Sugar, already known to cause excess fat is under attack again and with good reason. In this week’s edition of New York Times Magazine, Gary Taubes takes on sugar as a cause of obesity and a host of other diseases. He cites the work of Dr. Robert Lustig, specialist in pediatric hormone disorders and the leading expert on childhood obesity at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. During his 12 year study of childhood obesity, Dr. Lustig has come to view sugar as an “evil”, “toxic” “poison”.

According to Lustig, sugar is the number one cause of obesity in America today and he doesn’t just blame sucrose (table sugar). His “hit-list” includes just about every ingredient ending in “ose” including the highly controversial high fructose corn syrup. He makes an extremely strong case as to why this popular additive is particularly detrimental to our health. He goes on to  highlight the strong relationship between American sugar consumption and the rise of so called “western” diseases such as heart disease, hypertension and a variety of cancers. This serves as another reminder of how deadly our lifestyles have become. Average annual sugar consumption is up by hundreds of pounds in just the last couple hundred years. Everyday it seems like new evidence surfaces pointing toward the fact that these ideas are spot on and we must be extremely selective about what foods we consume.

Dr. Lustig became famous for his 90 minute lecture titled: “Sugar: The Bitter Truth” which went viral in 2009. watch it here

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