Robert Lustig’s New Talk on Sugar!
Recently a new 90 minute talk with professor Robert Lustig was posted on YouTube (his most watched – “Sugar, the Bitter Truth” from 2009 – has 4 millions views).
You can see the new one above. It’s almost identical to his talk in Oslo that I attended yesterday. Well worth watching, even before Will Smith makes a surprise appearance!
See the talk for more on why sugar is a potential poison.
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http://nymag.com/thecut/2013/11/what-no-one-tells-you-about-dramatic-...
He is not trying to over sell fat, or eliminate all carbs, and yet any low fat, higher carb individual should find his no added sugars, and avoiding processed carbs, message useful.
Less sugars, minimal fruit drinks, less refined carbs, almost no soft drinks, less candy.....
Who can't take that message as one being for everyone regardless of dietary leanings?
I've commented before that I think he is playing a canny political game: in trying not to alienate himself from the mainstream while still highlighting the inherent dangers of too much sugar and refined starches in the modern diet.
His message is a sound one; a beginning and as we are only at the beginning of this huge battle against the food manufactures who produce the non-foods the world is addicted too, we can't and shouldn't ask for more at this moment in time.
I also believe that Dr Lustigs' message in it's simplicity, will reach more people than if he had come out hard-ball and aggressive. It is a start.
M x
I do think he has a choice but he is being shrewd by selecting to work the system from "inside", rather than risk becoming marginalised. Imagine if someone of his standing and qualifications were to have an influence on the next USDA dietary guidelines, for example...
After all there are few voices in the nutritional world that pro-actively suggest that massive sugar intake is a "good thing". And most folk would agree that excess sugar consumption is the 'low-hanging fruit' in terms of starting to get people to moderate and/or restrict their carbs.
And there are others, like Michael Pollan and we got one of our own in sweden or rather several that promote real food!
I think those do a great jobb.. better to eat real food and not be forced to eat low carb.. then one have a choise!
It's like a homeless man giving a lecture on how to become a millionaire.
Starting with kids, then working its way up the age chain over decades.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanton_Glantz
From the huge advertising campaigns being run by the beverage companies, they know the game is on. They've seen the tobacco battle plan.
Lustig would damage his effectiveness if he brought the complete LCHF message to mainstream America.
May be he does drink beer, so what? The lecture didn't discuss beer or how to be thin. He doesn't advise on limiting all carbohydrates, just to remove added sugar and fructose from a diet. Besides, the lecture is based on his work experience, not on a success story like "how I lost 100 lb and kept it off for a year". As many people who have to follow a LC diet, I can tell that limiting sugar to 6 - 9 teaspoon a day is way not enough to loose much weight. May be it is enough only for a whole population to stop or slow down the rise in the obesity rates especially among children. The lecture is not about how to make everyone to look like a model.
I am reading the "Nutrition and Physical" degeneration at the moment. According to the book, the health problems in the traditional societies described in the book started after they got assess to not only sugar, but also refined flour and polished rice. If I remember properly, in the "Good Calories,Bad Calories" some epidemiological studies were mentioned, and the health problem started after one lb of sugar a month was exceeded. It looks like 8 Tbs a week. It is slightly over 2 tea spoons a days. Dr's recommendations are rather modest and not really revolutionary , probably, it gives him a better chance.
Galina, I keep going back to Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. Weston Price, in my view, was the Charles Darwin of nutrition. His inference of Activator X (recently identified as menaquinone - vitamin K2) was masterful. It is continually instructive how the various cultures adapted interesting food practices over time to overcome deficiencies or toxicities in diet. The more I learn about metabolism, gene expression, etc., the more I get out of the book when I go back to it.
Next step.. its altso in sugar!
Thats my two cents!
The book is free on-line, but I really wanted to have it in my possession, and was lucky to find a hardcover for $49.99 on Amazon. The book is worth to have in a personal library and pass on children and grandchildren in a future! My hobby is to cook traditional foods, after learning about benefits of traditional diets, I feel less of an odd ball.
According to one of Dr. Lustig's older videos, fructose, fat, and alcohol are all the same thing.
some day you will learn that emaciated look do not necessary correlates with a health. Just wait.
Dietary glycemic load and cancer recurrence and survival in patients with stage III colon cancer: findings from CALGB 89803.
Meyerhardt JA, Sato K, Niedzwiecki D, Ye C, Saltz LB, Mayer RJ, Mowat RB, Whittom R, Hantel A, Benson A, Wigler DS, Venook A, Fuchs CS.
