003: The Sugar Conspiracy — Trading One Nutritional Boogeyman for Another

Mastering Nutrition Episode 3

Introduction

In his April 7, 2016 piece in The Guardian, “The Sugar Conspiracy” Ian Leslie argues that the politics of nutrition has blinded us to the fact that sugar is more deserving than saturated fat of the status of dietary arch-villain and that the politics continue but the status of sugar and saturated fat are starting to switch.

But we need to move beyond nutritional boogeymen, not switch one for another.

Our sense of history and physiology — key concepts about the historical role of Ancel Keys, the rate at which sugar is converted to fat in a process called de novo lipogenesis, and whether insulin’s stimulation of fat storage can offer a plausible explanation of obesity — get distorted when we try to make a public enemy out of sugar, just as they do when we make a public enemy out of saturated fat.

It’s time for a more nuanced view.

Show Notes

In his April 7, 2016 piece in The Guardian, “The Sugar Conspiracy” Ian Leslie argues that the politics of nutrition has blinded us to the fact that sugar is more deserving than saturated fat of the status of dietary arch-villain and that the politics continue but the status of sugar and saturated fat are starting to switch.

But we need to move beyond nutritional boogeymen, not switch one for another.

Our sense of history and physiology — key concepts about the historical role of Ancel Keys, the rate at which sugar is converted to fat in a process called de novo lipogenesis, and whether insulin’s stimulation of fat storage can offer a plausible explanation of obesity — get distorted when we try to make a public enemy out of sugar, just as they do when we make a public enemy out of saturated fat.

It’s time for a more nuanced view.

Related links:

• Wikipedia page on Ancel Keys

• 1961 Time Magazine cover Physiologist Ancel Keys

• rates of de novo lipogenesis in humans

• “response to massive carbohydrate overfeeding in man“

• Stephan Guyenet’s AHS13 slides on insulin and obesity

• Stephan Guyenet on why insulin isn’t making us hungry

• low-carb vs low-fat study discussed at the end of the Guardian article

• 2-3x RDA for protein spares lean mass during fat loss

• 1.5x RDA for protein 100% spares lean mass and 3x RDA allows lean mass gain during fat loss when accompanied by resistance exercise

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