Bad Carb Cravings when you are sick

Ack sorry, missed Mike's link above.

Rowan,

But check out Nimm's link. A study by the USDA Economic Research Svc from 1970-2007 studying reasons for obesity shows a decrease of 1% in sugar intake.

nimm,

Actually I am aware of various arguments against Dr. Lustig's demonization of fructos, Dr. Richard Feinman (whom I have much more respect for than Dr. Lustig) said the following:


One thing I completely dislike about Lustig's presentation is his solution of governement intervention. It was government intervention that said we should beconsuming 300g of carbohydrates daily, mostly from cereal grains and reducing our fat intake.

Aside from the flaws I think he gives a compeling argument by drawing attention to something that often flies under our radar.

Mike,

I think it's an interesting subject. I have no vested interest in advocating for or against fructose consumption. To the contrary, I think we are generally in agreement on the goal, if not the reasons why. Added fructose (or refined sugars in general) is not a large part of my diet (despite including about 250g of carbohydrate per day), and to the extent you can make dietary generalizations at all, I believe the available research agrees that a diverse diet comprised primarily of whole or minimally processed foods, including sufficient protein and fats, is the best approach for optimal health.

The rebuttal didn't even disagree that excessive fructose can cause health problems - it just stressed the importance of amount (dosage), context, and the overall nutritional profile of the diet. And for that reason, I think it's helpful to put the arguments over these topics in context as well, and compare the (often ambiguous and imperfect) evidence supporting the respective conclusions.

And of course, the big picture is that this "debate" is very nearly semantic - is a certain subtype of macronutrient categorically hazardous, or is there some modest dosage below which it's safe, when integrated into an otherwise properly-balanced diet?

I completely agree that whole, unprocessed foods, is the solution to our problems.

I was looking through the Alan Aragon blog you posted and I have a hard time taking him seriously due to a lot of fallacious arguments he uses (Appeal to authority "Taubes is a journalist and not a scientist" is an easy one to quote. A Straw man when he denounces Lustig for demonizing all fructose when it is obvious that Lustig is blaming the excessive fructose introduced in the American diet over the past few decades. The dose makes the poison so to speak.)

I have my own views on nutrition that I haven't really shared here on FS but I do believe that as long as the quality of food is good then the macro nutrient ratio is irrelevant... in a healthy person. However in a person with metabolic syndrome then insulin, among other hormones, become erratic and hyper stimulated by foods that are quickly turned into sugar in the blood stream.

I second this post!