Sugar - LIstening Assignment

7/30/2019 Sugar - LIstening Assignment

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Thomas Irwan Kristanto Page 1

Sugar: The Bitter Truth_Dr. Robert Lustig_

Dr. Robret Lustig begins with the question, What do the Atkins diet and

the Japanese diet have in common? The two diets seem diametrically opposed.The Atkins diet is all fat, no carb. And the Japanese diet is all carb, no fat. Theyboth work. So, what do they have in common?They both eliminate the sugar fructose.

According to Dr. Lustig, the obese are getting obeser, but the BMI (BodyMass Index) curve is shifting. We all weigh 25 more pounds today than we did30 years ago. All of us. Our genetic pool hasnt changed in the last 30 years, butour environment most certainly has.

In order to talk about the environment, we need to talk about what isobesity. Of course, were all familiar with the concept of the first law ofthermodynamics which states, in human terms, that if you eat it, you better burnit, or youre going to store it. Calories in, calories out. Dr. Lustig used to believethat, but not anymore. He thinks its the biggest mistake. Its this phenomenonthat he will attempt to debunk because theres another way to state the law,which is much more relevant and more to the point.

Calories in calories out means two behaviors, gluttony and sloth. If thatwere the case why are all these countries who have adopted our diet all sufferingnow from the same problem?

Theres another way to state this first law. If youre going to store it, andyou expect to burn it (normal energy expenditure for normal quality of life) thenyoure going to have to eat it. Now all of a sudden, gluttony and sloth are actuallysecondary to a biochemical process which is primary. Its a different way to thinkabout the process and it also alleviates the obese person from being theperpetrator but being the victim.

Obesity:No one chooses to be obese. In fact, we have an epidemic of obese 6

month olds. If you want to say its all about diet and exercise, then you have to

explain this! So any hypothesis proffered to explain the obesity epidemic must allexplain this too. And its not just in America, but around the world now.

No question, were all eating more. The question is why? Were alleating more because our leptin isnt working properly. Leptin is a hormone thatcomes from our fat cells and tells our brain Ive hadenough. I dont need to eatanymore and I can burn energy properly. Something is wrong with our energybalance. If were eating more calories now than we were 30 years ago, our leptinisnt working. It makes no difference whether or not the food is there. Theressomething wrong with our biochemical negative feedback system that normallycontrols energy balance and we have to figure out what caused it and how toreverse it.


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So where are all the extra calories from? Its all in the carbohydrate. Weeat more carbs now, especially since weve been told since 1982 to reduce ourfat consumption from 40 to 30 percent. So what happened? We did it. Wereduced our fat consumption from 40% to 30% and look whats happened toobesity, Metabolic Syndrome, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, Cardiovascular

Disease and stroke prevalence? Theyve all skyrocketed as our fat consumptionhas gone down.

Its not the fat, its the carbohydrate. Which carbohydrate? Our beverageintake has increased. There has been a 41% increase in soft drinks and a 35%increase in fruit drinks. Just remember that one soda per day added to your dietcalculates to a 15.5 lb/yr weight gain.

Soft Drinks:How come we cant stay energy stable? How come leptin doesnt work?Dr. Lustig calls this The Coca Cola Conspiracy. Caffeine is the main

ingredient in Coke. Its also a mild stimulant and diuretic, which makes you pee.

There are 55 milligrams of sodium added per can of coke, which makes youthirstier. So why is there so much sugar in Coke? To hide the salt. Anyoneremember New Coke in 1985? More salt, more caffeine. They knew what theywere doing. Thats the smoking gun. They know. Thats why its called the CocaCola Conspiracy.

Are soft drinks the cause of obesity? It depends on who you ask. If youask scientists from the National Soft Drink Association, theyll say no. However,Dr. David Ludwig did a prospective study which found that each additionalsugared drink increase over a 19 month follow up period in kids increased theirodds risk ratio for obesity by 60%. If you look at Meta Analyses (conglomerationof numerous studies subjected to rigorous statistical analysis) 88 studies allshowed significant associations.

What if you take the soft drinks away? Theres a Fizzy Drink study fromChristchurch, England where they went into schools and took out the sodamachines for a year. Prevalence of obesity stayed constant over the yearwhereas the prevalence of obesity in the control schools (where nothingchanged) continued to rise over the year.

High Fructose Corn Syrop:So whats in soft drinks? High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). We were

never exposed to HFCS before 1975. Today its in everything. We are exposed

to 63 lbs of HFCS per person per year in America.So what is HFCS? One reason we use it is because its sweeter. HFCS issweeter than table sugar (120 Index in sweetness vs 100). Pure fructose (labfructose) is 173. You should be able to use less? Right? Wrong! We use just asmuch, in fact, we use more. Even lab (crystalline) fructose is being added to softdrinks (without cutting back on it) and theyre advertising it as a good thing. Weuse HFCS because its sweeter but also because its cheaper.

HFCS is one glucose and one fructose. Glucose and fructose are NOTthe same. HFCS contains 42-55% fructose and sucrose contains 50% fructose.Sucrose and HFCS ARE the same. There is no difference between them. Theyare equally bad. They are both dangerous. They are both poison. Its not about

the calories. Fructose is a poison by itself.


