Sugar Lecture

Blaming certain nutrients (fats, carbohydrates, protein, etc) is getting pretty old. This is a constant pendulum argument. First, it was the anti-fat diet of the 80's and 90's. Now it's the anti-carb diet, specifically sugar. The guy started out well enough with his charts, especially the one on thermodynamics. This is science. Energy can't be destroyed. It gets stored as fat, used to build muscle or used for body functions and heat production. Regardless of whether or not it comes from sugar or another type of nutrient, eating more than you need will result in storage.

If he wants to argue that fiber intake is too low, sure, great. Not having enough fiber has negative consequences on your body and there are plenty of articles to support this. Claiming that "sugar" is making people fat is just ridiculous though. MAYBE it's the fact that we have huge increases in technology that all involve sitting on our collective-butts all day long? Why is that never included in lectures? (Maybe it is in this one but I don't have time to watch the whole thing). Why is it that people like Michael Phelps and Lance Armstrong can eat thousands of calories from sugar sources and still maintain a skinny physique? Could it go back to that first law of thermodynamics? I would say yes, and so would most people who have ever read about thermodynamics.

Please stop making sugar the villain. Sugar has its place, especially for those of us who exercise a lot and more than once a day. I will not give up my daily pint of Ben and Jerry's while continuing to lose weight. My fear is that this obsessive view of sugar is going to lead to eating disorders.