OT (sorta'): Is Sugar Toxic on 60 Minutes Sunday

[Slartybartfast]

For those of you who are watching your carbs, and those sitting on the fence not sure whether it's just a passing zephyr of fancy, Dr. Robert Lustig will be on 60 Minutes Sunday night April 1.

The blurb says, "(CBS News) Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California, believes the high amount of sugar in the American diet, much of it in processed foods, is killing us. And as Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports, new scientific research seems to support his theory that sugar is toxic, including some linking the excess ingestion of sugars to heart disease. Gupta's report will be broadcast on 60 Minutes Sunday, April 1 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Americans are now consuming nearly 130 pounds of added sugars per person, per year. Those include both sugar and high fructose corn syrup. And while many vilify high fructose corn syrup and believe it is worse than sugar, Dr. Lustig says metabolically there is no difference. 'They are basically equivalent. The problem is they're both bad. They're both equally toxic,' he says. "

Link to the rest of the announcement is here: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-5 ... gar-toxic/

[motherall]

Before even seeing this, I know I agree. I am amazed at the foods that have added sugar, most for no apparent reason. It would seem our tastes have become so jaded that unless copious amounts of sugar and salt are added, food is not palatable. I am not overly fond of sweets and resent having sugar added to most foods. It's not always possible for me to prepare my meals from scratch but I think I'm going to have to resort to that to keep my blood sugar under control. I always check labels and I am appalled at what is put in a particular food that seems excessive or not needed. It's good that I love fresh veggies even though they've been genetically altered from what we used to eat.

[GumbyCT]

Americans are now consuming nearly 130 pounds of added sugars per person, per year. Those include both sugar and high fructose corn syrup. And while many vilify high fructose corn syrup and believe it is worse than sugar, Dr. Lustig says metabolically there is no difference. 'They are basically equivalent. The problem is they're both bad. They're both equally toxic,' he says. "

Not only toxic but addictive too. The body can crave for sweets.

[Carmen]

Whenever I've traveled outside of the US, it really hits me how sweet and mushy American food is. For instance, a complimentary hotel breakfast in the US is all bagels, doughnuts, sweetened cereal, etc. In Germany, it's meat, cheese, whole-grain bread, and even sliced raw veggies.

[So Well]

In Germany, it's meat, cheese, whole-grain bread, and even sliced raw veggies.

You forgot soft-boiled eggs and smoked salmon.

[chunkyfrog]

Mmmmm. Must go boil eggs.

[DocWeezy]

My favorite breakfast: custom brined/smoked ham (made without any sugar by a local butcher), good, whole milk swiss cheese wrapped in either a cabbage or kale leaf with a little homemade mayo (made without sugar).

Yum!

Since we've eliminated sugars, we now make all of our own salad dressings and mayos and boy, they are GOOD. Also amazingly fast to make since we make up large amounts of the dry ingredients at once and then just use them as we want the dressing. Homemade mayo takes literally ten minutes to make about 2 - 3 cups of it and it lasts for a week if we don't use it up before then.

Weezy

[Emilia]

@Doc.... could you share a recipe or two for mayo/dressing? Thanks!

[Lizistired]

Good segment. I wished they would have mentioned the big fluffy LDL. Left you thinking all LDL is bad.

[GumbyCT]

@Doc.... could you share a recipe or two for mayo/dressing? Thanks!

I'd like to see this too. She is threatening to make me eat fish.

[DocWeezy]

@Doc.... could you share a recipe or two for mayo/dressing? Thanks!

We don't have a recipe written down yet! We started with an Alton Brown/Food Network basic recipe, used olive oil instead of a vegetable oil, and started playing with the seasonings. We use a teeny-tiny smidgen of pure stevia plus fresh lemon juice, white wine vinegar, organic eggs, extra light virgin olive oil, some onion powder, a little garlic powder, and finely ground sea salt. We're thinking about adding in a tiny amount of mustard powder to the next batch for a bit more "zip" and another flavor layer.

So far we haven't had a bad batch--just some that we like better than others!

Weezy

[BlackSpinner]

And you also have this to worry about neotame which does not need to part of the ingredients list.

The food labeling requirements required for aspartame have now been dropped for Neotame, and no one is clear why this was allowed to happen. Neotame has been ruled acceptable, and without being included on the list of ingredients, for:

USDA Certified Organic food items.
Certified Kosher products with the official letter k inside the circle on labels. (Janet Hull)

[DocWeezy]

And you also have this to worry about neotame which does not need to part of the ingredients list.

The food labeling requirements required for aspartame have now been dropped for Neotame, and no one is clear why this was allowed to happen. Neotame has been ruled acceptable, and without being included on the list of ingredients, for:

USDA Certified Organic food items.
Certified Kosher products with the official letter k inside the circle on labels. (Janet Hull)

I was appalled when I read this a while back....yet one more reason to stay away from preprepared and packaged foods....finding out about this really spurred me into looking for a local farmer to buy beef from because that stuff can be used in animal feed and (if I'm remembering correctly) it goes into the animal's fat. They used to use molasses to make the feed palatable (so many additives are in it the cattle didn't like it without sweetener), but this stuff is cheaper.

[RocketGirl]

And you also have this to worry about neotame which does not need to part of the ingredients list.

The food labeling requirements required for aspartame have now been dropped for Neotame, and no one is clear why this was allowed to happen. Neotame has been ruled acceptable, and without being included on the list of ingredients, for:

USDA Certified Organic food items.
Certified Kosher products with the official letter k inside the circle on labels. (Janet Hull)

There are pretty strong indications that this information (the claim that neotame is allowed in organic foods, and the rumor that it doesn't have to be listed on product labels) is a hoax - Cornucopia.org debunks it, and Mercola, who usually seems to have researched things reasonably well, also states that it is a hoax. The blogs and newsfeeds that state the rumor as fact don't seem to provide any reference to primary sources that would substantiate the claim.

Neotame sounds like something to avoid, especially in anyone sensitive to aspartame, but it doesn't look as though there's any real problem with it being added to organics and/or not having to be reported on a label, in the US at least. If I can track down a primary source of any info, I'll share it.

[Kody]

Thanks for the heads up on the show, it was very interesting. I could relate to the addiction part, and when they documented how the brains pleasure centers lite right up when the subject was given soda. When I used to get stressed out, I would immediately hit up the candy and soda, like a complete sugar addict. It would calm me down right away. Like they say though, your body almost builds up a tolerance like a drug addict and it takes more and more to give you that high. Haven't had a soda or candy now in 7 weeks, and don't miss it at this point, but it was a hard habit to break in the beginning.