sugar is the ultimate antioxidant it's a
big claim right before people get their
panties in a bunch let me explain
something to you
when I say sugar I'm referring to
glucose and fructose I'm not referring
to or advocating Donuts cakes and all
manner of foodstuffs people commonly
associate with the word sugar people
rarely ever consume sugar in its pure
form when was the last time you ate a
spoonful of raw coconut or maple sugar
real honey or royal jelly for many of
you probably never everyone loves to
demonize sugar as the cause of obesity
yet when you analyze both the research
and the actual biochemistry of the human
body you start to see a very different
picture unfold with some extremely
convincing evidence to the contrary in
today's video I'm going to explore the
science of sugar this is an appropriate
topic especially since we've been
digging into the thermo diet in looking
deeply at the flaws in the keto diet and
therefore the differences between a
glucose metabolism and a fatty acid
metabolism and so far we've seen how
preferable and efficient glucose
metabolism is for hormonal health and a
healthy metabolism a lot of the
propaganda around the keto diet involves
a demonization of sugar and a glucose
metabolism even though this is
biochemically unsound in a fatty acid
keto metabolism have has far more
negative consequences on the human body
due to the stressful hormonal shift
required for it now it's time to bust
some myths about sugar that you might
still be clinging to thanks to the
hearsay and mass media's propaganda and
relentless demonization of sugar let's
begin first off sugar does not equal
baked goods it does not equal candy bars
soft drinks and anything else people
commonly associate it with it's not the
same thing
all these foodstuffs are nothing more
than nutrient void garbage food that
should be consumed sparingly if at all
this is the real crime in implicating
sugar as something that's bad for the
body because the baby gets thrown out
with the bathwater
people by association demonized fruit
honey royal jelly and even just simple
raw cane sugar with zero real evidence
for its negative effects in the context
of an otherwise solid hormonal e focused
diet like we talked about on this
channel and in my books rarely do people
fully understand what sugar is and how
it acts in the body and how much it
really contributes to obesity
inflammation hormone
etc and now that we've moved over from
blaming saturated fat for all of our
health problems we need a new thing to
demonize and blame for our obesity and
health problems
sugar is the perfect target and it
certainly gets its share of a bad rap
already but did you know that even
though we try to blame sugar for
everything and say that we are getting
fatter and fatter due to increased sugar
usage the science actually shows that
sugar consumption has dropped during
this period of time that the obesity
rates have dramatically risen one study
calls this the Australian paradox as
during the time frame of 1980 to 2003
obesity rates tripled in the country yet
the intake of refined sugar dropped by
23% heck I certainly have given my fair
share of negative press on sugar in the
past years before I really looked at the
data because I was you know I was
listening to other people that I
shouldn't have been listening to but
over the years as my knowledge my
understanding of scientific literature
has vastly improved I've come to realize
that my initial thoughts about sugar
being unhealthy were for the most part
inaccurate assumptions based largely on
the popular opinion and validation of my
own beliefs of the time I'm thankful for
the fact that I can admit my failures
and open myself up to new evidence to
form an opinion without being said I
don't have much at stake for this sugar
thing think about the people who have
written best-selling books in low-carb
diets paleo the evil evils of sugar will
they be able to actually admit to their
readers that what they believed was
right might actually have been
inaccurate and a manifestation of their
own beliefs at the time now most people
will never admit this at this point
because they have way too much to lose
for building a career off of inaccurate
assumptions this is likely one of the
reasons it took so long for the
saturated fat and dietary cholesterol
myths to actually subside let's not get
sidetracked over back to sugar health
and hormones so first off what is sugar
sugars are naturally occurring
carbohydrates that provide energy for
the body in the form of glucose and
fructose your brain for example requires
roughly a hundred and thirty grams of
glucose on a daily basis to cover the
most basic energy needs the major
internal or
glands and muscles all use glucose as
their main energy source if you deprive
your body from this it will try to make
up for it by a process called
gluconeogenesis which in the body it
breaks down protein and fatty acids to
create glucose if you do this long
enough and your body goes into ketosis
which surely has some benefits in terms
of fasting it's also just another form
of metabolic stress that is designed to
occur during the glucose deprivation
almost all carbohydrates starches and
sugars break down to glucose the
simplest form of sugar after ingestion
the rate at which this happens is
measured by the glycemic index or the
glycemic load although low-carb errs
tried for years to confuse average
people into believing that low glycemic
index would be it for weight loss
research showed time and again that it
was the total energy intake of calories
not the glycemic index that is behind
our ability to gain or lose body fat now
the most common kinds of sugar in our
diet include glucose which is a simplest
form of sugar in the main energy
provider and the cells in the body the
blood sugar in your veins is also
glucose there's fructose which is found
naturally in fruits and honey it's much
sweeter than glucose and is metabolized
in the liver instead of in the gut
now there's sucrose which is table sugar
it's about 50% fructose and 50% glucose
you can get it extracted from beets or
sugar cane sucrose occurs naturally in
vegetables and fruits and then there's
lactose which is milk sugar it's found
in milk and dairy products naturally
there's also also maltose which is found
in malted drinks and beer now the
studies looking into the effects of
sugar on various health parameters often
use pure fructose pure glucose or
sucrose and our normal daily lives is
the majority of the sugars we consume
come in a balance of about 50% glucose
and 50% fructose the main difference
between glucose and fructose is the fact
that the latter is metabolized in the
liver and is more rapidly absorbed so
there are some actually some real health
benefits of sugar
due to the demonization of sugar it
