60 Minutes Special - Is Sugar Toxic?

Sugar, is it really toxic?  Tonight, 60 minutes with correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta investigates new evidence concerning sugar.

Dr. Robert Lustig, pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California, San Francisco, has begun an Anti-Sugar Campaign, motivated by his own patients.  He claims there are just too many children who suffer from obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and hypertension.

He said that you need to be careful when purchasing at the store, sugar is hidden in bread, yogurts, sauces, peanut butter and also to remember, High Fructose Corn Syrup, it's equally toxic.

Dr. Lustig has co-authored an American Heart Association report that recommends men should consume no more than 150 calories of added sugar a day and women, just 100 calories.  The average person now consumes 130 pounds of sugar per year, that's 1/3 pound every day.

Kimber Stanhope, a nutritional biologist at the University of California, Davis, is in the midst of a 5 year study that links excess high fructose corn syrup consumption to an increase in risk factors for heart disease and stroke.

During the first few days of the study, the subjects eat a diet low in added sugars.  Then 25% of their calories are replaced with sweetened drinks, blood is drawn throughout the study.  The results, within 2 weeks, LDL cholesterol levels have increased and other risk factors for cardiovascular disease are noted.

Lewis Cantley, a Harvard Professor and the head of the Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Center claims that when we eat or drink sugar it causes a sudden spike in the hormone insulin, which can serve as a catalyst to fuel certain types of cancers.  Nearly a third of some common cancers, such as breast and colon cancers have something called insulin receptors on their surface.  Insulin binds to these receptors and signals the tumor to start consuming glucose.

Cantley went on to say, "Every cell in our body needs glucose to survive.  But the trouble is, these cancer cells also use it to survive."

Lewis Cantley's research team is working on developing drugs that will cut off the glucose supply to cancer cells, but in the meantime, the advice is to stop consuming sugar and sugar products.

Eric Stice, a neuroscientist at the Oregon Research Institute, is using MRI scanners to learn how sugar activates our brain.  According to the research, it turns out that Dopamine, a chemical that controls the brain's pleasure center, is being released, just as it would in response to drugs or alcohol.

Source: CBS News

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