of calorie consumption.

10. IL-6, a cytokine whose levels are positively correlated with insulin resistance. IL-6 impacts non-oxidative glucose metabolism and lipoprotein lipase activity, influencing plasma triglyceride levels. It also activates the suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS) proteins, which can block the activation of the insulin receptor, contributing to insulin resistance as a negative feedback. More specifically, the inflammation response depends on the mechanism. Glucose induces short term postprandial oxidation and associated inflammation, eventually leading to long term insulin resistance, while fructose induces long term insulin resistance and increase in pro-inflammatory cytokine responses through overconsumption from more blunted insulin response, and associated gradual increase in hepatic and visceral fat.

Mechanisms of inflammatory responses and development of insulin resistance: how are they interlinked? - Journal of Biomedical Science

Background Insulin resistance (IR) is one of the major hallmark for pathogenesis and etiology of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). IR is directly interlinked with various inflammatory responses which play crucial role in the development of IR. Inflammatory responses play a crucial role in the...

jbiomedsci.biomedcentral.com

JCI - Inflammation and insulin resistance

www.jci.org

Correct. Glucose is a toxic and addictive reactive aldehyde. Hemoglobin a1c values are a measure of the degree of glucose binding and denaturing organ proteins.

 

[Razvan]

So based to this. What do you eat? I'm just curious.

 

[Peatful]

Correct. Glucose is a toxic and addictive reactive aldehyde. Hemoglobin a1c values are a measure of the degree of glucose binding and denaturing organ proteins.

Glucose and sucrose for diabetes.

Diabetes was named for the excessive urination it causes, and for the sugar in the urine. It was called the sugar disease, and physicians were taught that sugar was the problem. Patients were ordered to avoid sweet foods, and in hospitals they were sometimes locked up to keep them from finding...

raypeat.com

Im glad those that don’t follow Peat to the minutia are here
Yet-
Peats work or contributions for the net positive “attributes” of sucrose is a foundational one…

 

[S.Holmes]

Correlation doesn't imply causation. Sugar gets blamed for everything, but Dr Peat says it's similar to taking thyroid. Anything that boosts metabolism can be harmful without enough support nutrients. PUFAS and toxic halogens, specifically bromine and fluorine, are the real culprits, imo.

 

[Alpha]

Considering the pro-metabolic properties of sucrose I can’t imagine that it would promote cancer growth.

Cancer is a huge topic and a field of itself that I wasn't planning delving into. We still don't know exactly why they happen and how do they work, especially given the many types and locations, all of which are seemingly substantially different and deserve study on their individual properties, whereby its difficult to generalise across tumor growth. There are conflicting studies out there that support lack of oxygenation, angiogenesis, and free fatty acids as the main drivers of growth.

Dr Peat points out that the increases in calories in the form of pufa and starch are the driving force of metabolic diseases including obesity

I would agree with caloric overconsumption which are mostly hidden through PUFA and added sugars. I would strongly disagree with starches. There was an excellent study that showed weight gain in the presence of excess glucose, glucose + fructose, or fructose only. The results were surprising, where glucose only group showed a small decrease in weight, fructose showed a notable increase, and the fructose+glucose combination seemed to have a synergistic biochemical effect that increased fat deposits the most, that is effectively simulating sucrose. I need to find that one again.

In these interview clips he discusses the benefits of high fruit (sucrose) diet which helps prevent a high redox state that promotes lactic acid. Excess lactic acid promotes cancer.

There is nothing wrong with a high fruit diet, or high starch diet. The quality of food is more important than the individual components. Refer to my post on fruits earlier.

 

[Alpha]

So based to this. What do you eat? I'm just curious.

I would say I eat a pretty unremarkable diet. The only restrictions I have are sucrose (I do have a teaspoon of white sugar in my morning decaff coffee), and PUFA (vegetable oils really). I try to keep daily sucrose and added sugars below 20g a day, the lower the better. Cakes, donuts, common chocolates and candies, and soft beverages are all out of the question. I do like to have one or two blocks of dark 70% chocolate as dessert. I used to eat fruits quite a lot to substitute my sugar intake, but could not sustain it for a length of time and gave up. I generally try to focus on whole foods as the main component of my diet, typically a main protien course like grilled chicken, steak, or fish, and a side dish of starches most often rice, and a green salad or vegetables when possible.

