Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease

327 Pages·2013·2.55 MB·English

by  Robert H. Lustig

Advance Praise for Robert H. Lustig, M.D., and Fat Chance
“Our eating habits are killing us. In this timely and important book, Dr. Robert
Lustig presents the scientific evidence for the toxicity of sugar and the disastrous
effects of modern industrial food on the hormones that control hunger, satiety,
and weight. He gives recommendations for a personal solution to the problem
we face and also suggests a public policy solution. Fat Chance is the best book
I’ve read on the relationship between diet and health and the clearest explanation
of epidemic obesity in our society.”
—Andrew Weil, M.D., author of Spontaneous Happiness and
You Can’t Afford to Get Sick
“Fat Chance is an extraordinary achievement. Obesity’s causes, mechanisms,
health consequences, and preventive approaches are all devilishly complicated,
but Dr. Lustig’s outstanding contribution clarifies the complexity via a writing
style that’s accessible, insightful, and often gently humorous. Robert Lustig is a
clinician, a scientist, and an advocate—a combination that makes him uniquely
qualified to bring the condition’s many facets into sharp focus. Obesity has
become the world’s number one health problem. Fat Chance is the book for all
of us who must confront this epidemic.”
—S. Boyd Eaton, M.D., Departments of Radiology and Anthropology,
Emory University, and father of the Paleo Diet movement
“Fat Chance is the manifesto for our time. It reveals the real reasons we why we
are a fat nation and how to cure the obesity epidemic. It gets right to the root of
the problem, which is not gluttony and sloth, as the food industry, government,
and your neighbor would have you believe. It is because we are drowning in a
sea of sugar, which poisons our metabolism, shrinks our brains, and threatens
our national security and global competitiveness. Every American, politician,
teacher, and business leader must read this book. Our nation’s future depends on
it.”
—Mark Hyman, M.D., author of The Blood Sugar Solution
“The obesity pandemic is well documented. But what can be done about it?
More importantly, when does a personal health issue rise to become a public
health crisis? In Fat Chance, Dr. Robert Lustig examines the science of obesity
to determine the role that our current diet (especially too much sugar and too
little fiber) plays in weight gain and disease. Using that knowledge, he proposes
changes in our personal, public, and governmental attitudes to combat this
scourge. Fat Chance is a ‘savory’ read with a ‘sweet’ finish.”
—Sanjay Gupta, M.D., neurosurgeon and CNN medical correspondent
“No scientist has done more in the last fifty years to alert Americans to the
potential dangers of sugar in the diet than Dr. Robert Lustig.”
—Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories and
Why We Get Fat
“Robert Lustig is neither ringing an alarm bell nor giving us a gentle,
paternalistic nudge. His message is more authentic. He is a medical doctor
issuing a prescription. In order to address a current cocktail of health threats,
Americans must alter their diets and do so radically. Those alterations must
begin with a dramatic reduction in the consumption of sugars.”
—Alec Baldwin
FAT
CHANCE
Beating the Odds Against
Sugar, Processed Food,
Obesity, and Disease
Robert H. Lustig, M.D.
H
UDSON
S
TREET
P
RESS
Published by Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. • Penguin Group
(Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson
Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Ireland, 25
St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) • Penguin Group (Australia), 707
Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3008, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) •
Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India •
Penguin Books (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New
Zealand Ltd.) • Penguin Books, Rosebank Office Park, 181 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North 2193,
South Africa • Penguin China, B7 Jaiming Center, 27 East Third Ring Road North, Chaoyang District,
Beijing 100020, China
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published by Hudson Street Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
First Printing, January 2013
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Copyright © Robert H. Lustig, 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or
electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted
materials in violation of the author’s rights Purchase only authorized editions.
REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA
CIP data is available.
ISBN: 978-1-101-60658-2
Printed in the United States of America
