
Lie to Me, I Promise I’ll Believe -Strong Enough, by Sheryl Crow
BY: DR. BAYNE FRENCH MD DC
Tell Me Something I Care About:
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This article will summarize in simple speak the myriad detrimental effects of sugar.
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Your metabolic wellness and subsequent shot at longevity may be enhanced or undermined by your personal relationship with sugar.
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The recommendations for very high sugar consumption per hour of exercise is inane and harmful to your health in many ways.
A New Tag Line:
Optimal Human Performance Is a Direct Result of Optimal Metabolic Wellness. This is the concept that the best athlete, with the longest career, and with the least injuries, is likely one who is metabolically well.
Recommendations within the endurance world for dramatically high hourly consumption of sugar lead to a metabolically unwell individual. Actual PhDs are teaching athletes how to train their intestines to accommodate extremely high amounts of sugar and to enhance absorption into the bloodstream. This enhanced absorption is possible, in part because the intestinal lining becomes damaged and leaky. The condition of Leaky Gut Syndrome will be discussed below. It is a driver for widespread disease that will be written about in great detail in two future large articles.
The evidence for causation of sugar and diverse metabolic diseases is overwhelming. Optimal human and athletic performance are achievable through metabolic wellness. This is an impossibility with the regular consumption of sugar.
Let’s dive deeper into the specific toxicities of sugar. Then you decide if you Believe the Lies.
Sugar Refresher:
Sugar is used in reference to many things. True sugar is sucrose, a disaccharide, comprised of 1 molecule of glucose and 1 molecule of fructose held together by a chemical bond. The enzyme sucrase in the intestine then breaks this apart, and each component is absorbed through the intestinal wall and into the bloodstream, leading directly to the liver.
High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is not naturally occurring. It is made by taking glucose from corn syrup and chemically making fructose out of it. Why? Because fructose is incredibly SWEET, and human mammals love that. There are varying percentages of fructose, with HFCS 55 being 55% fructose, and it is most common in soft drinks. In 1984, both Coca-Cola and Pepsi changed from sucrose to HFCS. That must tell you something.
Numerous studies in the 1950s were performed by numerous different entities. The health detriments of sugar were well reported on back then. The British physician Dr. Yudkin understood how sugar drove cardiovascular disease. He wrote Pure, White, and Deadly in 1972. My parents gave me the book that year for my 2-year-old birthday. I would read it between sets of push-ups.
Tufts University compiled massive amounts of data on sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption and concluded that sugar actually caused heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and obesity. The findings were published in the medical journal Circulation in 2015. They concluded that their data was "indicating an urgent need for strong global prevention programs" regarding reducing SSB consumption. Despite this, high-level athletes, endurance fuel companies, and PhDs within the exercise world are recommending massive amounts of sugar consumption under the guise of enhanced performance.
World-renowned Dr. Robert Lustig considers sugar to be "toxic." He performed a fascinating study on adolescents. Originally published in Obesity journal and later in TIME magazine, his team replaced sugar with more complex carbs, calorie for calorie, in the diet of adolescents. These young people lost weight, had resolution of insulin resistance, and had much less Fatty Liver Disease.
How can this happen? The adolescent study subjects consumed the same number of calories from carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrate sources are longer chains of glucose. As described above, sugar has at least 50% fructose. All the cells in your body can metabolize glucose. Only the liver can metabolize fructose, and it is extremely potent in causing lipogenesis, which is the formation of fat.
Metabolism Refresher:
I repeatedly refer to "metabolism" in my writing. I feel that most disease processes are a reflection of metabolic abnormalities over time.
Although a heart attack is a sudden, dramatic event, it is almost always the end result of atherosclerosis, a slow and consistent process, expedited by metabolic abnormalities.
Heart attacks, stroke, fatty liver disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, dementia, cancers, and other major disease processes are metabolic in nature. Many of these conditions are inevitabilities; however, metabolically efficient patients of mine develop disease much later in life.
Dr. Vanderkooi wrote a book, Your Inner Engine, which I enjoy very much. She simplistically defines metabolism as the conversion of food to energy. To expound on that, I like to think of metabolism as the total of chemical reactions, occurring after nutrient digestion, that result in either energy storage or burning.
