Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Sucrose, stress, and reactive hypoglycemia
Several studies have demonstrated that sucrose or fructose increase the metabolic rate of humans. Individuals, eating diets high in sucrose, have a higher energy intake and a higher energy expenditure than those eating a high starch diet. The higher energy intake does not seem to cause an increase in body fat. In fact, several studies which have been conducted over a longer period of time, show that sucrose is superior in regards to fat loss and gaining lean body mass.
A Raben, I Macdonald, and A. Astrup confirmed many of the ideas Ray Peat has about sucrose. Women were divided into three groups and observed for two weeks. They received either a high fat, high starch, or high sucrose diet. On day 15, body weight, fat mass, lean body mass, blood glucose, and hormonal levels were measured and compared to the base line levels. The starch group lost a lot of lean body mass, whereas the sucrose group lost fat and gained muscle mass. Carbohydrate oxidation was also found to be much higher in the sucrose group. The whole study can be seen here
The question is: How
does sucrose cause the metabolic rate to increase? One reason might be the higher costs of glycogen deposition after fructose ingestion (3.5±4.5 mol ATP/mol) than after glucose ingestion (2.5 mol ATP/mol). But the major cause seems to be something else.
According to Ray Peat, sucrose stabilizes the blood sugar, decreases stress hormones, and thus optimizes thyroid function. Therefore, I was pretty surprised to see that the sucrose group had significantly increased levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline. Additionally, lactate levels were also elevated in the sucrose group. A high lactate concentration is a sign of increased anaerobic glycolisis - the opposite of oxidative metabolism.
It seems that the increased metabolic rate on a high sucrose diet is caused mainly by the activation of the adrenal system. "[...]thermogenesis after oral or intravenous fructose, has actually been found to be suppressed by 40% by b-adrenergic blockade (propranolol)"
Peat himself has written a lot about the negative effects of adrenalin exposure. Adrenaline increases free fatty acids in the bloodstream, inhibits ATP production, and thyroid function. In general, a high level of stress hormones shifts the balance away from an oxidative metabolism towards glycolisis.
When I showed the study to Peat, he replied that he thinks that the increase in adrenaline is a temporary mechanism to compensate for low thyroid function. Whether this is correct or not, I can't say. I have been searching for a long time, but there are no studies, examining the long term effects of high sucrose diets.
Patients with reactive hypoglycemia experience episodes of hypoglycemia occurring 1–2 hours after a meal. Typical signs are cold sweety hands, headaches/ depression, anger, slugishness etc. Adrenaline, among other hormones, is part of the counterregulatory system that increases the blood sugar when it's too low. In experiments, where single doses of either glucose, sucrose, or fructose were given to patients with reactive hypoglycemia, fructose and sucrose were more efficient in stabilizing the blood sugar, as compared to pure glucose. Link
But the long term effects may be very different from that results. Hypoglycemia can be caused by endotoxin, or very high levels of PUFA or estrogen in the blood stream. But I think that it is mostly an excess of stress hormones that causes the parasympathetic nervous system to overreact, releasing too much insulin.
I was experiencing hypoglycemic episodes after meals for a long time. Two weeks ago, I reduced my intake of sucrose from more than 200g a day to 50g or less. Ever since, I haven't had a single episode of hypoglycemia. My temperature and pulse rate are stable on a higher level and my sleep improved, too. I currently eat about 300g of carbohydrates a day. 150g of starch, 100g of lactose and 50g of sugar.
The graph above reflects very good how sucrose influenced my blood sugar. A rapid fall in blood glucose after a meal, followed by a slight increase, probably due to counterregulatory mechanisms. The study by Raben et al. didn't cause the women to get hypoglcemia, beside a slight decrease after breakfast. The study, from which I took the graph above, used high amounts of PUFA in the sucrose group, which probably is jointly responsible for the reaction. Nevertheless, I experienced the same, and I eat hardly any PUFA at all.
Even if the a level of adrenaline does not cause somebody to get hypoglycemia, other negative side effects such as insomnia, low energy levels, low sex drive, or acne are likely to occur.
Besides, adrenalin can cause T4 to be turned into RT3, which will worsen the problems, and is especially problematic, if thyroid medication is taken.
In order to quickly improve symptoms of high adrenaline, a reduction of sucrose intake seems appropriate. Milk and salty carbohydrates, like homemade french fries (made with coconut oil), are very usefull to reduce stress levels. Thyroid medication, containing T4, should be stopped, because the additional T4 might be turned into RT3. Pure T3 is a very powerfull tool to quickly restore oxidative metabolism, and to lower stress hormones and RT3.
