health and wellness
Sugar detox? Cutting carbs? A doctor explains why you should keep fruit on the menu
Sugar detox? Cutting carbs? A doctor explains why you should keep fruit on the menu
Jennifer Rooke, Morehouse School of Medicine
One of my patients – who had been struggling with obesity, uncontrolled diabetes and the cost of her medications – agreed in June 2019 to adopt a more whole-food plant-based diet.
Excited by the challenge, she did a remarkable job. She increased her fresh fruit and vegetable intake, stopped eating candy, cookies and cakes and cut down on foods from animal sources. Over six months, she lost 19 pounds and her HbA1c – a measure of her average blood sugar – dropped from 11.5% to 7.6%.
She was doing so well, I expected that her HbA1c would continue to drop and she would be one of our plant-based successes who had reversed diabetes.
Her three-month follow-up visit in March 2020 was canceled because of COVID-19 lockdowns. When I eventually saw her again in May 2021, she’d regained some of the weight and her HbA1c had climbed to 10.4%. She explained that her diabetes doctor and a diabetes nurse educator had told her that she was eating too much “sugar” on the plant-based diet.
She’d been advised to limit carbohydrates by cutting back on fruits and starchy vegetables and eating more fish and chicken. Sugar-free candy, cakes, cookies and artificial sweeteners were encouraged. In the face of conflicting medical advice, she fell back on conventional wisdom that “sugar” is bad and should be avoided whenever possible, especially if you have diabetes.
I’m a physician, board certified in preventive medicine with a lifestyle medicine clinic at Morehouse Healthcare in Atlanta. This emerging medical specialty focuses on helping patients make healthy lifestyle behavior modifications. Patients who adopt whole-food plant-based diets increase carbohydrate intake and often see reversal of chronic diseases including diabetes and hypertension. In my clinical experience, myths about “sugar” and carbohydrates are common among patients and health professionals.
Fruit vs. sugar
Your body runs on glucose. It is the simple sugar that cells use for energy.
Glucose is a molecular building block of carbohydrates, one of the three essential macronutrients. The other two are fat and protein. Starches are long, branching chains of glucose.
Naturally occurring carbohydrates travel in nutrient-dense packages such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds.
Humans evolved to crave sweet tastes to get the nutrients needed to survive. A daily supply of vitamins, minerals and fiber is needed because our bodies cannot make them. The best source of these substances for our ancient ancestors was sweet, ripe, delicious fruit. In addition, fruits contain phytonutrients and antioxidants, chemicals produced only by plants. Phytonutrients such as ellagic acid in strawberries have cancer-fighting properties and promote heart health.
Refined sugars, on the other hand, are highly processed and stripped of all nutrients except calories. They’re a concentrated form of carbohydrates. The food industry produces refined sugars in many forms. The most common are sucrose crystals, which you’d recognize as table sugar, and high-fructose corn syrup, which is found in many processed foods and sweetened beverages.
If you continually satisfy your taste for sweet with foods that contain refined sugar – rather than the nutrient-rich fruits at the core of this craving passed on by evolution – you may not get all the nutrients you need. Over time, this deficit may create a vicious cycle of overeating that leads to obesity and obesity-related health problems. Women who eat the most fruit tend to have lower rates of obesity.
Sugar toxicity
Refined sugars are not directly toxic to cells, but they can combine with proteins and fats in food and in the bloodstream to produce toxic substances such as advanced glycation end products (AGEs). High blood glucose levels may produce glycated low-density lipoproteins. High levels of these and other glucose-related toxic substances are associated with an increased risk of a wide range of chronic health problems, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
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The disease most commonly associated with sugar is Type 2 diabetes. A surprising number of people, including health professionals, incorrectly believe that eating sugar causes Type 2 diabetes. This myth leads to a focus on lowering blood sugar and “counting carbs” while ignoring the real cause: progressive loss of pancreatic beta cell function. At diagnosis, a patient may have lost between 40% and 60% of their beta cells, which are responsible for producing insulin.
Insulin is a hormone that controls how much glucose is in the bloodstream by blocking glucose production in the liver and driving it into fat and muscle cells. Loss of beta cell function means not enough insulin gets produced, resulting in the high blood glucose levels characteristic of Type 2 diabetes.
Beta cells have low levels of antioxidants and are susceptible to attack by metabolic and dietary oxidized free radicals and AGEs. Antioxidants in fruit can protect beta cells. Researchers have found that eating whole fruit decreases the risk of Type 2 diabetes, with those who eat the most fruit having the lowest risk.
Detoxing from sugar
People interested in losing weight and improving health often ask if they should do a “sugar detox.” In my opinion this is a waste of time, because it is not possible to eliminate sugar from the body. For instance, if you ate only baked chicken breasts, your liver would convert protein to glucose in a process called gluconeogenesis.
