Dr. Lustig’s main focus throughout the presentation was the effects of fructose on the epidemic of obesity. He explains how we as a society place so much stress on fat intake and calories in versus calories out that we tend to neglect what is actually in our food. With much research, it has been determined that fructose does, in turn have an effect on the obesity epidemic. Throughout the lecture, many examples from this research show our biochemical response to our modern diets and are used to explain Dr. Lustig’s point of fructose poisoning.
He begins to construct his point by describing how our caloric intake or food intake has consistently gone up over the years and fat intake has gone down, but obesity has continued on a dramatic incline. The initial response to the obesity epidemic was to cut fat out of our diets, considering the logic was that fat in food caused fat in the body.
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According to Dr. Lustig, fructose is a major threat to the well being of people because it is an economic evil. Fructose is extremely inexpensive to produce, especially in large quantities, and is used in most foods we eat today. Avoidance of fructose consequently becomes difficult and majority of the population then ingests excessive amounts of the sugar. Metabolization of fructose causes the suppression of the effects of ghrelin and slows stimulation of insulin and leptin. Since the biochemical processes that involve ghrelin, insulin, and leptin are compromised the feeling of hunger doesn’t seem to leave or the sense of being full doesn’t appear. People therefore eat more than the body requires which can progress to cardiovascular disease, hypertension, obesity, and lipid problems; all a part of the metabolic syndrome. Which is why fructose is a biochemical precursor for a myriad of issues and should be