might seem a bit crazy to claim that
sugar can
sumption would actually have health
benefits it does definitely seem that
way however there is evidence to the
contrary so why would the source of
energy that the body naturally
prioritizes be harmful for us why would
the most easily attainable naturally
occurring foods like berries or fruit
which are loaded with simple sugars be
the cause of our ever increasing weight
and health problems and lastly why would
these problems have skyrocketed all
while our consumption of sugar has
actually decreased I certainly don't
have the answers to all these questions
but if we look at the scientific
evidence without any pre-existing
beliefs about sugar it becomes obvious
this stuff is not as bad as one would
think
there's plenty of research showing how
glucose and fructose actually negatively
correlated with diabetes and that
fructose due the fact that it's
metabolized in the liver doesn't need
insulin to be pushed into the cells
which is probably why higher intakes of
fructose have been found to improve yes
improve insulin sensitivity bears coming
out of hibernation actually fully
reversed their full-blown diabetic state
by eating honey which is a rich source
of fructose oh and then what about the
claimed idea that sugar makes us fat
that's what everyone says has anyone
considered the fact that sugars are
actually the primary fuel for the
thyroid gland your thyroid gland
requires glucose and that the thyroid
gland actually controls the rate at
which your body burns calories aka your
metabolic rate when you eat more simple
sugars your thyroid gland produces more
t4 thyroid hormones within with the
adequate sugar stored in the liver your
body can easily convert t4 into the
active t3 form which greatly improves
energy production and metabolic rate if
sugars and carbohydrates make us fat why
in the world are almost all bodybuilders
for the last hundred years
why have they all eaten high carb diets
while getting chiseled heck when you
lower your calories in order to lose
weight one of the most powerful
compounds that can preserve metabolic
rate is in fact fructose it supposedly
is the substance most notorious for
making us gain weight however in reality
it's pretty low in caloric content has
the ability to greatly support metabolic
rate and has a muscle sparing effect
the liver provides about 70% of our
active thyroid hormone by converting
thyroxine to t3 but it can provide this
active hormone only when it has adequate
glucose so what about the fatty liver
disease the one of the key evils that
fructose is blamed for well in reality
fructose has been shown to be protective
against hepatic liver issues and when
there's adequate choline in the diet
over feeding of fructose does not lead
to fat accumulation in the liver at all
the problem of fatty liver disease has
nothing to do with fructose and
everything to do with eating too much
polyunsaturated fatty acids was which
actually prevent exportation of liver
fat and the lack of choline which is a
necessary micronutrient required in the
exportation of fat from the liver as
well
lastly you may have heard a stupendous
amount of authors and mommy bloggers
going around in circles saying that
sugar would be toxic and that it would
increase oxidative damage and
inflammation in the body however
research shows that simple sugars
actually have the antioxidative effects
improving the antioxidant capacity of
cells and therefore reducing
inflammation and oxidative stress and
about that claim that sugar is toxic
seriously how many times have you heard
someone actually getting poisoned by
sugar how often our kids rushed to the
ER and its with sugar poisoning after
Halloween for example it's just a
ridiculous claim sugar is the primary
source of energy that our cells crave
it's widespread in the most natural
foodstuffs and simple sugars are the
main fuel for the master gland that
controls our metabolic rate and energy
production the thyroid glucose and
fructose have antioxidant like effects
in reality they don't contribute to
fatty liver disease at all unless
there's a deficiency of choline which
prevents the exploitation of fat from
the liver so really what are we afraid
of here so let's go back to the very
first thing that I said in this video
sugar is the ultimate antioxidant what
does that even mean
well glucose actually plays a vital
vitally important role in the production
of glutathione so we actually have a
complex endogenous antioxidant system
that is ultimately fueled by glucose
through the pentose phosphate pathway
glucose supplies hydrogen ions and
electrons which we would call reducing
power to NADPH which is derived from
niacin which is also known as
be three the enzyme glutathione
reductase uses ribbo flavin also not as
vitamin b2 to pass this reducing power
on to glutathione glutathione the master
endogenous antioxidant then uses this
reducing power to neutralize hydrogen
peroxide to water to neutralize lipid
peroxidation
to less harmful hydroxy fatty acids in
to recycle vitamin c vitamin c recycles
vitamin e the principle defense against
lipid peroxidation and cellular
membranes thus the multiple roles of
glutathione within the antioxidant
defense system mitigating the
accumulation of reactive oxygen species
protecting vulnerable fatty acids within
the cellular membranes in cleaning up
any damage that has slipped through the
system and our ultimately ultimately
supported by reducing power derived from
the glucose i also want to highlight one
last very important point i'm but no
means advocating an excess consumption
of anything
in fact I've always advocated the
opposite and trying to seek a balanced
macro nutrient consumption
across-the-board since that's truly what
the full breadth of research on human
metabolism hormonal health actually
suggests many people will advocate that
you stop eating or drastically and
increase or reduce the entire
macronutrient group you know like
certain things like never eat carbs or
never eat fat and that sort of stuff
that everyone says if you run into this
type of poorly researched advice I would
advise you to run the opposite direction
or seriously question who is giving you
this advice in excess of anything by
definition is imbalanced and typically
leads down a dead-end road when you run
into a dead end you will always need to
put the car in reverse and come back to
where you started so instead of wasting
more time it would be in all of our best
interests to start approaching nutrition
with more balance especially since the
basic foundations of human biochemistry
and the full context of research on
hormones supports this notion with
healthy hormones and a fast metabolism
all of people's typical fat loss muscle
building and sexual health goals can be
achieved