Low-carb diets may lead to weight loss, but at the expense of health. Diets that significantly reduce carbohydrates are associated with nutrient deficiencies and higher risk of death from any cause. On low-carbohydrate ketogenic diets the body will break down muscles and turn their protein into glucose. The lack of fiber causes constipation.
Eliminating foods sweetened with refined sugar is a worthy goal. But don’t think of it as a “detox” – it should be a permanent lifestyle change. The safest way to go on a refined sugar “detox” is to increase your intake of nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables. Once you eliminate refined sugar, you’ll likely find that your taste buds become more sensitive to – and appreciative of – the natural sweetness of fruits.
This article is part of a series examining sugar’s effects on human health and culture. You can read the articles on theconversation.com.
Jennifer Rooke, Assistant Professor of Community Health & Preventive Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
https://stmdailynews.com/the-fate-of-lucky-supermarkets-in-socal/
Health
Join the Fight Against ALS: Register and Make a Difference
Every year, doctors tell more than 5,000 Americans they have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as ALS. It is a life-changing diagnosis. In honor of ALS Awareness Month, learn more about the disease.
Last Updated on June 30, 2026 by Daily News Staff
Join the Fight Against ALS: Register and Make a Difference
(Feature Impact) Every year, doctors tell more than 5,000 Americans they have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as ALS. It is a life-changing diagnosis.
Still, it’s hard to estimate the total number of ALS cases in the United States. No one knows what causes most cases of ALS, something the U.S. National ALS Registry is working to change.
In honor of ALS Awareness Month, learn more about the registry, how the information is used and how to enroll if you have ALS.
What is ALS?
ALS is a disease that affects the nerve cells that make muscles work in the body. This disease makes the nerve cells stop working and die. The nerves lose the ability to trigger specific muscles, which causes the muscles to become weak and leads to paralysis.
What is the registry?
“The National ALS Registry is a program of, by and for those living with ALS,” said Dr. Paul Mehta, principal investigator of the Registry. “The program collects, manages and analyzes data about people with ALS in the United States. It includes data and information provided by individuals who choose to register and complete the risk factor surveys.”
What is its purpose?
The main purpose is to gather information that can be used in the fight against ALS. The information is used to:
- Estimate the number of new cases of ALS diagnosed each year
- Estimate the number of people who have ALS at any given point in time
- Better understand who gets ALS and what factors affect the disease
- Enhance research that could improve care for people with ALS
How do researchers use the data?
Researchers can use the data to look for disease pattern changes over time and try to identify whether there are common risk factors among people with ALS. Since 2010, the registry has funded more than a dozen studies exploring potential ALS risk factors.
What does participation look like?
Individuals with ALS are encouraged to share their stories, enhancing ALS data and supporting research efforts. People living with ALS can help the National ALS Registry by completing up to 18 risk factor surveys, covering topics such as occupational history and environmental exposures, which help create a more complete picture of their ALS story.
How can someone join?
Anyone living with ALS can enroll. By joining and taking the risk factor surveys, individuals living with ALS can help future generations.
Get started at cdc.gov/als.
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Health
How Young Adults Can Build a Healthier Future
Bridging national service and public health, the initiative supports a diverse group of early career professionals working to address today’s public health challenges in a range of roles
Last Updated on June 29, 2026 by Daily News Staff
(Family Features) Shaping the future of public health into an equitable one means ensuring all people and communities have access to the health care and resources they need to live well. The nation requires a strong, diverse public health workforce to accomplish that goal.
That’s why AmeriCorps and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched Public Health AmeriCorps – to support the recruitment, training and development of early career public health workers who can serve their local communities.
Bridging national service and public health, the initiative supports a diverse group of early career professionals working to address today’s public health challenges in a range of roles, including:
- Health education and training
- Community outreach and engagement
- System navigation, referrals and linkage to care
- Research, data collection, analysis and assessment
What Members are Saying
Everyone was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic – including Dionne Johnson, who lost a loved one to the virus.
“I had a family member die from COVID-19, and it really touched me,” Johnson said. “That gave me the passion and lit the fire under me to actually pursue a career in public health.”
Now, Johnson is realizing her dreams of transforming public health in her community. In her work, she wants to teach people in Black and brown communities how they can learn to be healthy and advocate for themselves.
Another member, Jaiden Singh, is the son of immigrants. Singh launched a promising career in public health so he can give back to the community where he grew up.
“Being a part of the organization not only has really supplemented my education that I’m working toward in public health and policy, it has also given me the opportunity to do work that I am really passionate about in a community that I have known all my life and really do love,” Singh said. “I would highly recommend being a part of this really valuable and inspiring community.”
