I was explaining this to my daughter in quite simplified terms the other day- we evolved to taste sugar and enjoy it because finding a sweet edible plant meant we had a source of energy to help us hunt that day. Pretty useful if you’re a hunter-gatherer.

So we seek out sugar. Now we can get it whenever we want it, in much more massive quantities than we are supposed to be processing. Most of us are addicted. I’m not an exception.

  • @Aceticon
    2•18 days ago

    Yeah, but they have a lot of calories via fat (especially cheese) and what I’ve seen in my own diet (which includes regular checking of blood sugar levels), if I eat more of it (again, especially cheese) the sugar levels in the blood go up all else being the same.

    Don’t ask me the exact details of how the human body does that, I’m not a specialist and this is just what I observe happens if start eating more cheese.

    Which is a shame, 'cause I love cheese :(

    • @Valmond
      2•18 days ago

      Yeah the metabolism is crazy, crazily complicated too, we have mapped it out (badly) at around 15%…

      The liver can make sugar (glycose) and there are a lot of ‘magic’ going on everywhere, but for me cutting out sugar and only eating veggies, meat and cheese was a great diet, have forgotten aboug it maybe I should check it out again…

      What a shame for the cheese! Does it do that for all kind of cheese, like goat, sheep, roquefort, hard cheese (there are so many)?

      Also, did you eat something specific around the same time you ate cheese?

      • @Aceticon
        2•18 days ago

        I would get two of the local small (about 50g each) cured cheeses made out of goat and sheep milk a week and eat them, and was having trouble cutting down on blood sugar until I stopped doing it and that one change with all else being roughly the same consistently reduced the blood sugar level increases - since I have Type II Diabetes - between my “running days” (I run 10km twice a week, which by itself has a huge positive impact on it).

        Around here there’s also what we call “fresh cheese” (basically cheese that hasn’t been cured) and I usually get a couple of those made of goat cheese and they don’t seem to be a problem.

        Of course, this is all a bit so-so and anecdotcal since its pretty hard to control all other variables plus blood sugar seems to also be affected what you consumed days before (I’ve seen blood sugar go up long after the last meal and during a fasting period - so supposedly not because of sugar intake or digestion - which I suspect is due to the sugar stored in the liver or maybe yet another unexpected methabolic pathway).

        In my experience of trying to control blood sugar levels with food and exercise, it is exactly as you said: metabolism is crazy, crazy complicated :/