Is Sugar Toxic? fructose vs sucrose

[Guest guest]

Is Sugar Toxic?

By GARY TAUBES

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html

On May 26, 2009, Lustig gave a lecture called " Sugar: The Bitter

Truth, " which was posted on YouTube

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the following July. Since

then, it has been viewed well over 800,000 times, gaining new viewers at

a rate of about 50,000 per month, fairly remarkable numbers for a

90-minute discussion of the nuances of fructose biochemistry and human

physiology.

Lustig is a specialist on pediatric hormone disorders and the leading

expert in childhood obesity at the University of California, San

Francisco, School of Medicine, which is one of the best medical schools

in the country. He published his first paper on childhood obesity a

dozen years ago, and he has been treating patients and doing research on

the disorder ever since.

The viral success of his lecture, though, has little to do with Lustig's

impressive credentials and far more with the persuasive case he makes

that sugar is a " toxin " or a " poison, " terms he uses together 13 times

through the course of the lecture, in addition to the five references to

sugar as merely " evil. " And by " sugar, " Lustig means not only the white

granulated stuff that we put in coffee and sprinkle on cereal ---

technically known as sucrose --- but also high-fructose corn syrup,

which has already become without Lustig's help what he calls " the most

demonized additive known to man. "

It doesn't hurt Lustig's cause that he is a compelling public speaker.

His critics argue that what makes him compelling is his practice of

taking suggestive evidence and insisting that it's incontrovertible.

Lustig certainly doesn't dabble in shades of gray. Sugar is not just an

empty calorie, he says; its effect on us is much more insidious. " It's

not about the calories, " he says. " It has nothing to do with the

calories. It's a poison by itself. "

If Lustig is right, then our excessive consumption of sugar is the

primary reason that the numbers of obese and diabetic Americans have

skyrocketed in the past 30 years. But his argument implies more than

that. If Lustig is right, it would mean that sugar is also the likely

dietary cause of several other chronic ailments widely considered to be

diseases of Western lifestyles --- heart disease, hypertension and many

common cancers among them.

The number of viewers Lustig has attracted suggests that people are

paying attention to his argument.

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diabetes