Sugar Is Toxic and Addictive - Dr. Robert Lustig

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This episode began with a discussion of 2009 as a watershed year before major belief in diseases tied to genetics began to be replaced by ones tied to mitochondria, food and the role of insulin. Michael Krasny brought up the link of diabetes to genetics and Dr. Bob Lustig indicated that the causation factor is only 15%, whereupon he talked about genes and obesity and different kinds of fat and fat and sugar followed by Krasny asking his reaction to the appointment of Robert F Kennedy Junior as the head of HHS. Dr. Lustig revealed that he refused an offer to head NIH.

A listener asked Dr. Lustig about glyphosate in the food supply and another about processed food in school lunches, which prompted Krasny to ask about processed and ultra-processed food. Dr. Lustig spoke of food industry strategies and the USDA. Krasny then asked him about eating habits and lifespan in Japan as well as fructose and calories and Dr. Lustig spoke about body temperature being down in the U.S. and a connection to mitochondrial dysfunction. Krasny went back to an interview he did with Nobel laureate James Watson in which Watson mentioned longevity and his Norwegian mitochondria and Krasny then asked Lustig about sugar and fruit, which prompted Lustig to pinpoint sugar as a primary cause of Alzheimer's and to speak about ways to mitigate fructose. Lustig then spoke of the effects of sugar in a 1953 UK study which followed sugar rationing. Michael Krasny brought up arguments against "the demonization of sugar" and seeing it as toxic and addictive and Dr. Lustig responded with an adamant defense of the dangers of sugar, including its addictive power and its toxicity.