Sugar

Note: If you're not in the US, you may not be able to view the videos. But there's some reading at the end.

Jules and I saw Dr. Lustig talk at the library for almost two hours. It was great. (Would have been improved if he had called me up beforehand to help him simplify his slides!) He talked about how sugar used to be special! Now it's a staple food. Americans eat 20 times the amount of sugar we did 100 years ago. (Factoid: there are no sweet foods in nature that are poisonous.)

Here he is on UCTV: Sugar: The Bitter Truth. It's 89 minutes, but you could watch the beginning and just see if it's interesting. Because I have been eating very little to no added sugar for over a year now (especially in the beginning this took some effort [for me]), seeing him was an affirmation.

Here's a shorter one (14 minutes) from 60 Minutes, 2012. Start at around 7:35 to hear about cancer. 

During Q&A at Dr. Lustig's talk, I asked about sugar and tumor growth. He mentioned the 60 Minutes episode, above, and this UCLA study that studied pancreatic tumor response to fructose. It says:

“Traditionally, glucose and fructose have been considered as interchangeable... and little attention has been given to sugars other than glucose,” the study states. “However, fructose intake has increased dramatically in recent decades and cellular uptake of glucose and fructose uses distinct transporters ... these findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation. They have major significance for cancer patients, given dietary refined fructose consumption.” 

As in anti-smoking campaigns, a federal effort should be launched to reduce refined fructose intake, Heaney said.

BTW, table sugar is half fructose and half glucose. Lustig points out that the problem is not just with fructose, it's all sugars. Large amounts of fructose seem to be particularly pathogenic (causing cell damage, insulin resistance, fatty liver, and more). He noted that just about anything is toxic when highly concentrated and taken in large doses.

Something else by Lustig, something of a summary, an article in the Huffington Post: Still Believe 'A Calorie Is a Calorie'?

From The Guardian, March 2013:

It is not a case of eradicating sugar from the diet, just getting it down to levels that are not toxic...The American Heart Association in 2009 published a statement, of which Lustig was a co-author, saying Americans consumed 22 teaspoons of it a day. That needs to come down to six for women and nine for men.

From Wiki.answers:

How many grams are in a teaspoon of sugar? 

Answer: One teaspoon of granulated white sugar is equal to about 4.2 grams. There are approximately 4-8 grams of sugar in a teaspoon of sugar, depending on its granularity.  

It is important to note that a teaspoon (tsp.) is a unit of volume, whereas a gram is a unit of weight.  

Example: If you are buying a bottle of cola with 44 grams of sugar, you would divide 44 by 4.2 which is equal to about 10 teaspoons of sugar. 

I'm getting a PET/CT scan today.