Is Sugar Toxic?

[USAMomma]

By GARY TAUBES
Published: April 13, 2011
On May 26, 2009, Robert Lustig gave a lecture called “Sugar: The Bitter Truth,” which was posted on YouTube 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.

Quite an interesting article.

Read the entire article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1&ref=magazine

 

[Zoom-boing]

Ok I didn't read the whole thing just skimmed the first page a bit.

My take? Anything in excess isn't good. Moderation is key and this goes for sugar too.

 

[jesereL]

zoom is right everything must be in moderation.

 

[editec]

For some of us metabolizing cane sugar and/or corn sugar is unhealthful.

For the rest of us moderation is the key.

Sugar is not really a normal part of human diets.

Our bodies aren't really designed to deal with a lot of very simple carbohydrates like sugar and alcohol.

 

[Skull Pilot]

We run on glucose.

Sugar itself is not dangerous. In fact the body cannot tell the difference between a calorie from processed sugar or a calorie from an apple.

 

[waltky]

'Master switch' for obesity, diabetes found...

Fat's 'master switch found -- could we turn it off?
15 May`11 : Targeting gene also linked to diabetes, cholesterol could lead to new treatments for metabolic diseases

Scientists have found that a gene linked to diabetes and cholesterol is a "master switch" that controls other genes found in fat in the body, and say it should help in the search for treatments for obesity-related diseases. In a study published in the journal Nature Genetics, the British researchers said that since fat plays an important role in peoples' susceptibility to metabolic diseases like obesity, heart disease and diabetes, the regulating gene could be target for drugs to treat such illnesses. "This is the first major study that shows how small changes in one master regulator gene can cause a cascade of other metabolic effects in other genes," said Tim Spector of King's College London, who led the study.

More than half a billion people, or one in 10 adults worldwide, are obese and the numbers have doubled since the 1980s as the obesity epidemic has spilled over from wealthy into poorer nations. In the United States, obesity-related diseases already account for nearly 10 percent of medical spending -- an estimated $147 billion a year. Type 2 diabetes, which is often linked to poor diet and lack of exercise, is also reaching epidemic levels worldwide as rates of obesity rise. Scientists have already identified a gene called KLF14 as being linked to type 2 diabetes and cholesterol levels, but until now they did know what role it played.

Spector's team analyzed more than 20,000 genes in fat samples taken from under the skin of 800 British female twin volunteers. They found a link between the KLF14 gene and the levels of many other distant genes found in fat tissue, showing that KLF14 acts as a master switch to control these genes. They then confirmed their findings in 600 fat samples from a separate group of people from Iceland. In a report of their study, the researchers explained that other genes found to be controlled by KLF14 are linked to a range of metabolic traits, including body mass index, obesity, cholesterol, insulin and glucose levels.

"KLF14 seems to act as a master switch controlling processes that connect changes in the behavior of subcutaneous fat to disturbances in muscle and liver that contribute to diabetes and other conditions," said Mark McCarthy from Britain's Oxford University, who also worked on the study. "We are working hard...to understand these processes and how we can use this information to improve treatment of these conditions."

'Master switch' for obesity, diabetes found - Health - Diabetes - msnbc.com

 

[Mad Scientist]

We run on glucose.

Sugar itself is not dangerous. In fact the body cannot tell the difference between a calorie from processed sugar or a calorie from an apple.

This may be true, but you can see the negative effects on a person who consumes a highly processed carbohydrate diet. As opposed to someone who gets the majority of his/her carbs from say, vegetables.

 

[boedicca]

Ok I didn't read the whole thing just skimmed the first page a bit.

My take? Anything in excess isn't good. Moderation is key and this goes for sugar too.

Too much of anything is toxic, but refined sugar is extra damaging.

This is a good explanation as to why: refined sugars and carbs are essentially predigested and cause people to "mainline" glucose. No wonder Type II Diabetes is an epidemic.

Unhappy Meals - Michael Pollan - New York Times

 

[Mad Scientist]

Ok I didn't read the whole thing just skimmed the first page a bit.

My take? Anything in excess isn't good. Moderation is key and this goes for sugar too.

Too much of anything is toxic, but refined sugar is extra damaging.

This is a good explanation as to why: refined sugars and carbs are essentially predigested and cause people to "mainline" glucose. No wonder Type II Diabetes is an epidemic.

Unhappy Meals - Michael Pollan - New York Times

That's a good article. We should eat "food" and not just "chemistry". Vitamin fortified breakfast cereals are garbage just for that reason.

 

[waltky]

This is your brain on sugar -- for real...

Brain image study: Fructose may spur overeating
Jan 1,`13 - Scientists have used imaging tests to show for the first time that fructose, a sugar that saturates the American diet, can trigger brain changes that may lead to overeating.

After drinking a fructose beverage, the brain doesn't register the feeling of being full as it does when simple glucose is consumed, researchers found. It's a small study and does not prove that fructose or its relative, high-fructose corn syrup, can cause obesity, but experts say it adds evidence they may play a role. These sugars often are added to processed foods and beverages, and consumption has risen dramatically since the 1970s along with obesity. A third of U.S. children and teens and more than two-thirds of adults are obese or overweight.

All sugars are not equal - even though they contain the same amount of calories - because they are metabolized differently in the body. Table sugar is sucrose, which is half fructose, half glucose. High-fructose corn syrup is 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose. Some nutrition experts say this sweetener may pose special risks, but others and the industry reject that claim. And doctors say we eat too much sugar in all forms. For the study, scientists used magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, scans to track blood flow in the brain in 20 young, normal-weight people before and after they had drinks containing glucose or fructose in two sessions several weeks apart.

Scans showed that drinking glucose "turns off or suppresses the activity of areas of the brain that are critical for reward and desire for food," said one study leader, Yale University endocrinologist Dr. Robert Sherwin. With fructose, "we don't see those changes," he said. "As a result, the desire to eat continues - it isn't turned off." What's convincing, said Dr. Jonathan Purnell, an endocrinologist at Oregon Health & Science University, is that the imaging results mirrored how hungry the people said they felt, as well as what earlier studies found in animals. "It implies that fructose, at least with regards to promoting food intake and weight gain, is a bad actor compared to glucose," said Purnell. He wrote a commentary that appears with the federally funded study in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.

Researchers now are testing obese people to see if they react the same way to fructose and glucose as the normal-weight people in this study did. What to do? Cook more at home and limit processed foods containing fructose and high-fructose corn syrup, Purnell suggested. "Try to avoid the sugar-sweetened beverages. It doesn't mean you can't ever have them," but control their size and how often they are consumed, he said. A second study in the journal suggests that only severe obesity carries a high death risk - and that a few extra pounds might even provide a survival advantage. However, independent experts say the methods are too flawed to make those claims.

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[Politico]

Yes it is evil.