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Before food processing, we used to get our fructose from fruits andvegetables, which would be about 15 grams/day of fructose. Not sugar. It wouldbe double (30 grams). More and more of our caloric intake is being accountedfor by sugar every year so its not just that were eating more, were eating moresugar!

For adolescents today, were up to almost 75 grams (12% of total caloric intake).Twenty five percent of adolescents consume at least 15% of their calories fromfructose alone. Compared to the 16-24 gr/day pre-WWII, this is a disaster. Thefats going down, the sugars going up and were all getting sick.

Now to the Biochemistry. Fructose is NOT glucose, that what the liver does to fructose is really

unique. Fructose is 7 times more likely than glucose to do that browning reaction,

the advanced glycosylation end products. Fructose does not suppress the hunger hormone from your stomach, called

Grehlin. Acute fructose ingestion does not stimulate insulin because there is no

receptor for fructose on the beta cell that makes insulin so the insulin doesntgo up. If insulin doesnt go up, then leptin doesnt go up and if leptin doesntgo up, your brain doesnt see that you ate something. Therefore, you eatmore.

Liver Hepatic fructose metabolism is completely different between fructoseand glucose. They are NOT the same. I am going to show you that chronicfructose alone causes Metabolic Syndrome (cluster of obesity, Type 2Diabetes, lipid problems, hypertension and CVD).

Dr. Lustig goes on to explain glucose, ethanol and fructose and how theyare each metabolized.Glucose: When Glucose enters the body, most of it is used up by cells and organs

before it reaches the liver. What does enter the liver is easily stored thereas Glycogen. When this happens the liver releases chemicals to signal tothe brain that it should stop eating.

Fructose: When Fructose enters the body, all of it reaches the liver where 30% of it

gets turned into fat. Harmful chemicals are generated in the process.

These chemicals can cause Gout and Hypertension, increase blood-pressure and suppress the signal to the brain that you should stop eating.(This part is hugely simplified. In the talk this is a long drawn-outdiscussion about the biochemistry of metabolizing Fructose)

Fructose metabolized in much the same way as alcohol, only it doesntaffect the brain directly.

Ethanol: Ethanol is a carbohydrate and a toxin. We know that ethanol is not good

for us. The brain doesnt metabolize fructose, but since ethanol affects the brain,

it is an acute toxin. Therefore, it is controlled and taxed to limit

consumption of ethanol. because its a toxin and we know it.


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A vicious cycle of consumption and disease: hypertension inflammation hepatic insulin resistance hyperinsulinemia

dyslipodemia muscle insulin resistance obesity continued consumption

Clinical intervention.1. Get rid of all sugared liquids, including juice (there is no such thing as a

good sugared beverage) only water and milk allowed2. Eat your carbs with fiber. Fiber is an essential3. nutrient even though the government doesnt want it to be. Otherwise,

they couldnt sell food abroad.

4. Wait 20 min for 2nd portions for satiety signals to take effect5. Buy your screen time minute for minute with physical activity. This is the

hardest one to do.

Exercise:So why is exercise so important in obesity? Because it burns calories?

Come on! Twenty minutes of jogging is one chocolate chip cookie. Are youjokin me? So why is exercise important?

1. Exercise is important because it improves skeletal muscle insulinsensitivity because the insulin actually works better at your muscle, whichbrings your insulin levels down, which is good for you.

2. Exercise is also your endogenous stress reducer. Its the single thing thatactually stress. The resulting cortisol release decreases appetite.

3. Exercise makes the TCA cycle run faster and detoxifies fructose, whichimproves hepatic insulin sensitivity. Exercise allows you to burn thefructose off before you make the fat. That means a higher metabolism, butit has nothing to do with burning calories. You simply cant burn off all thecalories you consume through exercise.

Fiber:So why is fiber important in obesity? This his my motto. When God made

the poison, he packaged it with the antidote. Fructose is a poison, but whenevertheres fructose in nature, theres way more fiber. Sugar cane is a perfectexample. Its a stick! Consequently, you need to eat carbs with fiber.

Thats why fruits okay because first, it limits the amount of fructose youregoing to take in and second, it gives you an essential nutrient, which you neededin the first place. And you get some micro-nutrients along with it so that your liverworks healthier.

What fiber does:1. Fiber reduces the rate of intestinal carb absorption, reducing insulin

response.


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2. It increases the speed of transit of intestinal contents to the ileum to raisePYY and induce satiety, which means you get your satiety signals sooner.

3. Fiber inhibits absorption of some free fatty acids to the colon, which aremetabolized by colonic bacteria to short chain fatty acids (SCFA), whichsuppresses insulin.

Final Points The earlier you expose children to sweets, the more they will crave sugar

later in life. This also goes for pregnant women and their unborn babies. So why doesnt the FDA regulate Fructose if it is this harmful? Apparently

they only regulate toxins that have a harmful effect in a single dose, notthose that need chronic exposure. So sugar is excluded.

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Sugar - LIstening Assignment