If you’ve read my article on how to beat the sugar addiction, then you already know I’m not a fan of processed sugar. But on the heels of the American Heart Association finally releasing a statement advising people against having an increased sugar intake, another frightening research article has come out concerning sugar. This time, about worms.
From Science Daily:
“By adding just a small amount of glucose to C. elegans usual fare of straight bacteria, they found the worms lose about 20 percent of their usual life span. They trace the effect to insulin signals, which can block other life-extending molecular players.”
My Comments: This is a pretty scary finding. Worms with added glucose (sugar) in their diet lost 20 percent of their usual life span. That is a huge effect. You could point out that the findings are in worms, and not in humans, and you’d be correct, but the researchers respond with this:
“Although the findings are in worms, Cynthia Kenyon of the University of California, San Francisco, says there are known to be many similarities between worms and people in the insulin signaling pathways…”
My Comments: So humans are similar to worms when it comes to to the insulin signaling pathways. Alright, at least that explains how they can do a study on worms to find out about humans.
Here’s something that will really blow your mind though. Here’s the quote showing that due to this study, the researcher took up a low-carb diet and gave up desserts (which can be understood as processed sugar):
“Kenyon says she read up on low-carb diets and changed her eating habits immediately — cutting out essentially all starches and desserts — after making the initial discovery in worms.”
My Comments: It is amazing to me the major media outlets, which are so obsessed about obesity and health, are not reporting this story. This is a massive deal. The fact that one of the primay researchers in the study actually changed her diet to a low-carb and less sugar diet based on her research gives more and more weight and legitimacy to the low-carb diet.
As an aside, this is also why I’m a big fan of the paleo diet, even though I’m not actually a follower of it. By following a diet based on eating what the cave man would eat, it essentially just makes it extremely simple to stick to a low-carb diet. For anyone who has trouble losing weight or getting cut, I highly recommend it.
I actually found an amazing and resource online with an extensive list of free paleo recipes for you guys. It’s called Paleofood.com, so feel free to check it out if you’re looking for interesting low-carb recipes.
Of course, no sugar article would be complete without Jack Lalanne’s famous tirade against sugarholics:
Rafi Bar-Lev is a former combat medic and the founder of Passionate Fitness.