Alternatively, I supplement with 10g of fiber with my main meal everyday, and take a green/plant supplement everyday, along with magnesium 400mg a night, and 1g of fish oil in the morning. Its not ideal, but it's almost all of what I want to see in a diet and most importantly, I can sustain it indefinitely.

 

[Razvan]

I would say I eat a pretty unremarkable diet. The only restrictions I have are sucrose (I do have a teaspoon of white sugar in my morning decaff coffee), and PUFA (vegetable oils really). I try to keep daily sucrose and added sugars below 20g a day, the lower the better. Cakes, donuts, common chocolates and candies, and soft beverages are all out of the question. I do like to have one or two blocks of dark 70% chocolate as dessert. I used to eat fruits quite a lot to substitute my sugar intake, but could not sustain it for a length of time and gave up. I generally try to focus on whole foods as the main component of my diet, typically a main protien course like grilled chicken, steak, or fish, and a side dish of starches most often rice, and a green salad or vegetables when possible.

Alternatively, I supplement with 10g of fiber with my main meal everyday, and take a green/plant supplement everyday, along with magnesium 400mg a night, and 1g of fish oil in the morning. Its not ideal, but it's almost all of what I want to see in a di.

I somehow agree with the O3s PUFA since i think the milk of my grandmother cows has more O3s then normal milks and i feel like its another food from normal milk in terms of quality and taste. Must be a good a thing and i dont abstain from it.

 

[Dapose]

Plus a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down.

 

[RealNeat]

This is a very broad question, however I will attempt to explain the biochemical process by which sucrose, to make the distinction more targeted, consumption can lead to inflammation is multifaceted and involves key steps that eventually leads to inflammation, initially transitory, then chronically.

1. Sucrose, a disaccharide composed of glucose and fructose, is quickly broken down in the gut and absorbed into the bloodstream. This rapid absorption can cause spikes in blood sugar levels.

2. The rise in blood glucose triggers the pancreas to release insulin, a hormone that helps cells absorb glucose from the bloodstream for energy. Given the unprocessed nature, and the presence of fructose molecule, it reliably causes the biggest insulin spike of any of the most commonly consumed foods. Overconsumption of sucrose leads to frequent insulin spikes that increases the daily AUC.

3. Unlike glucose, fructose is primarily metabolized in the liver. High intake of fructose (which forms half of sucrose) can overwhelm the liver's processing capacity, leading to several metabolic disturbances:
- Excess fructose can be converted into fats (triglycerides) through DNL. This process can lead to fat accumulation in the liver (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, NAFLD), which is associated with inflammation and the primary cause of hepatic (and consequently) systemic insuling resistance
- Fructose metabolism can lead to increased production of uric acid, a byproduct that, at high levels, may cause inflammation and oxidative stress.

5. Excess energy and DNL from sucrose leads to the expansion of adipose tissue. Overstretched adipocytes (fat cells) can become hypoxic (low in oxygen) and stressed, releasing pro-inflammatory cytokines and adipokines. This is already well established in CRP for overweight and obese subjects.

6. High blood glucose levels increase oxidative stress, leading to the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). These ROS can damage cells and tissues, triggering an inflammatory response.

7. Certain components of the immune system, particularly macrophages and other inflammatory cells, can be activated by these metabolic disturbances caused by high sucrose consumption, further exacerbating inflammation.

8. In insulin resistance, there is an increased production of pro-inflammatory cytokines like IL-1β and IL-6. These cytokines are produced in response to prolonged exposure to free fatty acids (FFAs) and glucose, particularly in the β-cells of the pancreas. This production triggers various transcription-mediated molecular pathways, such as TXNIP, MYD88, NF-κB, TLRs, caspases, and inflammasomes, leading to inflammation.

