The culprit of this pandemic can be largely pinned on sugar. These days, our food is saturated with it. Around 80% of our available foods, to be exact.
In the July 2nd, 2012 episode of his bi-weekly podcast Here’s The Thing, Alec Baldwin spoke with Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at UC San Francisco, who ascertains that the perceived need of sugar is “garbage.” His explanation of how sugar goes to work on us is fascinating, citing that everything from a 1972 book “Pure, White and Deadly” by John Yudkin, a British physiologist and nutritionist, has come to pass.
Here are just a few important pieces of information that I never new until I listened to this podcast:
- Consumption of sugar triggers the desire for more consumption, even when you’re full. (Sugar is, essentially, an appetite accelerant.)
- Consumption of sugar kills the desire to move or exercise.
- The authentic Italian diet is not the Mediterranean diet. Pasta is an American invention created by poor Italian immigrants who couldn’t afford meat and vegetables.
- The reason we use high fructose corn syrup is because of Hurricane Allen in 1980, which wiped out the entire Caribbean sugar crop. This forced the beverage industry to swap cane sugar with the cheaper and more bountiful high fructose corn syrup that has been in our sweetened sodas since 1985.
And my favorite fun fact…
- Lustig: “There is not one biochemical reaction in your body, not one, that requires dietary fructose. Not one that requires sugar.”
A couple of years ago, Alec was diagnosed as pre-diabetic. He took immediate action by eliminating sugar and carbohydrates from his diet. Today, he’s feeling (and looking) terrific. He describes the effect of his sugar cessation as pushing a toboggan down a slope: “The first couple weeks, the first couple months, early May through June. By the time I get to July and August, we’re going downhill and the weight’s just coming off me.”
In light of the pandemic, Dr. Lustig expresses hope. “People are getting it,” he says. We’re at the tipping point, and people are starting to make changes. The entire conversation, as I said, was fascinating, provocative and extremely enlightening. I’ve already started to dramatically cut sugar from my own diet, and I’m inspired to cut it completely.
Dr. Lustig’s new book, “Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity and Disease,” will be out on December 27th, which will make a perfect complement to more meaningful New Year’s resolutions.
4 Comments
Love this website! I try to avoid sugar, haven’t had a soda in a can’t remember when, and never ever consume high fructose corn syrup. So I appreciate this article greatly. That said, I can’t help but point out the incorrect claim that pasta is an American invention. There is evidence to suggest that the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans had pasta-like foods that were baked, and that what we would call pasta today first arrived in Italy during the Arab invasions of Sicily during the 8th century. Pasta in dried form increased in popularity during the 19th century and eventually made its way to America.
All the Italians I know walk more, eat smaller portions, and when they do eat they consume foods that tend to be more fresh, whole, non-GMO, and more local than what I observe here in America.
Sources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13760559
http://www.delallo.com/articles/wheat-and-water
http://www.lifeinitaly.com/food/pasta-history.asp
http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/pastas/history-of-pasta.asp
Excellent comment and great info. Thank you, Brian! G
I’m a republican, but good on you Alec. Didn’t know he had a podcast.
I was at the same Stevie Nicks show in Atlantic City (don’t even get me started on the obese people sitting on their butts at the slot machines in the casino), and I go to concerts across the country. Minus audiences comprised solely of 20 somethings like myself at a passion pit show, I swear there’s two obese people for every one regular sized person I see. Same deal at the airports. Being healthy is about personal responsibility. I weigh 115 pounds because I carefully choose what I put in my mouth. Few carbs, lots of salad and NO gmos, which is another fight for another time…we DO need a new food growth model. And GMOs are not the answer.
By scrupulously watching my consumption of white sugar and high fructose syrup, I have painlessly and significantly lost a good amount of weight in six months….and I feel wayyyy better (not that I would have been considered overweight). There is no greater feeling than being able to get back into a favorite pair of jeans or dress clothes!