Do we need sugar to survive ?

[Someone here]

I'm trying to cut all sugars from my diet . So no soda ,no ice cream? No chocolate, not even fruit .

And I notice significant decrease in my energy levels..my mood and my motivations.

Is sugar actually a nesscary nutrition?  Obviously not too much of it but still should we intake few levels of it ?

[Carl-Richard]

Some carbohydrates are necessary for optimal brain functioning. That is why I eat half a kiwi (or orange) with my breakfast (which is mostly protein/fat-based). If I don't, I get a bit slow. If I instead eat a whole fruit, I get jittery and anxious. Throughout the day, I only consume "real food" every 5-6 hours and water (+ one whole fruit during my workouts).

[Someone here]

9 minutes ago, Carl-Richard said:

Some carbohydrates are necessary for optimal brain functioning. That is why I eat half a kiwi (or orange) with my breakfast (which is mostly protein/fat-based). If I don't, I get a bit slow. If I instead eat a whole fruit, I get jittery and anxious. Throughout the day, I only consume "real food" every 5-6 hours and water (+ one whole fruit during my workouts).

So one piece of fruit every 24 hours is good to go ?

[Carl-Richard]

20 minutes ago, Someone here said:

So one piece of fruit every 24 hours is good to go ?

Depends on what your breakfast is (or your general meals). Remember that cereals and milk have a bunch of sugars. Dips, sauces and dressings also contain a lot of sugar. These things can spike your blood sugar, which might cause dips in energy throughout the day that you would've otherwise counteracted by eating more sugar, which could be one explanation for your problem. You want something that doesn't produce too big of a spike, especially in the mornings. Adding a small amount of fruit to a low-carb base is just one option.

[Osaid]

Technically yes, but your body can produce its own sugar through gluconeogenesis, so dietary sugar is not necessary to stay alive.

However, dietary sugar isn't all bad if you get it through whole foods. Stuff with fiber is good, like berries. If you wanna go low sugar make sure to start getting protein and fat in as well. When you go low sugar, your body will adapt to using fat and protein as fuel, so you should try to supply that.

1 hour ago, Someone here said:

And I notice significant decrease in my energy levels..my mood and my motivations.

You will get sugar withdrawals at the beginning. Make sure to get electrolytes in, they are a common culprit of low energy levels and headaches. If I remember correctly, after 4 days the symptoms peak and then start to subside from there. After a while, about 1 to 2 months, your body will adapt and have stable energy levels. How fast you adapt will depend on how stringent you are with the diet.

Edited April 27, 2022 by Osaid

[Michael569]

By "sugar" do you mean added table sugar (sucrose) or do you mean "all carbohydrates". Without the later, you will struggle with energy unless you can ace a perfectly structured keto diet. You can totally eliminate all sources of sucrose and you will actually benefit but there are few benefits of removing fruits and sources of complex carbohydrates, in fact, you may be doing yourself a disfavour especially on the level of the gut microbiome and intestinal mucosal lining 

Nothing wrong with good sources of carbs , ofcourse cut out all (added) sugar  But hey, maybe keto will work great for you, some people seem to do really well on it. 

[Someone here]

@Michael569 @Osaid @Carl-Richard While we can all agree that sugar isn’t exactly a health food, there’s a lot of misinformation about how sweet stuff should factor into your diet.

 if at all. For instance, are some types of sugar healthier than others? And will cutting it out really put me on the fast track to losing weight, easing acne, staving off mood swings, or any other health woes?

[egoeimai]

Hello. I was wondering the same about sodium! Does anybody know about it? 

[Michael569]

@Someone here sounds like you'd benefit from a good nutrition book that will easily clarify all those topics for you Ideally something academic, unbiased towards particular diet or lifestyle . It would definitely be worth the time it takes to disecr it otherwise it is hard to make sense of it all

[Someone here]

3 minutes ago, Michael569 said:

@Someone here sounds like you'd benefit from a good nutrition book that will easily clarify all those topics for you Ideally something academic, unbiased towards particular diet or lifestyle . It would definitely be worth the time it takes to disecr it otherwise it is hard to make sense of it all

True .

Any suggestions ?? 

[Michael569]

@Someone here hmm not really ?. Pop into a local bookstore and see what's available and what "speaks" to you.

[Osaid]

10 hours ago, Someone here said:

For instance, are some types of sugar healthier than others?

When people talk about "healthier" sugars, they are talking about sugars which are absorbed more slowly, which are called complex sugars or complex carbohydrates. Your body uses insulin to digest sugars, and when you consume too much sugar it can create a big spike of insulin and insulin resistance in the long term, which messes with your body's ability to metabolize food. Complex carbohydrates are absorbed more slowly, and thus are more stable and cause a more gradual increase in insulin, whereas simple sugars are absorbed very quickly which causes very sudden insulin spikes. Aside from fiber and sugar alcohols, all carbohydrates will be converted to glucose in the body. Consuming fiber can help control blood sugar and your insulin response, and it is usually present in whole foods, like berries.

10 hours ago, Someone here said:

And will cutting it out really put me on the fast track to losing weight, easing acne, staving off mood swings, or any other health woes?

Potentially

[Michael569]

5 hours ago, Osaid said:

Complex carbohydrates are absorbed more slowly, and thus are more stable and cause a more gradual increase in insulin, whereas simple sugars are absorbed very quickly which causes very sudden insulin spikes. Aside from fiber and sugar alcohols, all carbohydrates will be converted to glucose in the body. Consuming fiber can help control blood sugar and your insulin response, and it is usually present in whole foods, like berries.

well said  

that's pretty much the major difference here and I'd add the crucial element of how fibre impacts our intestinal microbiome and how then microbiome affects our entire health from brain, immune system, mood, energy and metabolic pathways. 

In fact I'd say the major major issue with carbohydrate restriction (way more than anything else) especially restriction of high-fibre carbohydrates is microbiome starvation and thinning of the mucosal lining in the colon and small intestines. The Sonnenburg's lab is showing some potential connections to mucosal thinning and things like autoimmunity even as the proximity between the gut bacteria and our immune system underneath the mucosal layer is increasing. They don't want to be next to each other, this is the crucial point here. The mucosal lining is preventing a war basically, war between the gut microbes and our immune system. And how do you lose that mucosal lining? - low-fibre diet or western type o diet 

Once the research catches up, we may even find this to be a major cause of most autoimmune diseases as well as digestive cancers and even mental health diseases. 

[ZenAlex]

Why would you cut fruit out of your life?

Fruit and veg are healthy.

Learn the difference between low/mid gi carbs and high gi carbs.

Carbs are getting a bad time recently, like fats were about 20 years ago.

Complex carbs and healthy fats - Get both.

Sugar outside of it's natural form is bad for you, not in it's natural form. Fruit sugar will cause you no harm because it doesn't spike your blood sugar.

[flowboy]

On 27/04/2022 at 0:39 AM, Someone here said:

I'm trying to cut all sugars from my diet . So no soda ,no ice cream? No chocolate, not even fruit .

And I notice significant decrease in my energy levels..my mood and my motivations.

Is sugar actually a nesscary nutrition?  Obviously not too much of it but still should we intake few levels of it ?

No, it's not necessary. Your body can turn any slow-digesting long chain carb into glucose, and it's much healthier to let the body do that, than to eat sugar.

How much time have you given it?

I'd expect you to feel better than ever after 3-4 weeks.

Stick it out you won't regret it.

[Preety_India]

Carbohydrate is a basic building block for energy. 

Yes.