UC TV: The skinny on fat (Part 1)

[Tudamorf]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22351714
Effect of fructose on body weight in controlled feeding trials: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
. . . Fructose had no overall effect on body weight in isocaloric trials (mean difference, -0.14 kg [95% CI, -0.37 to 0.10 kg] for fructose compared with nonfructose carbohydrate). . . .

Just one of the many studies that prove a basic point: when it comes to weight gain, a calorie is a calorie.

[Zute]

Sugar is every bit as bad as HFCS. It is, after all, 50% fructose and HFCS is 55%. It's the fructose that's the issue, or at least in the quantities that people are eating it in. It has to be processed by the liver and we can't handle the fructose load we're currently getting. It's leading to diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, obesity, all kinds of inflammatory issues. I don't know that it explains the entire obesity epidemic, but I suspect it sets a lot of things into motion that essentially breaks the normal homeostasis we'd have when it comes to weight and fat-mass.

It's also starting to look like one's metabolism is primed during gestation. What your mom ate might well be affecting your metabolism right now.

[Tudamorf]

I don't know that it explains the entire obesity epidemic,

It doesn't. Look at the meta-study I linked above. Or read this.

Excess calories explain the obesity epidemic.

Excess fructose will lead to hepatic insulin resistance, elevated triglycerides, excess visceral fat, and possibly a bunch of other health problems, but that's not the same as obesity.

They confuse the two issues in the videos, suggesting that sugar is what's making people fat. It isn't, at least not necessarily. Total calories (in minus out) are making people fat.

[Zute]

We could probably quote studies at one another for the next century. Here's mine: Consumption of fructose-sweetened beverages for 10 weeks reduces net fat oxidation and energy expenditure in overweight/obese men and women.

[Tudamorf]

We could probably quote studies at one another for the next century. Here's mine: Consumption of fructose-sweetened beverages for 10 weeks reduces net fat oxidation and energy expenditure in overweight/obese men and women.

Did you read the study?

On the third page under results, the authors of your study cite the "comparable weight gain (~1–2% of initial body weight) during the 8-week outpatient intervention" and also cite their earlier 2009 study based on the same data.

In the 2009 study they discuss the issue in more detail. Under Table 3, you'll see the 25% fructose group gained less weight (+1.8% for glucose versus +1.4% for fructose) and less fat (+3.2% for glucose versus +2.8% for fructose) than the 25% glucose group, though they don't say whether the difference between the two is statistically significant.

Granted, there are several issues with study, including the tiny sample size, ad libitum diet, 8 week outpatient (unmonitored) period, and reliance on food recall surveys. But the results in no way show greater weight gain despite a huge dose of fructose.

In terms of weight maintenance, a calorie is a calorie is a calorie, and it all comes down to calorie intake minus expenditure. We will not "quote studies at one another for the next century" because none of them are going to disprove the laws of thermodynamics.

[Zute]

Episode 3 is up.
The Skinny on Obesity (Ep. 3): Hunger and Hormones- A Vicious Cycle

[Fyyr]

I love this guy.

I really liked his physiological pathway of fructose being converted to uric acid.

I am testing this hypothesis/pathway currently.

I have noticed that SOME fructose is produces uric acid, and some does not(or less of it). Still testing.


I think that if you look historically at what human beings or which human beings were obese, it was kings and queens of societies. I think a hypothesis could be formed to explain this with modern Americans. They have slaves that do just about everything for them, bath them, feed them, clean them. This trait must be presently triggered.

There are certain, undeniable, (personality) traits that the morbidly obese possess; and I see these traits when I treat them as patients. It is very predictable. It is uncanny how predictable they are.

Just as there are repeatable and predictable traits about those who are healthy.

[Tudamorf]

I think that if you look historically at what human beings or which human beings were obese, it was kings and queens of societies. I think a hypothesis could be formed to explain this with modern Americans. They have slaves that do just about everything for them, bath them, feed them, clean them.

And a constant surplus of food.

Obesity = too much food + too little exercise.

[Fyyr]

Yes, I know that.

But even with a surplus of food, there are those who don't indulge....and those who do. There is a difference between these people.

What are those differences?

Why do Queen Latifa and Oprah have big fat asses? And why does my cleaning lady?

Why do nurses have big fat asses? But doctors don't? It is an interesting question.

[Tudamorf]

Why do nurses have big fat asses? But doctors don't? It is an interesting question.

Why are nurses in San Francisco generally not fat (even the non-Asian ones)?