Sugar! New research. Must read!

mmapags

http://news.yahoo.com/sugar-regulated-toxin-researchers-180605186.html
Interesting article! REcommedation that it should be regulated like alcohol or other toxic substances.

Acg67

bout 80 percent of those who are obese will have diabetes or metabolic disorders and will have shortened lives, according to the UCSF authors of the commentary, led by Robert Lustig.

oh, Lustig?

http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/01/29/the-bitter-truth-about-fructose-alarmism/

http://www.alanaragonblog.com/2010/02/19/a-retrospective-of-the-fructose-alarmism-debate/

mmapags

Took a look at your links. Interesting but basically 2 guys saying the other is wrong about some things. I'll grant you Lustig does seem extreme but there is an obesity epidemic happening in the US. I read Aragon's statistics about the changes in consumption in recent years but I'm not sure I really buy it. There have been other statistics I've read about the per capita increase in sugar usage in the US over the last 60 years. Some of this was published by Atkins but he was citing other sources.

I think we can agree, that while Lustig may be extreme, there does seem to be a lot of data on the increased use of fructose, sucrose in processed foods over the last half century or so that has been detrimental to the overall health of our society, particulary in the form of high fructose corn syryp. Fructose in whole foods like apples and bananas and strawberries has the benefit of being part of a more wholistic nutritional package including fiber. This slows the flow of the fructose into the bloodstream to a healthier pace and doesn't over trigger the insulin response. So as Aragon states, fructose itself is not evil but an overload of it is.

In my view, there is plenty of data to suggest that we are overly dependent on sugar in our culture and it is a major contributor to our dietary issues. I'm not sure I'd advocate regulating it like alcohol but I'd sure as heck tighten up on the food industry and the additives that are sugar based. And don't even get me started on the Soda people!

Acg67

Took a look at your links. Interesting but basically 2 guys saying the other is wrong about some things. I'll grant you Lustig does seem extreme but there is an obesity epidemic happening in the US. I read Aragon's statistics about the changes in consumption in recent years but I'm not sure I really buy it. There have been other statistics I've read about the per capita increase in sugar usage in the US over the last 60 years. Some of this was published by Atkins but he was citing other sources.

It depends on how you want to look at the data

http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/foodconsumption/spreadsheets/foodloss/Calories.xls

If you look at the % of kcal from sugars, it decreased. If you look at just kcal from sugar it did increase from 1970, but has decreased over the last decade

I think we can agree, that while Lustig may be extreme, there does seem to be a lot of data on the increased use of fructose, sucrose in processed foods over the last half century or so that has been detrimental to the overall health of our society, particulary in the form of high fructose corn syryp. Fructose in whole foods like apples and bananas and strawberries has the benefit of being part of a more wholistic nutritional package including fiber. This slows the flow of the fructose into the bloodstream to a healthier pace and doesn't over trigger the insulin response. So as Aragon states, fructose itself is not evil but an overload of it is.

Ah but what consists of an overload of it? If you look at a lot of the studies on the evil of HFCS they are often in non-physiological dosages like 50 or 60% of total kcal coming from pure fructose