May 15, 2009 3:06 pm US/Pacific
Experts Weigh In On Stopping the Obesity Crisis
(CBS 5)
This is Part 5 of Dr. Kim Mulvihill's series on sugar. Click for:
Part 1: The Bittersweet Truth About Sugar
Part 2: Sugar Molecule Linked to Liver Damage
Part 3: How Sugar Hijacks Your Brain
Part 4: Waging War on Sugar to Win the Battle of the Bulge
Part 5:
Obesity rates have doubled in the last 25 years. Greg Critser, author of "Fatland: How Americans Became The Fattest in the World," is happy to explain why.
"We know obesity has a strong genetic element to it, but we also know genes don't change in 25 years. Our gene pool's the same," Critser says, "so clearly what's changed is the environment."
Critser says obesity experts call the American environment "obesogenic" because it promotes under-activity and the overconsumption of calories. In fact, some says it's cheaper to buy foods packed with calories than fruits and veggies. Researchers in Seattle calculated how many calories a dollar can buy: 1200 calories of chips, but only 250 calories of carrots.
Obesity expert Dr. Robert Lustig of UCSF says it's little wonder our nation is so fat. Those cheap calories, he says, are mostly from sugars -- all kinds of sugars.
He says "Sugar is sugar, sweet is sweet and we shouldn't be sweetening ourselves to death and that's what we're doing."
Dr. Lustig blames fructose, a molecule found in all sugars and sweeteners. Fructose spells trouble in three ways, he says,
"Number one it stimulates hunger, number two it hurts your liver, and number three it makes your brain want more."
Dr. Lustig says put those three things together and we have a vicious cycle of over-consumption. He says he sees obesity problems now happening in 6-month-olds.
How do we change that? Former FDA commissioner Dr. David Kessler says education matters most. He's author of "The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite."
Dr. Kessler, who led the battle against the tobacco industry, has joined the fight against obesity. He reveals how the food industry has hijacked the brains of millions of Americans by feeding them food layered and loaded with sugar, fat, and salt. But, he adds, you can't regulate food like tobacco, because people need food to survive. He hopes that by revealing how people are manipulated by the food industry, that they will be educated.
He says, "It's giving people information so they can protect themselves, so they can fight back and prevent manipulating and they can also demand from the food industry nutritious food that is not in these huge gigantic portions that are just layered and loaded with fat on fat on sugar on fat."
But is education enough? Dr. Lustig says no.
"It's not enough when you're dealing with this addiction question, when you're dealing with this nucleus acumbens, when you're dealing with this dopamine as a problem," he explains. "Look at the things that change dopamine: cocaine, nicotine, alcohol, cannabis, amphetamine. Education doesn't work for any of them."
Dr. Lustig says it's all about taxation and restriction when it comes to sugary foods, especially soda.
He says, "If a parent wants a kid to have soda, let them buy it for them," adding that he is under no illusion that one day, soda, juices, and sports drinks will disappear.
When it comes to sugary drinks, he adds "I don't think they need to be banned but what i think they need to be is regulated."
And regulation and taxes appear to have an impact on sales of other products. On April 1, 2009, a huge jump in the tobacco tax pushed a record number of smokers to try to quit. Public health advocates believe a soda tax would convince Americans to give up their sugary drinks as well.
Dr. Kelly Brownell of Yale University argues that "we can't sit around any more and argue for the status quo." He's co-author of a controversial paper in the New England Journal of Medicine. He proposes taxing sugary beverages in order to prevent obesity-related disease.
Dr. Brownell says we are in crisis, explaining that "This is the first time in history where our health experts are asking whether our children will lead shorter lives than their parents do."
The Sugar Association strongly disagrees with a sugar tax, and in a statement says: "Selective taxation is an issue beyond the realm of science. The belief that sugar consumption needs to restricted is not supported by the totality of scientific evidence."
Cardiologist Dr. James Rippe speaks for the Corn Refiners Association, and says high fructose corn syrup is also being unfairly demonized.
"We have to stop being crazy about this and recognize that all sugars should be consumed in moderation," he adds.
Nutrition experts from Harvard have proposed a new class of drinks that are low sugar with no more than one grams of sugar per ounce, and no artificial sweeteners. The idea is to reeducate the American palate so we get used to a little less sweet.
Dr. Lustig warns the clock is ticking, and drastic measures are required.
"I am paralyzed with fear," he says. "This is horrible we are going to lose an entire generation of Americans."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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