Is sugar essential? My take on the new book DON’T QUIT SUGAR

Aug 23, 2013 | The Fat Revolution

I feel the need to dispel one of the biggest myths about LCHF (low carb, high fat) diets after reading the latest article about the new book Don’t Quit Sugar.

This book is a direct attack on Sarah Wilson’s I Quit Sugar, and the author claims that she is simply saying “that natural sources of sugar—fruit, honey, sweet root vegetables —need to be incorporated into the diet.” Firstly, Sarah Wilson does not even advocate a diet without natural sugars. In fact, she eats raw honey and fruit and uses other natural sweeteners.

But, this nutritionist also said, “Sugar is our cells’ preferred source of energy and is absolutely critical to proper metabolic function. Eliminating it from the diet will do you harm.” This is the common myth I want to dispel.

Before I do, let me just say that I too consume small amounts of natural sugars. I love my fruit with large dollops of whipped cream. I use stevia regularly (although this doesn’t count as a sugar because it doesn’t act like a sugar in the body).

However, it is a huge myth that sugar, in any form, is essential. It is a myth that sugar is our cells preferred energy source. It is a also myth that we need to consume glucose for good brain function.

Firstly, our body’s preferred energy source is fat. We are natural fat burners. We only resort to sugar burning when we consume too much of it, and our body becomes acidic. Our body sees this as a health crisis, so it tries to burn the sugar to get rid of it. Unfortunately, these days, we keep dumping more and more in, so it never has a chance to get out of the sugar burning state.

Secondly, when we do consume a more natural diet, low in sugars and carbs and high in fats, fatty acids are converted into ketones, which cells also love using as an energy source, particularly the brain. In fact, the brain’s preferred energy source is a mixture of glucose and ketones. A brain running on glucose alone is running sub-optimally!

But yes, you read that right, I did say ‘glucose’ too. Even though I don’t advocate a no carbohydrate diet, those including no carbohydrates in their diet, like the Inuit back in the day, still supplied glucose to their brain. In this situation, the liver converts amino acids to glucose.

There is only one situation where we will NOT get glucose to our brain. And that is when we eat too much sugar! Eventually, once insulin resistance is bad enough, it is increases our risk of no longer being able to supply glucose to brain cells and they can start to die (Alzheimer’s). This is why Alzheimer’s is now often referred to as Type 3 diabetes.

But even in this situation, it has been shown in the literature that if the brain is offered another fuel source, cell function can start improving again. The other fuel source the brain can use is ketones! Ketones can be produced either with a ketogenic diet (low carb, high fat diet that is very strict in carbs) or with coconut oil (which stimulates the production of ketones), or even better, with both.

Sugar is in no way an essential part of our diet.

Note: The pic is a chocolate flan from The Fat Revolution Cookbook, which is a LCHF (low carb, high fat) cookbook, perfect for families and for those who don’t need to be super low in carbs. If you are looking for strict keto recipes (no root vegetables, fruit, nuts etc), use the Easy Keto Cookbook.

Isn’t anyone going to say it? Why are Australian children testing as poor learners?

Dec 14, 2012 | The Fat Revolution

The results of the global education test have politicians blaming each other, and others are suggesting that busy parents are at fault. While experts are scratching their heads over our low academic performance, they may have missed the most obvious explanation.

I have been expecting to see a downward trend in academic performance for a while, and I think it will only get worse, a lot worse, unless we are prepared to make a huge change. Sure, if our children read more books, and watched less TV, then maybe they would be better readers. But is it possible that they don’t want to read, because it is too hard. Is it possible that just like overweight people don’t feel like exercising, children struggling with cognitive skills don’t feel like reading?

And why would they be struggling cognitively?

I hate to be blunt, but excess sugar can makes us dumb!. And, Australians ingest tons of the stuff. In the early 1800s, we consumed less than 4 tsp of sugar per day (including natural sugar). We now ingest between 30 and 50 tsp a day!

A new Australian study released in September shows that people in the higher range of normal blood glucose levels are suffering from brain atrophy.

Researchers have known for years that those with diabetes suffer from diminished brain function, but they were surprised that those in the high end of the ‘normal’ range suffer from a loss of memory and cognitive skills.

Dr Cherbuin said that the “findings may lead us to re-evaluate the concept of normal blood sugar levels and the definition of diabetes”.

Here is the abstract of the study. This is a subject that I discuss in both my books. A special school in the U.S. discovered that when children consumed sugary foods, their IQ dropped significantly.

As Patricia Hardman, Ph.D, says, “We had one child who was tested for his I.Q. and scored 140. Three days later he was tested and scored 100! It turned out that grandma had come for a visit and, that morning, had made the child pancakes for breakfast. Of course, they were smothered in sugary syrup. We waited another three days without sugar and tested him again. Sure enough, he scored 140. There’s no doubt about it. Sugar makes children poor learners.”

This school eliminates sugar from the diet of all children who attend.

My daughter has also experienced this first-hand. Every year she has taken the Naplan test, she achieved well above average in almost every area; with one exception. One year, she received a very average result. We were both looking at the results and pondering the big change. Then Anna had a light bulb moment. She realised that she and her friend both ate lollies the day of the test. For a child who doesn’t regularly consume sugar, the difference was quite remarkable.

When Anna was 11 she said, “I don’t eat sugar because it really affects my body, and I really want to have a good education. But, sugar ruins that. I used to eat lots of sugar at school every day, but I didn’t get it from home, I got it from my friends at school. Normally in Naplan, I have an above average outcome, but one day when we were doing Naplan, my friend bought a big packet of jelly beans to school. We ate quite a few before our Naplan test, and during, and my results turned out average. Now I kind of find sugar disgusting. Now that I know what it does to my body, it doesn’t make me want to eat it anymore.”

Imagine the huge academic disadvantage for those children consuming sugar daily. Most parents have been led to believe, through clever marketing and endorsement (from respected health organisations) that excess sugar intake is harmless. I don’t believe it is. And our children could be paying the price. I believe one of the best things I did for my children was dramatically reduce their sugar intake.