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

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 Ive 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 Cant Afford to Get Sick

Fat Chance is an extraordinary achievement. Obesitys causes, mechanisms, health consequences, and preventive approaches are all devilishly complicated, but Dr. Lustigs outstanding contribution clarifies the complexity via a writing style thats accessible, insightful, and often gently humorous. Robert Lustig is a clinician, a scientist, and an advocatea combination that makes him uniquely qualified to bring the conditions many facets into sharp focus. Obesity has become the worlds 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 nations 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. Stephens 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 authors rights Purchase only authorized editions.

REGISTERED TRADEMARKMARCA 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

PUBLISHERS 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.

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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

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. Thats it, thanks for buying this book, youve been a great audience, Im outta here.