Sugar: The Bitter Truth

[Gonad the Barbarian]

It's a 90 minute long lecture on obviously sugar by Dr. Lustig of the University of California. It's worth watching by anyone who cares about their health.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

 

[KingGheedora]

Cliff notes?

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: KingGheedora
Cliff notes?

(clicks more info)

Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin. Series: UCSF Mini Medical School for the Public

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: KingGheedora
Cliff notes?

Sugar is bad and what most people eat (lots of carbs) causes drastic swings in blood sugar which require ridiculous amounts of insulin to be produced, eventually leading many people to type 2 diabetes.

 

[TallBill]

I thought that this was pretty much well known by now?

Edit - Not being an ass, I will probably watch it later. I know most people eat like shit.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: TallBill
I thought that this was pretty much well known by now?

Edit - Not being an ass, I will probably watch it later. I know most people eat like shit.

The thing I found interesting was that the guy says fruit juices are bad... even all natural orange juice, for example. The reason being that you need fiber to balance out with the sucrose, which you'll get by eating an orange but not by drinking the juice unless there's a metric shitton of pulp in it.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

If this was just rehashing the same old "sugar is bad" mantra for 90 minutes I really wouldn't have bothered posting it.

 

[Unmoosical]

Good vid. I watched it this morning. It had some good information, and plenty that was beyond me.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181

Originally posted by: TallBill
I thought that this was pretty much well known by now?

Edit - Not being an ass, I will probably watch it later. I know most people eat like shit.

The thing I found interesting was that the guy says fruit juices are bad... even all natural orange juice, for example. The reason being that you need fiber to balance out with the sucrose, which you'll get by eating an orange but not by drinking the juice unless there's a metric shitton of pulp in it.

Yeah, this is kinda common sense if you know nutrition at all. Juice is out of its context. It has nothing to slow down digestion of the sugars (usually fiber would be present to do so). It's essentially fructose dominant liquid. That's no better than HFCS or sugar, really. It may even be worse.

 

[Buttzilla]

err, watching this while i'm drinking mtn. dew.....

 

[SP33Demon]

Originally posted by: Buttzilla
err, watching this while i'm drinking mtn. dew.....

Hopefully it's diet.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: SP33Demon

Originally posted by: Buttzilla
err, watching this while i'm drinking mtn. dew.....

Hopefully it's diet.

Because those chemicals are sooooo good for you.

Mmmmmmmmmmm... chemicals

/homer drool

 

[Blackjack200]

Great video. There were a few areas I wish he had gone a little bit more into depth on, especially why there is so much salt in sugared drinks.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

I just finally got around to watching this lecture. To be perfectly honest, I'm amazed that it has taken 30 years for someone, let alone a doctor, to explain why sugar and specifically fructose is bad for your health. All the pathways listed are required to be known by undergraduate nutrition majors. I'm an exercise biology major and have taken several biochem classes on top of one upper division nutrition class and I understood exactly where he was going. Nobody put this together before? Apparently people did as the lecturer talks about Pure, White and Deadly. I don't believe he had the evidence that we now do though. Why does the FDA continue to ignore these things?

I completely agree with what he says. My nutrition lecturer was actually doing research on this and found that fructose was terrible for people and that they gained weight, had health problems, etc much more readily than others. If you mix this along with what The Zone Diet author Barry Sears states, then the following is what is required for optimal health: high fiber, no refined sugar, no refined vegetable oils, balance of omega-3s and omega-6s. To be perfectly honest, if I could afford it, I would probably go paleolithic. However, watching this lecture and recently watching Dr. Sears talk on inflammation and the Zone, I feel it is in my best interests to start making some changes. Perhaps the first step is limiting my sweets. Perhaps a small treat once a week reduced to once every two weeks would do. I don't know, but what I'm saying is that if you wanna be healthy and perform well, popular nutrition will not really be helping you.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: Blackjack200
Great video. There were a few areas I wish he had gone a little bit more into depth on, especially why there is so much salt in sugared drinks.

For the same reason why bars have salted peanuts at the bar - to stimulate thirst. If you're still thirsty, you're more likely to drink another. It's sad, but they dope your drinks so you drink more.

 

[Kipper]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged

Originally posted by: Blackjack200
Great video. There were a few areas I wish he had gone a little bit more into depth on, especially why there is so much salt in sugared drinks.

For the same reason why bars have salted peanuts at the bar - to stimulate thirst. If you're still thirsty, you're more likely to drink another. It's sad, but they dope your drinks so you drink more.

I beg to differ.

