Lustig's book, Fat Chance: The Bitter Truth About Sugar has made waves in America and has now been published in the UK by 4th Estate. As a paediatrician who specialises in treating overweight children in San Francisco, he has spent 16 years studying the effects of sugar on the central nervous system, metabolism and disease. His conclusion is that the rivers of Coca-Cola and Pepsi consumed by young people today have as much to do with obesity as the mountains of burgers.
If you think about it, refined sugar bears striking resemblances to illegal street drugs: it’s a white crystalline or powdery substance that does not occur in its refined form spontaneously in nature, just like many addicting substances. When we ingest it, we get an immediate dopamine release and accompanying sense of pleasure, and if we are used to having it often and then are deprived of it for a longer time than usual, we get cranky and irritable. We can even have withdrawal symptoms such as headaches, moodiness, and so forth when we stop eating it. It’s a substance we often can’t bring ourselves to resist, even though we are well aware of many of the consequences of using it. Sound like a drug?
Obesity. Sugar causes weight gain via various mechanisms, including elevated insulin and leptin resistance (11, 12).
Diabetes. Sugar is probably a leading cause of diabetes (13, 14, 15).
Heart disease. Sugar raises the bad cholesterol, triglycerides and causes various other issues that can ultimately lead to heart disease (16, 17).
No comments:
Post a Comment