new book by Dr Robert Lustig has just been released. It tells the story of sugar and how it is adversely affecting our health. Dr Lustig is well known for his lecture ‘Sugar: The Bitter Truth’ on the same subject matter. Sugar, more correctly referred to as sucrose, is thought to be detrimental to normal metabolic function because it contains a molecule of fructose. Fructose is naturally present in fruits, where it can be consumed without health problems because the concentration present in a normal diet is low. However, when fructose is removed from fruit, and used to sweeten foods and drinks, the amount that can be consumed in the diet increases considerably. This is thought to cause detrimental metabolic changes that overload the liver and subsequently leads to non-alcoholic fatty liver, insulin resistance, abdominal fat accumulation and obesity. A book review will follow.
