A recent best-seller has great insight into the the history of Sugar and its impact on diet. Gary Taubes has written a new book that details the history of sugar and the sugar industry. Tuabes has made a career looking at bad science and the effects of sugar on the American Diet. Here is a brief review of the book.
For those of you that do not know Gary Taubes isjournalist that for most of the last 10 yearswriting and studying about nutrition and in-particular the effect of carbs and sugar on the obesity. Taubes has written two previous books “Good Calories Bad Calories” and “Why We Get Fat” that detail the his thoughts and present a good review of the current thinking and research in the nutritional science, of which he is often critical.
The case against sugar makes it clear shy he feels the much of the writing and studies on the subject are limited and are often flawed if not outright deceptive. Taube starts with a extensive history of sugar in the diet around the world. He lays out the case that as sugar was introduced around the world the incidence of diabetes has increased dramatically. From Ancient China to Europe to Native American populations, everywhere that sugar was introduced, diabetes increased to levels that had not seen before. On every case, in every continent, this happened without exception.
What about Fat. Isn’t fat dangerous. It does not seem that this is dangerous as sugar is at least in Taubes thinking. Eskimo populations that have lived blubber did not have a high incidence of either heart disease or diabetes. It only became an issue after they introduced processed foods.
Taubes does a great job of cataloging how the years the Sugar industry thru various has hindered good research and pushed its own agenda. They lobbied the government to change the rules against artificial sweeteners and changed the dietary stat to fit their needs. One is reminded of how the tObacco industry acted when you read about this. It is is a harrowing look at why Nutrition research and coverage, which is difficult enough, is complicated further by purposeful obfuscation of the food industry.
If you are interested on some of the reasons that we have as much sugar our diet and at least one of the reasons that we have as much obesity as we do in America.
Post submitted by Kurt Hutchinson, PT Clinical Lead of OrthoHealth – Illinois Bone and Joint Institute