9. In obesity, which often accompanies insulin resistance, the adipose tissue and liver become key sites for inflammation. This is even more true for visceral fat, it's almost 4x as inflammatory as adipose fat, and hepatic fat is 10x as inflammatory as adipose far. In the liver, steatosis, visceral fat, and obesity activate inflammatory signaling pathways, with cytokines and FFAs produced by hepatocytes or abdominal fat tissue potentially activating Kupffer cells (resident hepatic macrophages). This hepatic inflammation is a significant factor in insulin resistance. Fructose (and alcohol sugar) is known to increase hepatic and visceral fat the highest, regardless of calorie consumption.

10. IL-6, a cytokine whose levels are positively correlated with insulin resistance. IL-6 impacts non-oxidative glucose metabolism and lipoprotein lipase activity, influencing plasma triglyceride levels. It also activates the suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS) proteins, which can block the activation of the insulin receptor, contributing to insulin resistance as a negative feedback. More specifically, the inflammation response depends on the mechanism. Glucose induces short term postprandial oxidation and associated inflammation, eventually leading to long term insulin resistance, while fructose induces long term insulin resistance and increase in pro-inflammatory cytokine responses through overconsumption from more blunted insulin response, and associated gradual increase in hepatic and visceral fat.

Mechanisms of inflammatory responses and development of insulin resistance: how are they interlinked? - Journal of Biomedical Science

Background Insulin resistance (IR) is one of the major hallmark for pathogenesis and etiology of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). IR is directly interlinked with various inflammatory responses which play crucial role in the development of IR. Inflammatory responses play a crucial role in the...

jbiomedsci.biomedcentral.com

JCI - Inflammation and insulin resistance

www.jci.org

If only Peat knew of these issues and wrote scores of articles, books and interviews about it. If only. Its a shame he died in such a state of massive obesity and no cognitive prowess.

 

[RealNeat]

Yes, without changing topics of the thread, if you consume PUFAs in your daily diet, which you undoubtedly are, you need to consume 1-2g of combined EPA+DHA a day. You're body is very inefficient at converting them endogenously unless you are pregnant for the baby's brain development. The ideal omega-3 index is around 8-12%, where most people are in the 2-4%.

So you dont restrict highly unsaturated fatty acids but you do restrict PUFA in general... got it... You do realize a normal whole food diet gives you more omegas than one needs for any imaginary physiological need that isnt met by oleic acid. Have you just ignored Peats work or are you actually that convinced of mainstream views on nutrition that you feel the need to evangelize them on a forum of the complete opposite view?

 

[Razvan]

So you dont restrict highly unsaturated fatty acids but you do restrict PUFA in general... got it... You do realize a normal whole food diet gives you more omegas than one needs for any imaginary physiological need that isnt met by oleic acid. Have you just ignored Peats work or are you actually that convinced of mainstream views on nutrition that you feel the need to evangelize them on a forum of the complete opposite view?

Let's not be autoritharian here man, the guy expressed his opinions without hate, his points are not that Anti-Peat.
We can talk about a lot of correlations.

 

[youngsinatra]

Sugar lacks the B vitamins and minerals (potassium, magnesium, manganese..) that are needed for glucose oxidation and insulin sensitivity.

This is also true for things like white rice, so one need to make sure that they have sufficient vitamin and mineral intake.

 

[Peatress]

If only Peat knew of these issues and wrote scores of articles, books and interviews about it. If only. Its a shame he died in such a state of massive obesity and no cognitive prowess.

 

[PopSocket]

Yes, without changing topics of the thread, if you consume PUFAs in your daily diet, which you undoubtedly are, you need to consume 1-2g of combined EPA+DHA a day. You're body is very inefficient at converting them endogenously unless you are pregnant for the baby's brain development. The ideal omega-3 index is around 8-12%, where most people are in the 2-4%.

OK.

Wonder how the body magically becomes really good at converting them when it is pregnant but very bad at it when it is not ? Never researched this. Would be happy to let me know.

Regarding purified sugar - as @youngsinatra said - it is only bad when the body cannot convert it into energy due to deficiencies. Also if the energy production mechanisms are somehow not working properly due to other reasons and the electrons are being leached and turned into fat/inflammation.

By itself sugar cannot cause damage if the organism is in a perfect state. Having said that - most are us are damaged already. But cutting out sugar/fruit is just a band-aid.

