The best part about interviewing people who are a part of the diet, fitness and health industry is watching what concepts attract people to the message of healthy living. While it can sometimes seem that most people are apathetic when it comes to health (with the exception of the smart people who listen to “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show”), the truth is people are hungry for real deal information without any pretense or propaganda. So when a respected medical or nutritional professional comes along with ideas that run counter to what we have always believed and yet makes a compelling case, it’s nearly impossible to ignore what they have to say. That’s precisely what has happened to today’s podcast interview guest who has become a bona fide YouTube nutritional rock star in the low-carb community although he himself doesn’t believe in the concept of carbohydrate-restriction and originally declined all requests to appear on the podcast.
In Episode 378 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore,” we are pleased to welcome a neuroendocrinologist from The University of California San Francisco (UCSF) named Dr. Robert Lustig who presented a now-infamous lecture in July 2009 called “Sugar: The Bitter Truth” that has been viewed nearly a half million times in less than a year! Every low-carb blog, forum, and web site out there has been promoting this 90-minute lecture like a madman and I knew right away Dr. Lustig would be an outstanding interview guest. However, when initially approached for an interview, his nearly immediate response was “I don’t believe in low-carb.” After appearing as a guest on Sean Croxton’s radio show earlier this year and being convinced by Sean that my podcast is about overall nutritional health, Dr. Lustig changed his mind and agreed to an interview to discuss his views on low-carb diets and fructose.
Listen to Dr. Robert Lustig share how he got interested in the subject of fructose, how the hormone leptin got him thinking about this issue, the glucose/insulin mechanism that determines whether it is used as energy or stored as body fat, his forthcoming studies on children and fructose, why he slightly disagrees with his research colleague Dr. Richard Johnson on fructose, what his impression of Gary Taubes’ Good Calories Bad Calories is and the possible corroboration on a book about sugar, why he did his lecture on sugar and his reaction to the overwhelming response it has received online, why he hasn’t sought any media attention as a diet guru, how the politics behind the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines have blacklisted him and other low-carb, high-fiber experts from being selected for the advisory committee, what the public should do in response to ill-advised diet recommendations, why he believes in “safe carb” over “low-carb,” the amylase vs. amylopectin debate, why glycemic load is more important than glycemic index, the fiber connection to glycemic load, the insulin resistance factor in obesity and disease, why low-carb diets work (the removal of fructose from the diet), his thoughts on whether a fructose-free diet can produce high insulin levels, why fruit juice is worse for you than sugary soda, why a high-fiber diet has long been viewed as healthy and how modern fiber intake is woefully inept, the customization of the diet that’s right for you known as nutrigenomics, why he doesn’t believe fructose is the sole cause of obesity (but it is the primary cause of the current obesity epidemic), his five reasons why being obese is not your fault, whether he changed his mind about anything since the 2009 lecture, why agave nectar and honey are no better for you than sugar, whether saturated fat is harmful to health, and the impact of nutrition on the growth development of a baby into an adult. This 70-minute conversation with a leading obesitologist is one of the most fascinating and thought-provoking conversations in the history of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show,” so DON’T MISS IT!
There are three ways you can listen to Episode 378:
1. Listen at the new iTunes page for the podcast:
2. Listen and comment about the show at the official web site for the podcast:
3. Download the MP3 file of Episode 378 [70:50m]:
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Now that he’s finally appeared on the podcast, how did you like what you heard from Dr. Robert Lustig? Did he make the case that obesity and disease is about the fructose primarily or is he missing the boat on the carbohydrate connection? Don’t hold back in sharing your feedback and you can leave your comments in the show notes section of Episode 378. If you haven’t seen it already, then be sure to invest 90 minutes of time to watch Dr. Lustig’s lecture “Sugar: The Bitter Truth.” I appreciate his willingness to reconsider coming on the podcast because he was fantastic. Coming up on Thursday, we will be turning to one of the Paleo kings with John Durant from Hunter-Gatherer.com who has been making waves in the media in 2010 on behalf of healthy primal living! This modern caveman is one of the rising superstars in the ancestral nutrition movement.