Action That Creates Impact
The diverse work of Public Health AmeriCorps benefits not only program members but also the communities they serve. As examples of the program at work, members have:
- Provided overdose rescue education, raised awareness about opioid use disorder and harm reduction strategies and distributed overdose rescue kits containing naloxone (an overdose-reversing nasal spray).
- Held back-to-school COVID-19 testing events, distributed early childhood health education and built community gardens in underserved communities.
- Participated in a community mental health crisis intervention system to assess, stabilize and link people in crisis to follow-up care and services.
- Supported elementary schools as part of a dental hygiene program that sends out staff and volunteers to provide free teeth cleanings to students.
Learn More and Apply
If you want to start your career and make a difference in public health, consider member benefits such as:
- Education awards to apply to higher education or student loan forgiveness
- Student loan deferment and forbearance
- Living allowance
- Hands-on experience
- Training from experts
Visit AmeriCorps.gov/PublicHealth for a list of opportunities to serve and contact your desired opportunity by phone or email to learn more and apply. You can also subscribe to the newsletter to learn more about the initiative.
SOURCE:
AmeriCorps
(Family Features) Most people think of heart attacks as debilitating pain in the chest. However, that’s not always the case, especially for women, and missing the signs can be a matter of life and death.
Although heart disease is the leading cause of death among American women, according to the American Heart Association, symptoms are often overlooked or explained away as less worrisome conditions.
“Men and women experience many aspects of life differently, and heart disease is no exception,” said LeAnne Bloedon, MS, RD, vice president of clinical development, Esperion Therapeutics. “Symptoms of a heart attack aren’t as obvious as many women think, and failing to recognize the danger and get help can have catastrophic results.”
One heart disease risk factor, for example, is high LDL cholesterol. Often referred to as a “silent killer,” it doesn’t always present noticeable symptoms. In fact, data suggests women with high LDL cholesterol are not diagnosed or treated as early or aggressively as men, which can put women at an increased risk for cardiovascular events. Understanding how men’s and women’s risk and symptoms differ may help identify and treat a serious heart health problem before it causes lasting damage.
Anatomy Differences
Some differences between men and women are present in the body’s internal systems, including the cardiovascular system. Women generally have smaller hearts and narrower blood vessels.
This can affect heart health in numerous ways, including less efficient stress responses and greater risk of widespread plaque buildup, especially in smaller vessels, called microvasculature, which can pose treatment challenges.
Cholesterol Buildup
Hormones influence aspects of the body’s function, including cholesterol levels. Estrogen, a female sex hormone, raises HDL (good) cholesterol levels. This may be why women tend to have more HDL cholesterol and lower LDL (bad) cholesterol than men, especially before they reach menopause, though inherited high cholesterol can affect women of all ages.
“It’s critical to raise awareness about the importance of measuring LDL cholesterol, diagnosing high cholesterol and treating elevated LDL cholesterol per guidelines and individual patient needs,” Bloedon said.
Risk Factors
While there are shared risk factors for heart disease among men and women (such as obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes), some risk factors disproportionately affect women. For example, uncontrolled cholesterol in women, particularly after menopause, can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.
Care and Treatment
“While you may not be able to fully prevent heart disease, you can understand the risks and take proactive steps,” Bloedon said. “Commit to a healthy, smoke-free lifestyle. Exercise regularly and eat a well-balanced diet with limits on processed foods, sugar, sodium and alcohol. Take any medications as directed by your health care provider.”
Statins, which reduce the production of cholesterol in the liver and lower cholesterol levels in the bloodstream, are the medications most often prescribed to help manage high LDL cholesterol. While generally well-tolerated, statin intolerance (the inability to take a statin at any dose or the recommended dose) does occur in some patients and is more common in women.
Talk with your doctor about other steps you can take to manage elevated LDL cholesterol levels and learn more about women’s heart health at goredforwomen.org.
Symptoms of Heart Attacks in Women
Women’s experiences with heart disease may be quite different from men.
For example, according to the Heart Disease Foundation, women are likely to be older when they experience a heart attack. They may also attribute symptoms to other conditions, such as diabetes or arthritis.
Further complicating matters, several diseases mimic heart attacks so getting to the root of the problem can be tricky. Women are more apt than men to experience a coronary spasm, coronary dissection or broken heart syndrome.
What to Watch For:
- Like men, women experiencing a heart attack may notice prolonged or reoccurring chest pain or pressure.
- In women, that pain may extend to the arms, back, neck, jaw and stomach.
- Some women experience shortness of breath with no chest pain at all.
- Other symptoms women are more likely to report can be easily mistaken for other conditions. Some of these signs include unexplained fatigue, disruptions to normal sleep patterns, lightheadedness, nausea and cold sweats.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock
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