Is sugar poisonous?

Sugar: The Bitter Truth

You can save yourself the hour of viewing time required to finish this lecture.  Here are the main points from this presentation by Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF.

Debunking the last 30 years of nutritional information

We all weigh 25 more pounds than we did 25 years ago

The calories in-calories out formula blames humans for being glutenous and sloths.  The belief that this is the only reason is pretty ignorant.

We now have an epidemic of obese six month old children, around the world.  Are we going to blame diet and exercise here as well?

We are eating about 275 more calories per day than decades ago.  Where are all these calories coming from ? Protein? No.  Fat? No. Carbs, yes !

In 1982: American Heart Association, and department of agriculture advised everyone to lower fat in their diet from 40 % to 30 %.  Result? Increase in obesity, non alcoholic disease, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke prevelance, and metabolic syndrome.

Where are we getting these excess carbs from? Sodas and fruit drinks.

Leptin, which is released when your body consumes food, tells your brain that it is full.  No need to eat anymore.  Sugar, particularly;  fructose, does not effect leptin.  So these excess calories do nothing for our hunger.

63 pounds of high fructose corn syrup per person per year. Humans have never consumed HFCS up until  1965.

Its not about eating more, its about eating more sugar.

Today, adolescence consume 15 percent of their daily calories from fructose.

Why did we ever increase fructose and carb consumption in the first place? The perfect set-up.

1. To stabilize food prices back in 1973.

2. Introduction to high fructose corn syrup in 1975. Price of sugar decreased tremendously, thus food prices. HFCS is half the price of sugar. It’s so cheap, it has found its way into everything.

3. USDA, AMA, and AHA call for reduced fat intake. Partially based on faulty evidence.

Japanese diet is high in rice/ carbs.  Wouldn’t they be a fat nation? They are not a fat nation because they consume very little sugar.

Cholesterol and heart disease is very misunderstood.  Even LDL cholesterol should not be considered bad.  Some LDL’s like small dense ldl, is dangerous to the arteries.  What increases this bad type of LDL? Carbs.

Triglyceride to HDl level is a better predictor of heart disease than LDL cholesterol.

We went on a low fat diet, but sugar just changes to fat once its in the liver anyway.  Specifically, in the liver.  Fatty liver can also be caused by high carb/sugar diets.

We have stubbornly yet to “right the ship,” in terms of our dietary mistakes and misinformation.

Fruit contains fructose.  Is fruit bad? Fruit contains an ample amount of fiber which negates damage of fructose.

Definition of fast food? Fiber-less food.

Fructose is metabolized differently than glucose.  Glucose/glycogen (storage form of glucose)  can be used by cells in the body.  Fructose cannot.

You are not what you eat.  You are what you do with what you eat.

I believe Americans have been set up to over-consume sugar and carbohydrates.  Our environment is largely to blame for our obesity levels.  Don’t expect the FDA to step in any time soon though to correct our horrific health and nutrition status.

I’d like to compare fructose intake to tobacco/ cigarette use.  The more one smokes, the more unhealthy he becomes and more likely he will acquire some type of disease.  Same with fructose.  The more one consumes, the more unhealthy he will become.

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