Sugar: the bitter truth

Some of the things that Robert Lustig is saying need to be widely understood and only 5.4 million have watched his you tube video so far.

Obese 6 month year olds

The story he tells is particularly relevant if you care about your children's health. They are the most in danger from the abuse by the industrialized food toxin producers and marketers. He advises of a current obesity epidemic in 6 month old babies and shows that baby formula is no more than sugar laden milkshake. He warns that adult cravings for sugar are set in infancy.

Atkins and Japan diet same difference

The high carb/low fat diet of Japan and high fat/low carb diet as per Atkins are diametrically opposed, but they both work. People will not be overweight by following either diet, what makes these diets work is that they both exclude added fructose.  In these diets fructose would only be consumed in smaller amounts and as part of whole fruits.

Dr Lustig asserts that fructose is in fact a poison to humans and similar to alcohol. In nature we are protected from the ill effects of fructose by the fibre in fruit, plus the fact that historically fruit was not available all year round.

Obesity rates in US have jumped since the 1960s despite people consuming less fat. The rise in obesity is due to Americans consuming more sugar and in particular from the 1970s increasing amounts of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).  

Fat Consumption Down, Fat Bodies Up

Dr Lustig considers Ancel Keys' findings were mistaken regarding the correlation between high fat intake and high incidence of heart disease. He states that, the entire nutrition advice and policies in the US are wrong and are based on the erroneous findings of Ancel Keys.

Low Fat High Carb (Sugar) Diet is Causing Heart Disease

Dr Lustig accepts that eating a diet high in fat increases cholesterol, he explains that this is the harmless "LDLa" cholesterol which is large and buoyant and does not cause heart disease. However, eating a diet high in carbohydrates, and in particular sugars, increases the small dense cholesterol "LDLb", which damages the arteries and allows the plaque build up causing heart disease.

A major factor in the American diet leading to the obesity is consumption of excessive fructose contained in HFCS an ingredient in many processed foods, including soft drinks. He points out that fructose is actually toxic to our bodies and causes the following problems. 

• Fructose does not suppress the hunger hormone Ghrelin that stops us feeling hungry so we tend to overeat. 
• Fructose causes us to produce uric acid, which causes high blood pressure and also gout.
• Fructose causes high amounts vLDL (triglycerides) to be released into the blood stream causing obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.  
• Fructose damages the liver and causes non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and causes liver insulin resistance.
• The impact of fructose on the liver is similar to alcohol and leads to cirrhosis. There are reports of children requiring liver transplants and dying of cirrhosis due to NAFLD.  

By comparison he notes that glucose is the fuel of life and that the metabolism of glucose is not harmful to our liver.

Fructose on other hand is closely related to alcohol and similarly toxic and causes many of the same or similar diseases as alcohol. 

  

From an experiment on medical students eating the same amount of calories in glucose or fructose the amount of vLDL (triglycerides) released from consuming fructose was 20 to 30 times that of glucose.

He claims that the US Department of Agriculture won't do anything about excessive HFCS in our processed foods as this would harm the food producing industry and that food exports are important for the US economy.