Sugar in Childrens' Cereals - Which? report SHOCK!

[SiM]

I don't agree. While insulin and blood glucose is part of a closed-loop system, what makes people put on weight is a craving for fatty food. Fatty food is not only high in fats (and calories) but most comfort food is fatty....

Excess calories make you fat regardless if its sugar or fat. Try drinking those American super size cokes servings from mcdonalds and you will get fat on a low fat diet. My argument is 1 calorie of fat is better than 1 calorie of sugar*
*for most people. All humans differ slightly, some people can eat 3000-4000 calories a day without putting on fat because they have a very fast metabolism.

So the question really is does sugar make you crave more sugar (in calories) or does fat make you crave more fat(in calories)?

I would argue that its the sugar content that makes your crave chocolate. Try eating some high fat dark chocolate (80%)... Dairy milk/mars etc is more sugar than fat so that example is not good!
Again biscuits contain a lot of sugar. e.g Look at hobnobs. More sugar than fat which I argue contributes to the cravings, I don't think anyone would crave a hobnob without sugar, it wouldn't taste very good!
Most of your examples are high sugar as well as high fat, so they are not good IMO. I agree high fat AND high sugar is not good.

The argument for fat is that fat satiates. It takes a longer time to digest, keeping you fuller for longer and not feeling hungry. I know when I have a high fat lunch I don't need to eat anything for 4+ hours, otherwise I have to eat something within 2-3 hours. (But I exercise quite a lot so I eat frequently anyway).

Remember excess sugar gets converted to fat anyway. Look on google.

Humans have not evolved eating highly refined sugars, it is only something that has been done in the past few centuries. We can eat no sugar (other than what is in fruit) and have a completely healthy and balanced diet. It is not something that the body needs.

Being fat does increase the risk factor for diabetes, but if I eat a lot of fat and I am quite lean, my risk of diabetes is low. The same is not true if I eat a lot of sugar. Sugar increases insulin resistance.

[Funkstar]

I would argue that its the sugar content that makes your crave chocolate. Try eating some high fat dark chocolate (80%)... Dairy milk/mars etc is more sugar than fat so that example is not good!
Again biscuits contain a lot of sugar. e.g Look at hobnobs. More sugar than fat which I argue contributes to the cravings, I don't think anyone would crave a hobnob without sugar, it wouldn't taste very good!
Most of your examples are high sugar as well as high fat, so they are not good IMO. I agree high fat AND high sugar is not good.

Also, if you look at the likes of MacDonalds, there is sugar and syrup in some of the least likely things. The sauces and burger buns for example have an incredibly high volume of sugars for such items.

[Seraphina]

So the question really is does sugar make you crave more sugar (in calories) or does fat make you crave more fat(in calories)?

I would argue that its the sugar content that makes your crave chocolate.

Some years ago, because a friend of mine had been diagnosed diabetic, I joined a mainstream Diabetes forum and took part over around a year. As you probably know, diabetes is one of those diseases that responds best to patient self-management and they get seriously clued-up about all the issues ---- some of them end up knowing more than your average GP, a fact that some of the Drs on the forum conceded.

Looking at our modern diets as a whole...the foods we actually buy in the shops and restaurants; the foods our parents gave us the taste for...the sugars *tend* to come packaged with the fats. Sure, there are Cokes (zero fat) at one end of the spectrum and fresh cream (yum!) at the other, but for most of us, if we want to control diabetes or lose weight if we concentrate on cutting fat back to a daily max of, say, 40g for a month or two the pounds fall off. You can eat as much protein (also high in calories which would get stored as fat) or as much sugar (without being silly) as you like and you will find that over a typical week, if you are a fattie, that your diet will have changed enormously. Partly as you will want to load up on complex carbs, I suspect.

It really does work, honest Injun! Furthermore, it is heart healthy and has no nasty potential side effects such as those in the Atkins and other diets.

Have to dash....got a dinner engagement at McD, at Parco Leonardo Oh, and I now have a fridge full of mascarpone thanks to this forum Thankfully I can use the anchor windlass to pull me up the mast (21 metres) to put our VHF aerial back on later this week.

[MadduckUK]

sugar is pretty sweet tbh

[TooNice]

So the question really is does sugar make you crave more sugar (in calories) or does fat make you crave more fat(in calories)?

Both? I am quite sure that fat up to certain amount make a lot of food 'tasty'. I reckon that most people would prefer ice cream to sorbet for instance (though I love them both equally). On the other hand, I do acknowledge that once I start a phase where I eat lots of 'study food' (i.e. sweets, like Haribo Starmix and such), I don't stop until I run out. Push come to shove though, I find do find it easier to stop eating sweets and other sources of processed sugar, than to severely cut down on my fat intake.

Generally speaking, I find that during phases where I opt for a healthier lifestyle (i.e. during summer where I go to the gym every other day and really watch what I eat), I have no issue whatsoever abstaining from the likes of sweets/chocolates. However, I find that if I cut down on fat to significantly, I will be constantly craving for a bite. Doesn't matter how many slices of wholemeal toast I have, how many chickens/turkeys/other lean meat I eat. If I cut the fat I have beneath a certain threshold, I will be hungry all the time.