Source
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 450 Brookline Ave, Boston, MA 02215, USA. jmeyerhardt@partners.org
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
The influence of glycemic load and related measures on survival among colon cancer patients remains largely unknown.
METHODS:
We conducted a prospective, observational study of 1011 stage III colon cancer patients reporting dietary intake during and 6 months after participation in an adjuvant chemotherapy trial. We examined the influence of glycemic load, glycemic index, fructose, and carbohydrate intakes on cancer recurrence and mortality using Cox proportional hazards regression; all tests of statistical significance were two-sided.
RESULTS:
Stage III colon cancer patients in the highest quintile of dietary glycemic load experienced an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for disease-free survival of 1.79 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.29 to 2.48), compared with those in the lowest quintile (P (trend) across quintiles <.001). Increased glycemic load was associated with similar detriments in recurrence-free (P (trend) across quintiles <.001) and overall survival (P (trend) across quintiles <.001). These associations differed statistically significant by body mass index (BMI) (P (interaction) =.01). Whereas glycemic load was not associated with disease-free survival in patients with BMI < 25kg/m(2), higher glycemic load was statistically significant associated with worse disease-free survival among overweight or obese participants (BMI ≥ 25kg/m(2); HR = 2.26; 95% CI = 1.53 to 3.32; P (trend) across quintiles <.001). Increasing total carbohydrate intake was similarly associated with inferior disease-free, recurrence-free, and overall survival (P (trend) across quintiles <.001).
CONCLUSION:
Higher dietary glycemic load and total carbohydrate intake were statistically significant associated with an increased risk of recurrence and mortality in stage III colon cancer patients. These findings support the role of energy balance factors in colon cancer progression and may offer potential opportunities to improve patient survival.
Higher glycemic index and glycemic load diet is associated with increased risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: a case-control study.
Eslamian G, Jessri M, Hajizadeh B, Ibiebele TI, Rashidkhani B.
Source
Students' Research Committee, Faculty of Nutrition Sciences and Food Technology, National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute (WHO Collaborating Center), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
Several studies have indicated the association between intake of foods high in dietary glycemic index (GI) and glycemic load (GL) with an increased risk of digestive tract cancers. We hypothesized that GI and GL may be associated with risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) in a high-risk population in Iran. In total, we interviewed 47 cases with incident of ESCC and 96 frequency-matched hospital controls, then calculated the average dietary GI and GL via a validated food frequency questionnaire. Dietary GL was calculated as a function of GI, carbohydrate content, and frequency of intake of certain foods. Dietary GI and GL levels were significantly higher among the ESCC cases compared with the controls (P < .05). After adjustment for potential confounders, those in the highest tertile of dietary GI had 2.95 times higher risk of ESCC compared with those in the lowest (95% confidence interval, 1.68-3.35; P for trend = .002). In addition, being in the highest tertile of dietary GL was positively associated with an ESCC risk (odds ratio, 3.49; 95% confidence interval, 2.98-4.41; P for trend = .001).
Findings of the present study indicate that diets with high GI and GL might have potentially unfavorable effects on ESCC risk and suggest a possible role for excess circulating insulin and related insulin-like growth factor 1 in esophageal cancer development.
The surgery took place in the hospital specialized in gynecological cancers, so all other patients in the same room with my mom were ladies with a uterus/ovaries cancers. In Russia people are kept in hospitals for much longer time than in US, I visited mom often and communicated with the people there. I noticed significant portion (like 1/4 - 1/3 of all patients)on the floor were relatively young ones early 30s - early 40s, they were also thin and pale, the rest were overweight or obese and much older. I managed to speak with some of the patients, and found out that pale thin ones were watching their weight very diligently, and engaged heavily in an exercise routine. Among overweight ones majority were diabetics. One lady told me proudly she weighted herself daily, and if she noticed her weight was slightly up, didn't eat anything till the weight was down, and everything was low-fat or zero fat. My silent guess was that the thin pale patients may be experienced the weakness of their immune system, so malignant sells could grow more successfully. The interesting detail - several told me about sudden increase in a very strong craving for sweets not long ago before being diagnosed. Cancer may put its own metabolic requirement on the way how the body functions.
I'm diabetic and I need to limit my consumption of ALL carbohydrates, not just fructose. Maybe fructose is worse than glucose and starch, but that doesn't mean that they are particularly good for you.
If the Medical profession do not start to change or adapt, Houston we have a problem!