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Sugar

If you’ve followed me for a while, you likely know how much I hate inaccurate nomenclatures. The word “sugar” is one of these words. It means a lot of different things, and all of those things can be true. Is glucose a sugar? Yes. Is fructose a sugar? Yes. Are they the same? No.

Sugar is often delineated by “natural” sugars (found in fruit and vegetables) and “artificial” sugars (such as high fructose corn syrup). But these categories are not the most useful way to think about sugar and its effects.

By the time any type of sugar leaves the stomach, it’s basically a series of monomers of glucose and fructose. Instead, I prefer to think of sugar consumption through the lens of three variables: density, volume, and velocity.

The following is a collection of past content which dives deeper into this topic, exploring the various forms of “sugar,” how they impact the body, and how to think about sugar consumption.

Nutritional Biochemistry

#141 – AMA #18: Deep dive: sugar and sugar substitutes

“Is glucose a sugar? Yes. Is fructose a sugar? Yes. Are they the same? Not even close.” —Peter Attia

Sugar substitutes: deep dive into the pros, cons, available options, and impact on metabolic health

Sugar substitutes offer sweet taste with minimal calories, yet they remain controversial. How well do they solve the problems associated with traditional sugar, and where do they fall short?

The five main tools for managing blood glucose numbers

This clip is from AMA #26: Continuous glucose monitors, zone 2 training, and a framework for interventions, originally released on…

Sugar & Cancer: Does Fructose Cause Cancer?

This clip is from episode #187 – Sam Apple: The Warburg Effect—Otto Warburg’s cancer metabolism theory, originally released on December…

Is natural sugar from fruit just as ‘bad’ as added sugar?

This video clip is taken from episode #194 – How Fructose Drives Metabolic Disease with Rick Johnson, M.D., originally released on…

#211 – AMA #36: Fruits & vegetables—everything you need to know

“There’s also a very significant cultural and social component to this thing as well. So I think that’s where the tribalism comes from around nutrition.” —Peter Attia

Hydration for Athletes: Should you drink sports drinks with glucose?

This video clip is from episode #200 – AMA #33: Hydration—electrolytes, supplements, sports drinks, performance effects, and more, originally released…

Why you should stop drinking sugar

This video clip is taken from  Podcast #194 – How Fructose Drives Metabolic Disease with Rick Johnson, M.D., originally released on…

#194 – How fructose drives metabolic disease | Rick Johnson, M.D.

“Fructose turns out to have been meant to be this wonderful system for survival, but in our culture with the amount of sugar in foods that we are eating (that either provide sugar or can be turned into fructose), this pathway has become hazardous.” —Rick Johnson

Replacing sugar with allulose

Allulose is on the top of my sweetener preference list for both objective and subjective reasons.

#110 – Lew Cantley, Ph.D.: Cancer metabolism, cancer therapies, and the discovery of PI3K

“If I get a result that suddenly doesn’t make sense, to me that’s more exciting. . .if you figure out why it didn’t work and what was wrong, then that’s where most breakthroughs come from.” — Lew Cantley

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