http://www.kqed.org/programs/program-landing.jsp?progID=RD19

Obesity & Starvation

http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/forum/2006/08/2006-08-15b-forum.mp3

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Forum assesses a recent hypothesis on obesity, and how sugar may trigger a
starvation reaction in the brain, with Robert Lustig, author of the hypothesis,
which was published last week in Nature Clinical Practice: Endocrinology and
Metabolism, professor of clinical pediatrics, and director of the Weight
Assessment for Teen and Child Health (WATCH) Program at UC-San Francisco’s
Children's Hospital

Full article
here.


From the
San Francisco Chronicle:

The obesity epidemic is caused by a "poisoned" food supply that is
altering people's biochemistry and driving them to eat more and move less,
according to a hypothesis proposed by a UCSF doctor who culled results from
thousands of studies on obesity.


It is unfair and unhelpful to blame personal behaviors, especially a lack of
self-control, for the country's rising obesity rates, says Dr. Robert Lustig, a
pediatrician and nationally renowned obesity expert.


The processed food that is most readily available to Americans -- from potato
chips and cookies to yogurt and white bread -- is loaded with sugars that cause
the body to believe that it is hungry, which makes people feel compelled to
consume more calories and conserve energy, he said. Sugar makes the body produce
more insulin, which blocks hormones that would normally tell the brain to stop
eating, he said.


Breaking the pattern of sugar consumption -- a pattern that Lustig compares to
nicotine addiction -- is more than just a matter of willpower. It will take a
grassroots effort of doctors, community leaders and consumers to force the
government and the food industry to get those sugary foods out of mainstream
American diets, he said.


"Everyone's assuming you have a choice, but when your brain is starving, you
don't have a choice," Lustig said. "When you look at it that way, all of a
sudden Big Food looks like the perpetrator, and the patient becomes the victim.
Congress says you can't sue McDonald's for obesity because it's your fault.
Except the thing is, when you don't have a choice, it's not your fault."