Sugar has the potential to reduce your body's defenses

Hi, @cwhii - welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. Thanks for sharing this information about sugar.

Mayo Clinic has a number of articles about sugar that may interest you. Here are a couple:

- About added sugar https://mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/the-not-so-sweet-truth-about-added-sugar

- On curbing a sugar habit https://intheloop.mayoclinic.org/2019/02/21/when-it-comes-to-sugar-there-really-is-too-much-of-a-good-thing/

Are you considering reducing your sugar intake or have you made cuts in sugar in your diet? If so, how has your experience gone?

From three or four cans of Dr.Pepper to two or three home brewed slightly sweated iced tea with 60 vs 150 calories per 12 ounces. This seems to be making attempts to maintain/drop weight from 200lbs/6ft effective.
The post is not regarding general health benefits of moderate to low sugar. It is specifically about the "REDUCE YOUR BODY’S DEFENSES BY 75%" statement. I have friends who, to not get a cold from someone, will not eat a cookie based upon this idea.

@cwhii - sounds like you are making some concrete changes in your beverages.

The concept of reducing your body's defenses by 75% or more for 4-6 hours after consuming any sugar is interesting. I'm guessing that @cindylb @johnbishop @cncwi17 @gardeningjunkie @dorisena also may have some thoughts on this idea.

cwhii - Are you noting any difference in how you feel after drinking the iced tea now instead of the Dr. Pepper?

Hello @cwhii, I would like to add my welcome along with @lisalucier and other members. I'm certainly not an expert and I do have my problems with sugar consumption but I have cut back a lot. I have small fiber neuropathy and it really makes neuropathy worse so I've cut way back and only occassional treat myself. I used to drink a lot of pop and then switched to diet pop until I found out that it really makes the body crave more sweets. I looked at the site you referenced and linked to it below.

WHY SUGAR AGES & WEAKENS YOU: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THROTTLED BACK?
-- https://deeprootsathome.com/reasons-cut-sugar/

Dr. Linus Pauling did some research on the dangers of sugar which I think is where most of the data comes from.

John Yudkin, Linus Pauling and the Sugar Question
-- https://paulingblog.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/john-yudkin-linus-pauling-and-the-sugar-question/

Sugar and Your Immune System
-- https://alternativehealthatlanta.com/immune-system/sugar-and-your-immune-system/

How Much Is Too Much? -- The growing concern over too much added sugar in our diets
-- https://sugarscience.ucsf.edu/the-growing-concern-of-overconsumption.html#.XdHLlOhKhPY

I do know one thing. It's getting to be that time of year when all the treats start showing up and I really have to be on my best behavior and keep my hands in my pockets ☺

It's interesting this theory you have brought up. In my case sugar raised my defenses and caused an autoimmune condition because of raised histamines trying to protect my body. Sugar feeds the yeast in our system. Yeast demands it and signals our brain to be fed. It's called a sweet tooth. It causes us to crave sugar. Yeast will die if starved of processed sugar and be weakened by denying natural sugar and carbs. The by-products of yeast is it's waste (it is a living organism) in our digestive track which can pass though our tissues, more as we age, because of the leaky gut issue. This yeast waste raises our histamine levels creating an auto-immune issue, which is a too active immune system. Our bodies raise a histamine army overloading and warring with our body in multiple ways. This raises our inflammation throughout. We are all aware of the consequences of elevated inflammation in our bodies causing many diseases. Get the book, The Yeast Connection Handbook by William Crook, MD in which it has simple, easy to read explanations and hand drawn diagrams. Crook is a one of the first doctors to develop this theory and has a diet plan which many others modified and copied, like the popular Keto diet. I like Crook's diet, it is simpler, less restrictive after the initial detox as it allows more fats and has made a dramatic improvement in my life. Now after 13 months and with such amazing results I will stay on his plan for life. His book is still for sale on Amazon. A by-product of starving your yeast and killing it is you will loose your sugar craving because the yeast isn't living in you and demanding it. I'm living proof. I stopped thinking about sugar. For me it took about 6 months to get to that point, yeast is a strong survivor. I can't help with your question about sugar causing colds, I haven't had a cold in over a decade, but I base that on the fact that I am retired, out of the classroom and my grandchildren have passed those early years when they started school and brought home all the new virus's which they hadn't built up immunity to.

The details about the context and results have quantitative values but what one does to provoke the problem has simply the word "some". This means nothing to me. Such incongruencies triggers a fail on the-smell-test. Also, the "can get substituted my mistake" does not produce a clean quantitative value for me.

Smell test means different things to different people. If many articles from many different sources point to sugar consumption causing health related problems, I'm going with trying to reduce my consumption but I do understand where you are coming from. I alway go back to statistics and numbers can be scewed to prove pretty much whatever you want to prove (with the caveat of most of the time ☺).

Fast food fever: reviewing the impacts of the Western diet on immunity
-- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4074336/

PubMed has a lot of docs on the topic
-- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=refined%20sugar%20immune%20system

Not sure I'm qualified to answer your original question but my thought is that it doesn't take too much to look at western culture like the U.S and other countries diet vs eastern culture to see that refined sugar consumption is a problem (IMHO). Dumb question on my part - are you looking for scientific proof to stop or reduce sugar intake, or is it just seeing the article you mentioned and not agreeing with their assumptions?

I haven't studied concepts of reducing body defenses that you mentioned. I only know that when I read about sugar and cancer after my breast cancer surgery, that did it for me. Then I watched my husband die from cancer after years of watching him not treat his diabetes and thinking he was invincible. He was also obese and could not control his over eating. I gave up hard alcohol socially when it was forced on me at my mother-in-law's home and that was that. Then I gave up sodas when I heard a student tell about working for a fast food restaurant one summer and landing in the hospital from drinking diet pepsi and skipping meals to lose weight. I didn't miss them at all but had to say "no" very often. In those days weight management was my biggest concern. I have lived with diet changes since the 1960's when I had low blood sugar problems, mostly from stress. I cured that by eating six times a day and avoiding high carbs. I ate lots of veggies because I grew them in the garden. I was surprised when my blood test showed 126 in 2007. I have been at this for quite a few years now, and seldom get sick. I don't go out much to pick up bugs from other people. I drink hot tea, room temperature tea, decaf tea, anything like that and water, no ice. I drink some juices but not orange juice. I tried the beet juice but am not impressed.
At age 84 I feel better than friends my age and my mind is working just fine. You can tell I like to write. I bake and give it away. It makes me popular and I don't wear it on my hips. I still could stand to lose some more fat in the middle. Dorisena

Very helpful and motivating comment. You think much like I do. My husband now has diabetes and is in complete denial. Alcohol and ice cream daily. He is perhaps 30 lbs overweight, but is active with golf and other hobbies and believes since his Metformin is keeping his A1C low he is invincible.
Does he 126 represent your fasting blood sugar?

I lost weight at first and got the fasting number down close to 100 and was quite pleased but woke up every morning nauseated. Then it was at 109 for a while. After my back surgery and no exercise, it climbed to the 120's and has settled at 125 which does not please me, but the doctors think it is just fine because I am below 7 on my AIC. I would like to be back at 6.2 but need to be exercising more now that I am feeling better from my fractured shoulder injury. I didn't garden this summer at all. I got some things planted and then had to let the weeds grow. I hired a high school boy who didn't last long. I gave up and went to therapy the rest of the summer. If I am going to live long I need to keep the numbers low. I am already wearing hearing aids and have a fat middle.
My eyes are o.k. but have declined, of course. I like to sew, play the piano, and read. I would like to write a couple of books. I must not let up. Dorisena