Coca Cola, the morning after...
Discussion
anonymous said:
[redacted]
These words alone start sounding the bulls
t klaxon in my head.Its amazing what people would have you believe about what goes on with your body and food.
Personally I dont beleive it until I have beeen told it by a member of a proffessional health care body/team.
This is untrue but based on some factual parts.
Beer will deplete your blood sugar level...however your pancreas will then work to convert Stored Starch into sugar, bringing it back up again. No matter how pissed you are. Your pancreas will work to maintain a constant (or as constant as possible) blood sugar level.
The opposite happens when you drink the high sugar coke in the morning. Your blood sugars go up. Your pancreas turns Sugar into Starch.
Diabetes can happen for lots of reasons but 2 reasons which would be applicable to this is 1) your body becomes immune to insulin (the hormone that is used to tell your body to up or down the blood sugar levels) because it keeps getting flooded with the stuff, and so just stops listening to it. Or 2) the Pancreas shuts down, either through no fault of the person, or like a liver gets damaged through drink, the pancreas gets damaged through always having lots of sugar or never having enough.
Both of these scenarios will NEVER happen to a "normal" person who every week or so has Coke after a night of heavy drinking. Your body is made to deal with these fluctuations from lack of or excess intake of sugar.
HTH
Beer will deplete your blood sugar level...however your pancreas will then work to convert Stored Starch into sugar, bringing it back up again. No matter how pissed you are. Your pancreas will work to maintain a constant (or as constant as possible) blood sugar level.
The opposite happens when you drink the high sugar coke in the morning. Your blood sugars go up. Your pancreas turns Sugar into Starch.
Diabetes can happen for lots of reasons but 2 reasons which would be applicable to this is 1) your body becomes immune to insulin (the hormone that is used to tell your body to up or down the blood sugar levels) because it keeps getting flooded with the stuff, and so just stops listening to it. Or 2) the Pancreas shuts down, either through no fault of the person, or like a liver gets damaged through drink, the pancreas gets damaged through always having lots of sugar or never having enough.
Both of these scenarios will NEVER happen to a "normal" person who every week or so has Coke after a night of heavy drinking. Your body is made to deal with these fluctuations from lack of or excess intake of sugar.
HTH
Obesity provides the strongest link with diabetes in the Uk through building up insulin resistance (due to excess glucogeonesis) leading to Type 2 Diabetes (85% of all diabetics are type 2). While Coca Cola contributes admirably to the amount of fat b
ds we have there's plenty of other sugary crap that's equally to blame in this respect
"The pancreas produces the body's most important enzymes. The enzymes are designed to digest foods and break down starches"
http://www.mamashealth.com/organs/pancreas.asp
Whilst on here it says turn Sugar into carbs I was under the impression that enzymes either turned Sugar into, or from Starch??
http://www.mamashealth.com/organs/pancreas.asp
Whilst on here it says turn Sugar into carbs I was under the impression that enzymes either turned Sugar into, or from Starch??
You're on the right lines, you just got it the wrong way round. The link you posted doesn't explain things very well, as they've got a number of typos. For example, the bit where they say "Insulin lowers the blood sugar level and increases the amount of glucagon (stored carbohydrate) in the liver". The word "glucagon" should read "glycogen". It all makes it more confusing that it need be! 
As for starch, humans can break it down into glucose (using the enzyme amylase), but we can't then turn glucose back into starch. We turn it into glycogen instead.
Starch is the energy store in plants and glycogen is the equivalent in animals. They're very similar and are both basically glucose stores.
In humans:
Plant starch consumed: Amylase breaks down starch ---> glucose
Blood glucose rises: Insulin secreted and converts glucose ---> glycogen
Blood glucose falls: Glucagon secreted and converts glycogen ---> glucose
As for starch, humans can break it down into glucose (using the enzyme amylase), but we can't then turn glucose back into starch. We turn it into glycogen instead.
Starch is the energy store in plants and glycogen is the equivalent in animals. They're very similar and are both basically glucose stores.
In humans:
Plant starch consumed: Amylase breaks down starch ---> glucose
Blood glucose rises: Insulin secreted and converts glucose ---> glycogen
Blood glucose falls: Glucagon secreted and converts glycogen ---> glucose
Edited by wiffmaster on Monday 22 February 01:46
Sorry OP, but that is total and utter rubbish!
My GP tried explaining to me that Steve Redgrave had given himself Diabetes because of his diet when he was rowing. I trotted this out to my father-in-law (A consultant endocrinologist and specialist in diabetes) and his exact words were "Total and utter bullsh*t." He then explained how the pancreas has an almost infintie ability to produce insulin in the context of what we can actually eat, so there is no way the tale you have been told is true.
My GP tried explaining to me that Steve Redgrave had given himself Diabetes because of his diet when he was rowing. I trotted this out to my father-in-law (A consultant endocrinologist and specialist in diabetes) and his exact words were "Total and utter bullsh*t." He then explained how the pancreas has an almost infintie ability to produce insulin in the context of what we can actually eat, so there is no way the tale you have been told is true.
On the whole diabetes/alcohol thing, I wouldn't have thought drinking Coke/Iru-Bru would be all that bad an idea. In fact, it might be a pretty good idea.
Alcohol depletes glucose/glycogen stores. So, your blood glucose will fall too low and no matter how much glucagon the body secretes to try and counteract this, if there's no glycogen stores left, then no glucose can be produced. The alcohol/hangover also reduces/stops gluconeogenesis, so no blood glucose increase that way. With blood glucose this low, you're at risk of hypoglycemia. You really don't want hypoglycemia, even for a little while.
However, a nice drink of sugary Coke will get the blood glucose level right back up to where it should be. Even if you drink a shed load of Coke, all you'll be doing is calling up more insulin to keep the blood glucose constant, and thus replenishing your glycogen stores. We can easily produce enough insulin to do this. Even on the off chance you became very temporarily hyperglycemic, the body would sort it out pretty quickly without damage. You can reduce blood glucose levels relatively easily when hungover, but it's harder to increase them (assuming you don't drink the nice sugary Coke which does it for you).
If you're an alcoholic drinking 10 pints of beer before bed, and then 10 pints of Coke upon waking, every single day (going from hypo to hyperglycemic constantly) then you're going to be screwed. But for the average drinker, I reckon it's best to neck the Coke!
Alcohol depletes glucose/glycogen stores. So, your blood glucose will fall too low and no matter how much glucagon the body secretes to try and counteract this, if there's no glycogen stores left, then no glucose can be produced. The alcohol/hangover also reduces/stops gluconeogenesis, so no blood glucose increase that way. With blood glucose this low, you're at risk of hypoglycemia. You really don't want hypoglycemia, even for a little while.
However, a nice drink of sugary Coke will get the blood glucose level right back up to where it should be. Even if you drink a shed load of Coke, all you'll be doing is calling up more insulin to keep the blood glucose constant, and thus replenishing your glycogen stores. We can easily produce enough insulin to do this. Even on the off chance you became very temporarily hyperglycemic, the body would sort it out pretty quickly without damage. You can reduce blood glucose levels relatively easily when hungover, but it's harder to increase them (assuming you don't drink the nice sugary Coke which does it for you).
If you're an alcoholic drinking 10 pints of beer before bed, and then 10 pints of Coke upon waking, every single day (going from hypo to hyperglycemic constantly) then you're going to be screwed. But for the average drinker, I reckon it's best to neck the Coke!
Edited by wiffmaster on Monday 22 February 02:08
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