Set in Minion Pro
Designed by Eve L. Kirch
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers, Internet addresses, and other
contact information at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any
responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any
control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE AT QUANTITY DISCOUNTS WHEN USED TO PROMOTE PRODUCTS
OR SERVICES. FOR INFORMATION PLEASE WRITE TO PREMIUM MARKETING DIVISION,
PENGUIN GROUP (USA) INC., 375 HUDSON STREET, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10014.
ALWAYS LEARNINGPEARSON
This book is dedicated to all the obese patients worldwide who suffer daily, and
the family members who suffer with them. The children who will not know a
normal childhood, who will endure an inhuman existence, and will die a slow
and early death. The parents who are engulfed by guilt. The unborn children,
who are already imprisoned by changes in their brains and their bodies. But most
of all, I dedicate this book to those of you who are or have been my patients; for
it is you who taught me the science of your affliction. You also taught me more
than medical school ever did or could; and that each life is valuable, precious,
and worth saving. You maintained your dignity in the face of the most adverse
circumstances imaginable. You shared with me your misery, and your joy in
small victories. We cried and we laughed together. I hope I was of some service
and comfort.
This book is my way of returning the favor.
This book is written only for those of you who eat food.
The rest of you are off the hook.
CONTENTS
Introduction: Time to Think Outside the Box
Part I. The Greatest Story Ever Sold
1. A Fallacy of Biblical Proportion
2. A Calorie Is a Calorie—or Is It?
3. Personal Responsibility versus the Obese Six-Month-Old
Part II. To Eat or Not to Eat? That’s Not the Question
4. Gluttony and Sloth—Behaviors Driven by Hormones
5. Food Addiction—Fact or Fallacy
6. Stress and “Comfort Food”
Part III. “Chewing” the Fat
7. The Birth, Care, and Feeding of a Fat Cell
8. The Difference Between “Fat” and “Sick”
9. Metabolic Syndrome: The New Scourge
Part IV. The “Real” Toxic Environment
10. The Omnivore’s Curse: Low Fat versus Low Carb
11. Fructose—The “Toxin”
12. Fiber—Half the Antidote
13. Exercise—The Other Half of the Antidote
14. Micronutrients: Home Run or Hyperbole?
15. Environmental “Obesogens”
16. The “Empire” Strikes Back: Response of the Food Industry
Part V. The Personal Solution
17. Altering Your Food Environment
18. Altering Your Hormonal Environment
19. Last Resorts: When Altering Your Environment Isn’t Enough
Part VI. The Public Health Solution
20. The “Nanny State”: Personal versus Societal Responsibility
21. What Hath Government Wrought?
22. A Call for Global Sugar Reduction
Epilogue: Not a Top-Down but a Bottom-Up Movement
Acknowledgments
Notes
Glossary
Index
INTRODUCTION:
Time to Think Outside the Box
“We just eat too damn much.”
—Governor Tommy Thompson (R-Wisc.), U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services,
Today, NBC, 2004
I
ndeed we do. That’s it, thanks for buying this book, you’ve been a great
audience, I’m outta here.
Well, that’s what the U.S. government would have you believe. All the
major U.S. governmental health agencies, the Centers for Disease Control
(CDC), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Institute of Medicine
(IOM), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the U.S. Surgeon General,
say that obesity results from an energy imbalance: eating too many calories and
not getting enough physical activity. And they are right—to a point. Are we
eating more? Of course. Are we exercising less? No doubt. Despite knowing
this, it hasn’t made any difference in the rates of obesity or associated diseases.
More to the point, how did this epidemic happen and in such a short interval of
just thirty years? People say, “The food is there,” and it is. But it was there
before. People say, “The TV is there,” and it is. But it was there before, and we
didn’t have this caloric catastrophe. There’s more to this story, way more, and
it’s not pretty.
Everyone blames everyone else for what has happened. No way is it their
fault. Big Food says it’s a lack of activity due to computers and video games.
The TV industry says it’s our junk food diet. The Atkins people say it’s too
many carbohydrates; the Ornish people say it’s too much fat. The juice people
say it’s the soda; the soda people say it’s the juice. The schools say it’s the
parents; the parents say it’s the schools. And since nothing is for sure, nothing is
done. How do we reconcile all these opinions into a cohesive whole that actually
makes sense and creates changes for the better for each individual and for all
society? That’s what this book is about.