Ask any chef who knows her salt (pun intended) and (s)he will tell you that salt and sugar, when used together are actually fairly complementary tastes. In this case, salt generally amplifies the sensation of sweetness.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: Kipper

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged

Originally posted by: Blackjack200
Great video. There were a few areas I wish he had gone a little bit more into depth on, especially why there is so much salt in sugared drinks.

For the same reason why bars have salted peanuts at the bar - to stimulate thirst. If you're still thirsty, you're more likely to drink another. It's sad, but they dope your drinks so you drink more.

I beg to differ.

Ask any chef who knows her salt (pun intended) and (s)he will tell you that salt and sugar, when used together are actually fairly complementary tastes. In this case, salt generally amplifies the sensation of sweetness.

I didn't say my reason was the only one. I like your reason as well. I would guess that both play fairly important roles.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

NVM, my previous rambling is probably best left to P&N. I'm glad folks are watching this, it seemed really relevant to me.

 

[damage424]

Should I be worried about eating non-fat cottage cheese and non-fat yogurt? The cottage cheese has 380mg of sodium and both products contain sugar.... I ask only because they are the two foods that contain any salt or sugar in my diet. I have the yogurt maybe once or twice a week but cottage cheese is consumed regularly.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: damage424
Should I be worried about eating non-fat cottage cheese and non-fat yogurt? The cottage cheese has 380mg of sodium and both products contain sugar.... I ask only because they are the two foods that contain any salt or sugar in my diet. I have the yogurt maybe once or twice a week but cottage cheese is consumed regularly.

Cottage cheese is usually lactose - which is fine. Yogurt is often artificially sweetened with either sugar, HFCS, or even sometimes crystalline fructose (the worst kind as the professor says). I'd kick the yogurt because it almost always has added stuff in it. Cottage cheese, on the other hand, is usually relatively fine. I try not to get the non-fat cottage cheese because it's more processed and, as I feel this lecture and most research shows, processed is bad. I just go for full fat cottage cheese. I mean, it doesn't take much to fill you up and it will leave you feeling satiated for a very long time. Either way, it's about your preference and what you're willing to do.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: Gonad the Barbarian
NVM, my previous rambling is probably best left to P&N. I'm glad folks are watching this, it seemed really relevant to me.

I've been emailing my old nutrition lecturer about some other options and sent him this link. His research deals with this. The lecture will seem rather elementary, but at least he will know that his research really isn't that controversial. A lot of people are attacking his study, but he also has a lot of support.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

I think the research is controversial. There is a huge machine in place that profits from the status quo and there's going to be a lot of kicking and screaming aimed at anyone who speaks against it. We have a nice little system of eating food that makes us sick, then buying treatments to make us "well" going on. The fact it has marched right along unabated for 30 years already and seems to be getting worse, and the fact that with all the debate over health care now the state of our food supply never comes up, is proof to me of that. I tried to go HFCS free a couple of months before this video was even posted and two things I've noticed since is 1) I feel noticeably better after eating, and 2) going HFCS free makes grocery shopping tedious and difficult and sometimes more expensive. The "average" person eating an "average" diet is OD'ing on the stuff and most likely looks and feels like crap because of it.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181

Originally posted by: TallBill
I thought that this was pretty much well known by now?

Edit - Not being an ass, I will probably watch it later. I know most people eat like shit.

The thing I found interesting was that the guy says fruit juices are bad... even all natural orange juice, for example. The reason being that you need fiber to balance out with the sucrose, which you'll get by eating an orange but not by drinking the juice unless there's a metric shitton of pulp in it.

Sugar is sugar, and many natural things are deadly; many unnatural things are very healthy. Natural is neither synonymous with nor a metric of healthy. People who drink 4 liters of fruit juice a day probably wouldn't be a whole lot better off than the people who drink 4 liters of soda a day; there's plenty of healthy people that drink a few glasses of soda a day.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

A point this video makes is sugar isn't sugar. Fructose specifically does bad things that other sugars do not. If we were spiking everything with dextrose as opposed to fructose for example, many of our "sugar" problems wouldn't be problems.

The bottom line is fructose - fiber = toxin. It goes for soda, fruit juice, everything.

Watch he video and you'll see that healthy people who drink a few sodas a day probably will not stay healthy.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Originally posted by: Gonad the Barbarian
A point this video makes is sugar isn't sugar. Fructose specifically does bad things that other sugars do not. If we were spiking everything with dextrose as opposed to fructose for example, many of our "sugar" problems wouldn't be problems.

normal and natural sugars is a mixture of fructose and glucose are they not?