 

[Ras]

Hello,

Without quoting specific papers or studies unless requested, it's been very obvious to me that sucrose, which is one part glucose, one part fructose, is the main source of metabolic syndrome, which in turn is the umbrella condition that leads to the other more commonly known diseases such as Atherosclerosis Cardiovascular Disease (ASCVD), Dementia, Diabates, Obesity, Stroke, and Renal disease.

What are your thoughts on the healthful effects of Dr. Kempner's Rice Diet? While largely glucose in the form of rice, it is very high in fructose from its fruit and additional sucrose. It was employed to cure cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and renal dysfunction.

Walter Kempner, MD - Founder of the Rice Diet - Dr. McDougall

Click to learn about the founder of the rice diet, Dr. Walter Kempner. This incredible diet can be safe and therapeutic for a range of conditions.

www.drmcdougall.com

 

[Peatress]

"Diabetes was named for the excessive urination it causes, and for the sugar in the urine. It was called the sugar disease, and physicians were taught that sugar was the problem. Patients were ordered to avoid sweet foods, and in hospitals they were sometimes locked up to keep them from finding sweets. The practice was derived from ideology, not from any evidence that the treatment helped.

In 1857, M. Piorry in Paris and William Budd in Bristol, England, reasoned that if a patient was losing a pound of sugar every day in 10 liters of urine, and was losing weight very rapidly, and had an intense craving for sugar, it would be reasonable to replace some of the lost sugar, simply because the quick weight loss of diabetes invariably led to death. Keeping patients from eating what they craved seemed both cruel and futile.

After Budd's detailed reports of a woman's progressive recovery over a period of several weeks when he prescribed 8 ounces of sugar every day, along with a normal diet including beef and beef broth, a London physician, Thomas Williams, wrote sarcastically about Budd's metaphysical ideas, and reported his own trial of a diet that he described as similar to Budd's. But after two or three days he decided his patients were getting worse, and stopped the experiment.

Williams' publication was presented as a scientific refutation of Budd's deluded homeopathic ideas, but Budd hadn't explained his experiment as anything more than an attempt to slow the patient's death from wasting which was sure to be the result of losing so much sugar in the urine. The following year Budd described another patient, a young man who had become too weak to work and who was losing weight at an extreme rate. Budd's prescription included 8 ounces of white sugar and 4 ounces of honey every day, and again, instead of increasing the amount of glucose in the urine, the amount decreased quickly as the patient began eating almost as much sugar as was being lost initially, and then as the loss of sugar in the urine decreased, the patient gained weight and recovered his strength.

Drs. Budd and Piorry described patients recovering from an incurable disease, and that has usually been enough to make the medical profession antagonistic. Even when a physician has himself diagnosed diabetes and told a patient that it would be necessary to inject insulin for the rest of his life, if that patient recovers by changing his diet, the physician will typically say that the diagnosis was wrong, because diabetes is incurable." Dr. Ray Peat

 

[Alpha]

So you dont restrict highly unsaturated fatty acids but you do restrict PUFA in general... got it... You do realize a normal whole food diet gives you more omegas than one needs for any imaginary physiological need that isnt met by oleic acid. Have you just ignored Peats work or are you actually that convinced of mainstream views on nutrition that you feel the need to evangelize them on a forum of the complete opposite view?

I'm not following, you seem to bring up a non-essential monosaturated fatty acid, while I was referring to omega-3 fatty acids. Are you implying that consumption or synthesis of oleic acid somehow compensates for every other fatty acid required in the body for optimal health? In which case, that couldn't be further from the truth.

I have not ignored Peats work, and I don't take everything for granted. I also like to do my own work, this is Peat-free subforum to discuss all types of literature in case you had forgotten.

 

[RealNeat]

Let's not be autoritharian here man, the guy expressed his opinions without hate, his points are not that Anti-Peat.
We can talk about a lot of correlations.

It's just that same stuff over and over again, there was no hostility, just genuinely curious as to how someone who has been on this forum for a while and supposedly read Peats work can parrot such trotted ground. What is the goal? The minutia of every point that he has listed has been covered on this forum to exhaustion.