Showing posts with label Lustig. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lustig. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Fructose

Science evolves and it's a good thing!  Years ago they said that we needed to cut back on the amount of fat we are eating to combat the trend towards a high rate of obesity. Thirty years of nutritional policy and behavior based on a faulty premise! Funny thing,  the rate not only didn't go down, it went up, not only in adults, but children . Why? Perhaps because fat makes food taste good, and the food industry needed  replacement. So they used fructose! Our sugar intake in has exploded.  Remember when a coke was a small 6.5oz bottle? Now we have "big gulps" at 44oz's. High fructose corn syrup invented in the 60's by the Japanese is also in the rising trend towards sweeter foods and is found in almost every processed food you can buy. Including bread..  In any case, this guy's lecture, if you haven't heard it already, is something I think everyone should hear. It relates to not just obesity, but the rising high rate of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other things.
Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, explores the damage caused by sugary foods
You can agree with him or not, but you owe it to your selves to hear what he has to say before agreeing or dismissing his theory. Stick it out at least through the fructose part, or watch the 60min. clip for a synopsis. .
Here is the clip on the 60minutes site if you missed it last Sunday.
I for one, am going to do my best to limit my fructose intake. I've gained about ten pounds since quitting smoking ten or eleven months ago, and I can't seem to lose it.  I've pretty much cut out soft drinks, now I need to watch out for fructose in the foods I buy.  We'll see what happens.