Sugar, obesity, IR, & Immune response

[willy]

I wanted to put this on the TOP  forum.  It may not be about HCV per se..... but it may pertain to immune response, damage progression, success with treatment.

It is not possible to tie it all together in one post, but I think that this may be worth looking into this.

We are eating and drinking way more sugar in our diet.  This may cause our weight to go up, this may contribute to our becoming IR, which in part can lower our response to treatment.  I have not seen data or studies on it, but I infer that this same issue may also speed our damage progression.

Now.......if I were to start a thread as a newbie and ask how much booze I can drink..... while I have HCV, the whole forum will give them a stern lecture. .......and we are right to do it.

......the same might go for smoking pot.

Now...... how often do we talk about sugar intake?

I'm going to leave 2-3 links just for you to consider;
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Toxic Sugar: Should We Regulate It Like Alcohol?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/02/sugar-toxic-regulation_n_1248397.html?ref=health-news&ir=Health%20News
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Sugar: The Bitter Truth          (Utube)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
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I would also mention that if our diet is rapidly changing, and if damage is related to sugar/IR, then we might expect worse damage if we adapt to higher sugar intake. 

I know that Mercola is considered to be controversial by people.  This is his take on sugar; we don't have to agree on every point, but I just offer it for your consideration.
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The 76 Dangers of Sugar to Your Health

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/20/sugar-dangers.aspx

Anyway...... just a little something to think about.

willy

[MissyMouse]

I just have say in simple terms that my body feels better when I feed it less crap.   

Mouse

[willy]

This is one of those presentations in which one needs to possibly watch it a few times to catch more, but one of the I believe that the message is that we are eating more and more sugar; they are putting it in everything.  Yes, in bread, it is in my canned tomatoes, etc.  So #1 we are facing a higher intake of sugar than EVER before.

#2.... and this would be in CAPS, that HFCS.....High Fructose Corn Syrup if radically different than regular sugars.  It is metabolized differently;

"Fructose is not glucose"  43:00

"What the liver does to fructose is really unique" 43:05

----------------Fructose is not glucose-----------------------
1)  Fructose is 7 times more likely than glucose to form Advanced Glycation End-products (AGE's)

2)  Fructose does not Suppress ghrelin

3)  Acute fructose does not stimulate insulin (or leptin)

4)  Hepatic fructose metabolism is different.

5)  Chronic fructose metabolism promotes Metabolic Syndrome.

44:30
Chronic fructose exposure alone, nothing else, causes this thing we call the Metabolic Syndrome.....everybody knows what the metabolic syndrome is? This is the conglomerate of the following different phenomena; obesity, type 2 diabetes, lipid problems, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease.  Those all cluster together.  44:40

This is worth a view.

This presentation is of import to regular, so called healthy people and .....i believe.... that it has even greater importance to people with liver disease.

Since our immune response may also be impacted by sugar this may further impact upon us.  This presentation does not really address that subject.
------------------------
a little more.......
51:24
Ethanol is a carbohydrate
CH3-Ch2-OH
But ethanol is also a toxin;

--------------------------------Acute Ethanol (alcohol) exposure------------------------
CNS Depression
Vasodiatation decreased blood pressure
Hypothermia
Tachocardia
Myocardial depression
Varial pupilary responses
Respiratory depression
Diuresis
hypoglycemia
Loss of motor control

ACUTE FRUCTOSE EXPOSURE.....
causes none of these

He talks about how alcohol affects the liver, and how alcohol causes cirrhosis at about 53:00

Basically, when you consume 120 calories of sugar a limited amount of those calories end up being metabolized in the liver.  OTOH, when you consume alcohol, about 4 times the amount of those calories end up being metabolized by the liver.

He then proceeds to explain who HFCS ends up being metabolized almost exactly the same as alcohol.

This is very serious if you are healthy.  If you have liver disease it is much more serious.  He does not go into this in the talk, but I urge people to spend the time and to start looking at the food one eats and the sugar type and quantity that you partake.

willy