Sugar the Bitter Truth, the short version

Sean Croxton of Underground Wellness, summarizes Professor Lustig´s lecture on sugar.

Skip the bananas, lose weight

Read an article in Dagens Nyheter (the biggest newspaper in Sweden) today.

"A 64 year old woman had been treated for diabetes type 2 and high blood pressure and weighed 273 lbs."

She was recommended, in January 2007, by her doctor do quit eating bananas, which she did twice a day. Without making any other lifestyle changes or diet changes she lost 26 lbs the first year, simply by not eating bananas. By spring 2009 she had lost a total of 60 lbs.

She had ended her insulin treatment as a result and her blood pressure medicin had been reduced by 50%. Her husband who also quit eating bananas, lost 22 lbs during the same time.

"A 42 year old man had a habit of drinking half a gallon of soda every day. He had been doing so for a long time."

When recommended by his doctor to stop this habit, he lost 17 lbs in a few weeks.

"An office removed the bowl of fruit from the staff room by mistake."

Within a few weeks, almost all employees had lost a few pounds, which surprised them in a good way. Some employees suspected the fruit, but nobody said anything.

More on fructose:

If fructose is a Villain, what about juice?
L.A. Times

Consuming fructose-sweetened, not glucose-sweetened, beverages increases visceral adiposity and lipids and decreases insulin sensitivity in overweight/obese humans
Journal of Clinical Investigation

Livsmedelsverket mörkar att du blir fet av frukt
Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish)

Robert Lustig, MD - Sugar the Bitter Truth

A 1.5 hour long lecture on sugar, by Robert Lustig, MD. If you have the time to watch it, please do. You will think of sugar in a completely different way after watching it.



An article from University of California, San Francisco describes Lustig's work as follows:

The rise of obesity is usually blamed on too much eating and not enough exercising, but Robert Lustig, MD, a UCSF pediatric neuroendocrinologist, asks us to look beyond the obvious.

 [...]

More specifically, it is fructose that is harmful, according to Lustig. Fructose is a component of the two most popular sugars. One is table sugar — sucrose. The other is high-fructose corn syrup. High-fructose corn syrup has become ubiquitous in soft drinks and many other processed foods.

Full article: "Sugar is a poison"

Those of us who follow LCHF by the letter avoid fruit completely, however a lot of us eat an occasional fruit and still have great results on the scale.

 

Photo from http://sugarstacks.com

An orange is in principle; water, fibers, sugar and vitamin C. A much better alternative to i.e. an orange, which contains the equivalent of 6 sugar cubes, is sweet peppers (paprika). You only need 40 grams (1.5 oz) of paprika to get the recommended daily value of vitamin C. Paprika holds 4 times more vitamin C, then an orange.

Paprika falls well within the philosophy of LCHF, with 5.6% carbs. Personally I eat my 40 grams in the morning with my cream omelet and bacon. Since I want to keep my carb intake as low as possible. Paprika adds a nice crispiness and freshness to my breakfast.

Other good low carb sources of vitamin C are:

• parsley
• kale
• Brussel sprouts
• broccoli (probably a favorite among LCHF people)
• cauliflower (try grating it and pan frying it, very tasty and acts as starch to get all the delicious sauce off the plate)