We are joined by paediatric endocrinologist Dr Robert Lustig. Dr Lustig is well known in the field of nutrition for his epic lecture titled Sugar: The Bitter Truth, which has attracted millions of views on youtube. The issue that Dr Lustig was calling to the world’s attention in that lecture is that when we think of sugar in terms of “calories”, we’re really missing the point. The problem with sugar is that it’s a major source of fructose, and fructose overconsumption is underpinning many of the deadly metabolic diseases of our time, including cardiovascular disease, hypertension, dementia, diabetes and yes, obesity. Dr Lustig is also the author of the acclaimed book Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity and Disease.

We live in an era in which, in addition to the societal obesity epidemic, there’s also an epidemic of babies being born with obesity, and also of young children developing the same constellation of diseases that we used to only attribute to alcoholism. These problems are not because unborn babies are lazy and gluttonous or because parents are giving their small children alcohol. These are issues being driven by sugar overconsumption and more precisely, by the fructose that’s in sugar. But how much is too much when it comes to sugar? And should obesity rates be the metric of success we use in the current war against sugar?

In this discussion we break out the difference between glucose and fructose and the deadly effects that fructose overconsumption causes in the human body.