Below are over a dozen reasons why sugar is damaging to your health and indeed NOT something to fuel with for exercise. Can you hear Sheryl Crow singing?
ONE. Altered Immune Function:
Phagocytosis is a process where our white blood cells engulf germs (see viruses, bacteria, fungi)—microscopic xenophobia of sorts.
Published in 1973 in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the ability of white blood cells to gobble up bacteria was measured. The actual number of bacteria within white blood cells was measured and reported as the “phagocytic index”.
Blood was drawn from study subjects numerous times following the consumption of sugary crap. Impaired immune function occurred rapidly, as a reduction in the phagocytic index. The effect was greatest 1 to 2 hours after drinking the sugary substance, and this immune deficiency extended for over 5 hours.
It is not difficult to conclude that regular sugar consumers are likely much more susceptible to getting sick. There were 2 other very interesting observations:
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Longer chain, complex carbohydrate consumption did NOT result in a reduced phagocytic index.
- The phagocytic index was actually increased with intermittent fasting. That’s an aside.
It is worth noting that white blood cells not only phagocytize (gobble up) germs. They engulf abnormal, cancerous cells. The immune deficiency following sugar consumption may be a reason why Tufts University reported on increased cancer incidence as a result of sugar sweetened beverage consumption.
A research group at the University of Vienna just published research (Staltner et al. Redox Biology 2025) that showed immune system abnormalities with only short-term exposure to high fructose consumption in healthy people.
Specifically, the number of a certain receptor (docking port) on the surface of the important immune system cell, monocytes, was increased. The study subjects that consumed large amounts of sugar, especially fructose, showed numerous chemical abnormalities when exposed to bacteria, which resulted in abnormally high levels of inflammation.
TWO. Cardiovascular Disease (CVD):
The biggest killer of human mammals by far. CVD is a grouping of different processes involving arterial disease. The two most common are heart disease and stroke.
JAMA Internal Medicine published a study on over 30,000 individuals who were followed over decades. The higher the total sugar consumption (eat and drink), the higher the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. Specifically, study participants who consumed more than 25% of their daily calories from sugar had almost a triple increased risk of dying.
Have you noticed that those advocating for, writing, posting, and lecturing about the virtues of very high sugar consumption per hour during exercise never inform their audience and customers about the risks? Exercise, they contend, somehow makes you immune to the metabolic detriments of sugar consumption, as if the rules of human physiology and biochemistry do not apply to you if you exercise often.
The large study above observed the association between sugar consumption and dying consistently across age, gender, race, educational levels, body weight, and physical activity levels.
Sheryl Crow continues…I have a face I cannot show. I make the rules up as I go.
THREE & FOUR. Visceral Adipose Tissue (VAT) & Cortisol:
VAT is belly fat, specifically fat inside the abdominal cavity, in and around organs. Fatty Liver Disease is one example.
VAT is more than a nuisance; it’s a threat to life. NOT a benign repository of energy, cushion, and insulation, it is biologically active, releasing hundreds of unfavorable chemicals that drive cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Cortisol is our most abundant stress hormone. Chronically elevated cortisol levels are associated with numerous disease processes.
Gyllenhammer et al published a study in 2014 in the journal Obesity. Adolescents were studied. The adolescents who consumed the highest sugar had the highest cortisol levels and visceral adipose tissue accumulation.
Waist circumference is a better predictor of heart attack risk than just body weight or body mass index (BMI). According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, women with a waist circumference greater than 35 inches and men with a waist circumference greater than 40 inches have a much higher risk of both type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
It is critical to understand that regular sugar consumption drives liver fat formation (lipogenesis). This fat is stored everywhere, especially in and around abdominal organs. Sugar's effect on cortisol only worsens abdominal fat accumulation.
FIVE. Uric Acid (UA) Formation:
Most people recognize this chemical as a causative agent of gout. The joint pain associated with gout is so bad that the only thing I could equate it to is me having to make small talk.
Uric acid causes so many other metabolic problems. The Scottish physician Dr. Haig, over 100 years ago, described elevated uric acid levels leading to a wide array of disease processes. He wrote a book about this that went through 7 editions and was translated into numerous languages.
