Is Sugar Toxic?

Interesting topic. A speech by a guy named Dr. Robert Lustig making this case below the fold, naming the fructose component of sugar as teh primary villain.

There's also this article about it.

This writer, Gary Taubes, is an in-the-bag Atkins theory believer (and concedes as much in this article, disclosing that). He was the guy who, more than anyone, set off the Atkins craze of the 00's with his big article in the New York Times Sunday section on fat, provocatively headlined, "Have we been wrong all along?"

The Atkins thing had been around since the seventies, but it was that article that turned it into a craze.

I think (I haven't read the whole thing yet) is that Taubes is of the opinion that sugar (and other carbs) are the villains, whereas Lustig is more selective in choice of villain, and thinks it's mostly just fructose. But apart from that point, they're mostly on the same page.

I haven't read the whole article yet or watched the full lecture, so I don't know if I buy the Villain Fructose claim.

Here's

And here's his long (hour and a half) lecture on sugar.

The most interesting part of this so far is at 9:40-10:00, where he makes the point that in 1982 the government admonished us to reduce fat consumption from 40% of the calories in our diets to 30%. The interesting thing is that America actually did so -- our current average fat intake did fall to 30%.

At the same time, obesity and diabetes skyrocketed.

So... that wasn't good advice.

posted by Ace at 03:42 PM

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