I don't think that a high sucrose diet is necessarily bad. But under certain circumstances it seems to be counterproductive. For people with a high metabolism, sugar is probaly beneficial, but those with a low metabolism and suboptimal thyroid levels should only increase sugar consumption very carefully.
Much more research is necesarry to determine all the effects of sucrose.
A Raben, I Macdonald, and A. Astrup confirmed many of the ideas Ray Peat has about sucrose. Women were divided into three groups and observed for two weeks. They received either a high fat, high starch, or high sucrose diet. On day 15, body weight, fat mass, lean body mass, blood glucose, and hormonal levels were measured and compared to the base line levels. The starch group lost a lot of lean body mass, whereas the sucrose group lost fat and gained muscle mass. Carbohydrate oxidation was also found to be much higher in the sucrose group. The whole study can be seen here
The question is: How
does sucrose cause the metabolic rate to increase? One reason might be the higher costs of glycogen deposition after fructose ingestion (3.5±4.5 mol ATP/mol) than after glucose ingestion (2.5 mol ATP/mol). But the major cause seems to be something else.According to Ray Peat, sucrose stabilizes the blood sugar, decreases stress hormones, and thus optimizes thyroid function. Therefore, I was pretty surprised to see that the sucrose group had significantly increased levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline. Additionally, lactate levels were also elevated in the sucrose group. A high lactate concentration is a sign of increased anaerobic glycolisis - the opposite of oxidative metabolism.
It seems that the increased metabolic rate on a high sucrose diet is caused mainly by the activation of the adrenal system. "[...]thermogenesis after oral or intravenous fructose, has actually been found to be suppressed by 40% by b-adrenergic blockade (propranolol)"
Peat himself has written a lot about the negative effects of adrenalin exposure. Adrenaline increases free fatty acids in the bloodstream, inhibits ATP production, and thyroid function. In general, a high level of stress hormones shifts the balance away from an oxidative metabolism towards glycolisis.
When I showed the study to Peat, he replied that he thinks that the increase in adrenaline is a temporary mechanism to compensate for low thyroid function. Whether this is correct or not, I can't say. I have been searching for a long time, but there are no studies, examining the long term effects of high sucrose diets.
Patients with reactive hypoglycemia experience episodes of hypoglycemia occurring 1–2 hours after a meal. Typical signs are cold sweety hands, headaches/ depression, anger, slugishness etc. Adrenaline, among other hormones, is part of the counterregulatory system that increases the blood sugar when it's too low. In experiments, where single doses of either glucose, sucrose, or fructose were given to patients with reactive hypoglycemia, fructose and sucrose were more efficient in stabilizing the blood sugar, as compared to pure glucose. Link
But the long term effects may be very different from that results. Hypoglycemia can be caused by endotoxin, or very high levels of PUFA or estrogen in the blood stream. But I think that it is mostly an excess of stress hormones that causes the parasympathetic nervous system to overreact, releasing too much insulin.
I was experiencing hypoglycemic episodes after meals for a long time. Two weeks ago, I reduced my intake of sucrose from more than 200g a day to 50g or less. Ever since, I haven't had a single episode of hypoglycemia. My temperature and pulse rate are stable on a higher level and my sleep improved, too. I currently eat about 300g of carbohydrates a day. 150g of starch, 100g of lactose and 50g of sugar.
The graph above reflects very good how sucrose influenced my blood sugar. A rapid fall in blood glucose after a meal, followed by a slight increase, probably due to counterregulatory mechanisms. The study by Raben et al. didn't cause the women to get hypoglcemia, beside a slight decrease after breakfast. The study, from which I took the graph above, used high amounts of PUFA in the sucrose group, which probably is jointly responsible for the reaction. Nevertheless, I experienced the same, and I eat hardly any PUFA at all.
Even if the a level of adrenaline does not cause somebody to get hypoglycemia, other negative side effects such as insomnia, low energy levels, low sex drive, or acne are likely to occur.
Besides, adrenalin can cause T4 to be turned into RT3, which will worsen the problems, and is especially problematic, if thyroid medication is taken.
In order to quickly improve symptoms of high adrenaline, a reduction of sucrose intake seems appropriate. Milk and salty carbohydrates, like homemade french fries (made with coconut oil), are very usefull to reduce stress levels. Thyroid medication, containing T4, should be stopped, because the additional T4 might be turned into RT3. Pure T3 is a very powerfull tool to quickly restore oxidative metabolism, and to lower stress hormones and RT3.
I don't think that a high sucrose diet is necessarily bad. But under certain circumstances it seems to be counterproductive. For people with a high metabolism, sugar is probaly beneficial, but those with a low metabolism and suboptimal thyroid levels should only increase sugar consumption very carefully.
Much more research is necesarry to determine all the effects of sucrose.