Despite this, most medical providers still view elevated uric acid levels only through the lens of gout or maybe kidney stones. The most thorough and educational work on uric acid has been done by Dr. Perlmutter in the 2022 book, Drop Acid.
Elevated UA drives the formation of elevated blood sugar, insulin resistance, elevated blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, abnormal cholesterol levels, systemic inflammation, and weight gain. Chen et al. reported in Arthritis & Rheumatology (2009) that UA is directly implicated in all-cause human mortality, especially cardiovascular disease.
There are only a few drivers of uric acid formation. I consider the most potent to be fructose. High fructose corn syrup is not naturally occurring; fructose is. Although tasting extremely sweet, unprocessed fructose-containing foods like fruit, honey, and some vegetables contain relatively low amounts of fructose. Furthermore, the fiber and the phytonutrients within them resulted in a slower rate of fructose absorption into the bloodstream and actually reduced the activity of the enzyme xanthine oxidase, which forms uric acid.
A large study of over 150,000 people published in 2019 in BMJ Open found a strong relationship between sugar sweetened beverage consumption and elevated uric acid. They did not find this association with whole fruit consumption.
SIX. Nitric Oxide (NO):
NO is an interesting chemical that has favorable effects on insulin function and also vasodilation. Both result in enhanced human performance.
Wang et al. (Diabetes. 2013) described in detail how NO improved insulin function in muscle cells, allowing the entry of glucose and then the formation of glycogen (the storage form of carbohydrate). Vasodilation refers to an enlarged caliber of blood vessels. This results in enhanced blood flow to muscles, including those that make you run and pedal faster.
In order for muscles to function properly and most efficiently, glucose needs to enter those muscle cells. For this to happen optimally, NO is involved. As described above, sugar and especially fructose drive the formation of uric acid. Uric acid directly hampers the effect of NO.
This directly impairs athletic performance and increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and erectile dysfunction. Yes, sugar impairs bedroom functioning, or wherever you do it.
SEVEN. Fluid Retention:
Fructose drives the formation of vasopressin, AKA antidiuretic hormone. This hormone acts on the kidneys to hang onto fluid.
Excess body fluid is not healthy. For athletes, it interferes with their power-to-weight ratio. It also affects metabolism and puts a strain on the heart.
When people reduce sugar, they very commonly drop a few to several pounds within a short period of time. This is discounted as just "water weight". The excretion of this excess fluid, however, is very healthy, and due largely to the fact that vasopressin levels are lower.
Vasopressin doesn’t just act on the kidneys. It causes vasoconstriction. This is the contraction in the caliber of arteries (opposite of vasodilation), thereby reducing blood flow to muscles. Not a terrific thing to have happen when optimal athletic and life performance is something you strive for.
Eight. ATP.
ATP is our primary energy molecule. It is what makes muscles contract, and enhanced ATP production is critical for athletic performance. Regular physical exercise enhances ATP formation.
The consumption of sugar, especially fructose, is unfavorable for ATP production. Once absorbed into the bloodstream, fructose is acted on by the enzyme fructokinase. This enzyme requires ATP to function. Douard et al. (J of Phys. 2013) showed that cellular fructose, after consumption of sugar sweetened beverages, resulted in ATP levels reducing by 40 to 50%.
Furthermore, when ATP is used, another chemical called AMP is created. See below.
NINE. AMP & AMPD2:
When sugar and especially fructose are consumed, AMP levels elevate. AMP directly stimulates the formation of uric acid.
In addition to multiple unfavorable things uric acid is responsible for, described above, it also leads to elevated levels of AMPD2 (adenosine monophosphate deaminase 2). AMPD2 increases fat storage. Prior to hibernation, animals have surging AMPD2 to fatten up. Not exactly a fat-burning, energy producing picture, is it?
2 comments
The most disturbing thing is how long we have known about this yet big biz and the government said screw you. Unfortunately this now leads to the reactionary time we are in with an idiot running the health dept trying to recreate the glory days of polio measles etc by spouting half truths. These 7 words come to mind “trust me i am with the government”
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Hammer Nutrition replied:
Thank you for these articles. Super informative but not overly science(y). I appreciate everyone involved in getting these to us.