For every Web site that proclaims something is deadly, there will be another that says, “Nah, that’s just a hoax.”   We’ve seen that to be true about sugar, as well as about the alternative sweeteners we’ve been examining in this series.

But if something is true, eventually conventional medicine will come around and we will hear about it, not just on the Internet, but in the mainstream media.  That’s happening now with sugar.  For years we’ve heard that it isn’t fat that causes heart disease and the host of other ills that afflict our Western society — but sugar.  Alternative medicine doctors have told us repeatedly that sugar, especially high fructose corn syrup, is poison. That idea has been put down and laughed at.  Everyone “knows” that fat is the culprit in obesity and heart disease.

Like Will Rogers said, we are finding that it’s what people know that ain’t so that’s the problem.

On April 1, “60 Minutes” aired a show featuring Dr. Robert Lustig, who is a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California, San Francisco. He has been preaching for years that sugar is behind the woes of the sick kids he sees.  His Internet lecture, “Sugar, the Bitter Truth” went viral, and people began to believe what he said.  So many people that now the mainstream media is picking up on it.

“60 Minutes” also featured Dr. Kimber Stanhope, a nutritional biologist at the University of California whose extensive five-year study is backing up Dr. Lustig’s sugar/poison claim.  This is a very careful study, which involves keeping their test subjects under lockdown at the hospital to make sure they are eating and drinking ONLY what they are supposed to, so the test results will not be skewed.  Already there is strong evidence linking high fructose corn syrup with an increase in risk factors for heart disease and stroke.  Dangerous changes were noted after just two weeks on the high fructose corn syrup.

The show also talked about sugar and cancer — something Snopes.com will tell you is a hoax.  However, we learned from the show that nearly a third of some common cancers, including breast and colon cancers,  have something called insulin receptors on their surface. Insulin binds to these receptors and signals the tumor to start consuming glucose.

Lewis Cantley, PhD, of the BIDMC Cancer Center  said  “If you happen to have the tumor that has insulin receptors on it, then it will get stimulated to take up the glucose that’s in the bloodstream rather than go into fat or muscle, the glucose goes into the tumor. And the tumor uses it to grow.”

The answer they gave on the show?  Quit eating so much sugar.  Easier said than done, since the segment also featured Dr. Lustig talking about the addictive qualities of sugar.

I’m glad the truth is getting out — but I do disagree with Dr. Lustig on one thing. He says ALL sugar is the same:  high fructose corn syrup, table sugar, honey, etc.  I’ve learned from research for our current series that just isn’t so.  It’s more about the amount of fructose the different sugars contain that defines its toxicity.  And, by the way, Dr. Kimber Stanhope’s study was on high fructose corn syrup, not sugar.

What can we learn from these experts and their studies?  Sugar, especially high fructose corn syrup, is serious stuff.  It is addictive, and leads to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. It feeds some types of cancers.  If getting into your skinny jeans isn’t reason enough to bypass that doughnut, maybe these facts will give a needed nudge to your willpower!

Eating to live and living for Christ,

Susan Jordan Brown