#209 Why a calorie is not a calorie with Dr Robert Lustig

Do we eat too much sugar? This is a question I pose myself, as I like to trick myself into thinking that because I eat so well the majority of the time it makes up for my sweet tooth. But actually when I review my eating habits, I always choose dessert, I tend to snack a lot during the day and I eat way too much ‘healthy’ chocolate.

And perhaps after hearing Dr. Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatric Endocrinology at the University of California, talk on the subject today, you might be inclined to review your sugar intake yourself.

Dr. Lustig has become a leading public health authority on the impact sugar has on fueling the diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome epidemics, and on addressing changes in the food environment to reverse these chronic diseases.

Today we talk about why excess sugar is so bad for our health, what the benefits of cutting our sugar intake could be, why there is nothing wrong with fruit, the differences between sugars, the blood tests we should be ordering and of course why a calorie is not necessarily a calorie.

Dr Lustig also reveals some incredibly exciting research that he and friend of the podcast Dr Rachel Gow have collaborated on, where they re-engineered ultraprocessed food to be metabolically healthy. Could this be the answer to a public health crisis? Only time will tell.