The Skinny on Obesity
Pediatric Endocrinologist Dr Robert Lustig of the University of California gives an alternative view to the Obesity pandemic currently ravaging the American public in a 7 part TV series titled ‘The Skinny on Obesity’ on UCTV Prime. This essay gives a summary of his view on each episode.
In episode one titled “An Epidemic for Every Body”, Dr Lustig explains that the 1970s the US Food and Drug Administration began a push to ensure a reduction in the American public’s consumption of fats and oils in a bid to control calorie intakes. Americans responded to the policy and food manufacturers complied, creating the low-fat movement, however, this drop in fat consumption came hand in hand with an alarming increase in sugar consumption. Nutritionally, this was simply substituting one obesity causing agent for another.
In the second episode, titled “Sickeningly Sweet” Dr Lustig and Elissa Epel of the Center for Obesity Assessment, Study & Treatment, University of California weighed in on the role of sugar in food and nature. Dr Lustig points out that sugar is composed of both fat and carbohydrates yet hardly any other food in nature consists of both. Overconsumption of sugar thus leads to extreme accumulation of fats and carbohydrates in the body, leading to obesity.
In the third episode titled “Hunger and Hormones- A Vicious Cycle”, Dr Lustig and Ms Epel continue their examination of the metabolism in obese people and how behavioural changes may not be effective in helping them tackle the problem or end the epidemic. Dr Lustig points out that the hormone Leptin, which regulates hunger and satiety, is suppressed and blunted in people used to modern industrial diets and this prevents them from controlling their eating habits, making it harder to control the obesity pandemic. Leptin isn’t working well enough in obese people because insulin is converting excess consumed sugar into fats, making people fat no matter the case.
In the fourth episode titled “A Sweet Addiction,” Dr Lustig further illustrates the blunting effect that sugar consumption, especially fructose, has on the brain and the body. Too much sugar consumption leads to gradually creates dependence and addiction in a manner similar to drugs and alcohol.
In the fifth episode titled “Generation XL,” Dr Lustig and Ms Epel explain how newborns and infants are becoming obese despite not consuming the same diet that adults do. They illustrate how a mother’s diet influences her digestive hormonal make-up, exposing the baby to the same obesity creating conditions that made her gain excessive weight. This episode explains that obesity can pass from mother to infant, creating a generation of children facing health risks and death right from birth.
In the sixth episode titled “A Fast-Paced Fast Food Life”, Ms Epel and Dr Barbara Laraia, also of Center for Obesity Assessment, Study & Treatment in the University of California, describe how behavioral changes such as controlling thoughts and stress indicators can help in controlling hunger and curbing obesity. This happens through focusing on cortisol regulation which then makes controlling eating habits easier.
In the seventh episode titled “Drugs Cigarettes Alcohol…and Sugar?”, the three experts build a case for increased regulation of the US food industry and streamlining of the agricultural policy to reward organic foods rather than processed chemicals. Dr Lustig concludes in the series finale that sugar needs stiff regulations comparable to that accorded narcotics and other recreational substances.