Lustig - Fat Chance The Hidden Truth About Sugar, Obesity and Disease

FAT

CHANCE

The Hidden Truth About Sugar, Obesity and Disease

Robert H. Lustig, M.D., M.S.L.

First published in Great Britain by

Fourth Estate

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First published by Hudson Street Press, a member of the Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Copyright Robert H. Lustig 2012

The right of Robert H. Lustig to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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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.

Ebook Edition December 2012 ISBN: 9780007514137

Version: 2018-08-03

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.

Robert H. Lustig, M.D., M.S.L. is an internationally renowned pediatric endocrinologist who has spent the past 16 years treating childhood obesity and studying the effects of sugar on the central nervous system, metabolism, and disease. He is the Director of the Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health Program at UCSF Benioff Childrens Hospital, a member of the UCSF Center for Obesity Assessment, Study and Treatment, as well as a member of the Obesity Task Force of The Endocrine Society.

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This book is written only for those of you who eat food.
The rest of you are off the hook.

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.

Well, thats 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 rightto a point. Are we eating more? Of course. Are we exercising less? No doubt. Despite knowing this, it hasnt 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 didnt have this caloric catastrophe. Theres more to this story, way more, and its not pretty.

Everyone blames everyone else for what has happened. No way is it their fault. Big Food says its a lack of activity due to computers and video games. The TV industry says its our junk food diet. The Atkins people say its too many carbohydrates; the Ornish people say its too much fat. The juice people say its the soda; the soda people say its the juice. The schools say its the parents; the parents say its 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? Thats what this book is about.

Food is not tobacco, alcohol, or street drugs. Food is sustenance. Food is survival. Most important, food is pleasure. There are only two things that are more important than food: air and water. Shelters a distant fourth. Food matters. Unfortunately, food now matters even more than it should. Food is beyond a necessity; its also a commodity, and it has been reformulated to be an addictive substance.

This has many effects on our world: economically, politically, socially, and medically. There is a price to pay, and were paying it now. We pay with our taxes, our insurance premiums, and our airline faresnearly every bill we receive in the mail has an obesity surcharge that we underwrite. We pay in misery, worsening school scores, social devolution, and we pay in death. We pay for all of it, one way or another, because the current food environment we have created does not match our biochemistry, and this mismatch is at the heart of our medical, social, and financial crisis. Worse yet, there is no medicine for this. There is no edict, ordinance, legislation, tax, or law that can solve this alone. There is no quick fix, but the problem is resolvable if we know whats really going onand if we really want to resolve it.