Is Sugar Toxic?
By Gary Taubes in the NY Times
Whole Foods V.S. Sugar & H.F.C.S.
Glucose is metabolized by every cell in the body,
But Fructose is metabolized primarily by The Liver
~Therefore~
Fast & Furious Fructose Forms Fat!
~And~
Insulin resistance is likely caused by the accumulation of
fat in the liver
High Sugar Diets = High Triglycerides = Increased Risk of
Heart Disease
“By the early 2000s, when sugar consumption peaked, one in
every three Americans was obese and 14 million were diabetic.”
“The connection between obesity, diabetes and cancer was
first reported in 2004 in large population studies by researchers from the
World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer. It is
not controversial. What it means is that you are more likely to get cancer if
you’re obese or diabetic than if you’re not, and you’re more likely to get
cancer if you have metabolic syndrome than if you don’t.”
“malignant cancer, like diabetes, was a relatively rare
disease in population that didn’t eat Western diets, and in some of these
populations it appeared to be virtually nonexistent.”
Excerpt:
The fructose component of sugar and
H.F.C.S. is metabolized primarily by the liver, while the glucose from sugar
and starches is metabolized by every cell in the body. Consuming sugar
(fructose and glucose) means more work for the liver than if you consumed the
same number of calories of starch (glucose). And if you take that sugar in
liquid form — soda or fruit juices — the fructose and glucose will hit the
liver more quickly than if you consume them, say, in an apple (or several
apples, to get what researchers would call the equivalent dose of sugar). The
speed with which the liver has to do its work will also affect how it
metabolizes the fructose and glucose.
In animals, or at least in laboratory
rats and mice, it’s clear that if the fructose hits the liver in sufficient
quantity and with sufficient speed, the liver will convert much of it to fat.
This apparently induces a condition known as insulin resistance, which is now
considered the fundamental problem in obesity, and the underlying defect in
heart disease and in the type of diabetes, type 2, that is common to obese and
overweight individuals. It might also be the underlying defect in many cancers.
If what happens in laboratory rodents
also happens in humans, and if we are eating enough sugar to make it happen,
then we are in trouble.
And…
What we have to keep in mind, says
Walter Glinsmann, the F.D.A. administrator who was the primary author on the
1986 report and who now is an adviser to the Corn Refiners Association, is that
sugar and high-fructose corn syrup might be toxic, as Lustig argues, but so
might any substance if it’s consumed in ways or in quantities that are
unnatural for humans. The question is always at what dose does a substance go
from being harmless to harmful? How much do we have to consume before this
happens?
F.D.A Recommended Sugar Consumption
Limit
40 pounds per person per year
beyond what we might get naturally in fruits and vegetables
beyond what we might get naturally in fruits and vegetables
= 200 calories per day of sugar
= Less than the amount in a can and a
half of Coca-Cola
= 2 cups of apple juice
Today the USDA
estimates we consume 76.7 pounds/year
