5/17/2012 – Distinguished Lecture Series: “Darwin, Diet, Disease, and Dollars” – Dr. Robert Lustig

Robert Lustig’s research focuses on the regulation of energy balance by the central nervous system. He is currently investigating the contribution of nutritional, neural, hormonal, and genetic influences in the expression of the current obesity epidemic both in children and adults.

Co-sponsored by the Center on Longevity and Stanford School of Medicine’s Health Improvement Program (HIP), Dr. Lustig’s lecture explained how the mismatch between our environment and our biochemistry has been hijacked by the food industry for its own purposes.

Public health: The toxic truth about sugar – Nature

Date: May 17, 2012

Additional Resources:

UCTV Prime series “The Skinny on Obesity” – Is sugar a toxin that’s fueling the global obesity epidemic? That’s the argument UCSF’s Dr. Robert Lustig made in “Sugar: The Bitter Truth,” a 2009 UCTV video that’s since gone viral and sparked a national dialogue. In “The Skinny on Obesity,” a 7-part series from UCTV Prime, Dr. Lustig and two of his UCSF colleagues tease out the science behind this alarming claim and the dire threat it poses to global public health.

Sugar: The Bitter Truth – Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin.