Prof. Robert Lustig – ‘Sugar, metabolic syndrome, and cancer’

Robert H. Lustig, M.D., M.S.L. is Professor emeritus of Pediatrics, Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He specialises in the field of neuroendocrinology, with an emphasis on the regulation of energy balance by the central nervous system. His research and clinical practice has focused on childhood obesity and diabetes. Dr. Lustig holds a Bachelor’s in Science from MIT, a Doctorate in Medicine from Cornell University. Medical College, and a Master’s of Studies in Law from U.C. Hastings College of the Law.

Dr. Lustig has fostered a global discussion of metabolic health and nutrition, exposing some of the leading myths that underlie the current pandemic of diet-related disease. He believes the food business, by pushing processed food loaded with sugar, has hacked our bodies and minds to pursue pleasure instead of happiness; fostering today’s epidemics of addiction and depression. Yet by focusing on real food, we can beat the odds against sugar, processed food, obesity, and disease.

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  • Kate Collins says:

    The first person’s advice I followed when starting out cutting processed food out 4 + years ago now has now also solved a mystery I have been searching for for several years that even my own Endo couldn’t tell me – why I had low and then high lactate dehydrogenase. This man is a gem.

  • KenDBerryMD says:

    Great info here!!

  • Munna Sherpa says:

    Dear Prof Lustig, your lectures are always mind boggling and this is one of them I was waiting for! Being a diabetologist myself and blindly following so called best practice guidelines for 28 years, I ended up asking myself, whether I am a victim or partner of greatest medical science scam that is going around! I still do not understand why Hippocrates old saying ” Thy medicine is thy food and thy food is thy medicine” is ignored by our medical fraternity. Believe it or not most of my longest surviving patients are on Low Carb diet, I am not sure about their fat intake, despite my advise to be liberal on saturated fat! I would be grateful if you permit me to quote and use some of your slides for educational purpose.

    • Bigboss304323 says:

      avoiding high intakes of sugar, and processed toxins as vegetable oils is key to live better, longer and much much healthier. Avoiding crop pesticides will definitily help as well. Ecological food. Its REALLY hard avoding all these daily enviromental toxins we humans produce and put on our food. It shouldnt be. Its sad that its not talked about or brought up more often mainstream

    • Wonderful Alice says:

      I think it would be better to ask for permission to use Dr Lastig’s materials per email, because he probably does not read YouTube comments. You will definitely find his email address at his official uni webpage.

  • TanjaOnBoard says:

    Love listening to Prof Lustig, he explains everything so clearly with supporting data, thank you for uploading this talk

  • Bob Diaz says:

    If only I had known now 40 years ago, I could have avoided a lot of health problems. At least I learned this last year and have turned things around. I’ve lost 65 pounds and no longer need blood pressure medication.

  • MarkTitus says:

    I like this doctor’s delivery – he cuts right through the crap. He doesn’t ‘sugarcoat’ anything.

  • S C says:

    I was a sugar addict my whole life . Having been in a situation of chronic stress for years i ate sugar to elevate my mood & feel better . It was my drug of choice . Last year i quit sugar cold turkey last year . This month i complete 16 months being sugar free & counting . I will never eat sugar again . Once a connosieur of fine chocolate today i don’t eat even high gi fruit . I’m not going back to sugar consumption ever again

  • Love One Another says:

    This was absolutely a wonderful presentation! We definitely need to take our health back into our own hands first of all, by re-educating ourselves and our children, about nutrition, and better understanding of how and why our food choices matter so much, for preventing so many of the chronic illnesses, cancer and sickness in general.

    The second thing we need to do is collectively stop buying poisonous, toxic, processed foods, petition the food production companies to improve, or loose our business, to the increasingly new, small food companies, who are rising to meet the demand of what more and more people are wanting, which is real food, organic produce, not the GMO, chemicals, preservatives, lab made crap that’s been making so many people sick and die!

    While we won’t hold our breath waiting for the food industry to catch up, we should still hold them accountable, and as the saying goes, money speaks volumes to big corporations, big pharmaceutical too!

    The more we learn, share with others, the better we can prevent and heal, by buying from local farmers, helping small farms stay in business, since they have been almost completely wiped out by big factory farming, only concerned with their bottle line profit, and unfortunately has been allowed to use poison pesticides and insecticides, GMO’s.. controlling farmers seeds as well! The people of the US has not been represented by the majority of our many government agencies, and while big corporations, banks, and our government has become rich off of us, they have too much power, control and are right now in our face showing they don’t care about our country, and will do as they please!

    Who is sick and tired of being sick and tired, seeing loved ones suffer, die too early, and paying so much money, working so hard for crappy food, crappy health care and paying more and more for it all? We need to learn container balcony gardening, back to basics with learning things our great grandparents learned. I think realizing how much better people start to feel, while making healthier choices and taking responsibility for our own health more, will bring confidence and encouragement to others, as they see how much improvement in their health they see they can create! I know I’ve been motivated by others, who are proof, living, whole, non toxic food can be our medicine!

  • That Cologne Guy says:

    This is what a talk sounds like when a person is not funded by the food industry. He’s the best.

    • The Prophet says:

      The food industry hates him. They use sugar everywhere to make food more palatable and more important more addictive. People are just consumers for them, the more you eat the more money they make, the fatter you get the better for them.

    • tannertuner says:

      He will occasionally also take jabs at big pharma and what is and isn’t taught in medical schools

    • Olivia says:

      @The Prophet Food industry profits, since you overeat. Medical industry profits, since you now have a chronic disease.

      I pick the “not sick” option. In the US that severely cuts down on what I can actually eat (in Europe it’s easier, bread isn’t off limits!)

      Since I get sick from US milk (not lactose intolerance) and pasta (I don’t know why, I just get really sick), it comes down to rice, eggs, vegetables, and occasionally organic meat and milk.

      The guilty treats are salted potato chips and McDonalds without sauces, buns, and any sugary item. I know, trans fat and french fried, but we aren’t all saints.

    • Kenny De Metter says:

      @Television Archive Studios Are you sure about that ?

  • GodzillaGoesGaga says:

    I still feel that Prof Lustig’s and his colleagues work presented here is probably the most significant medical dietary and health breakthrough this century. Without a doubt it is incredibly significant and should shape the food industry going forward !!

  • Ruben Omega says:

    Grateful to the conference organizers for letting Dr. Lustig go over-time, that was really useful info especially toward the end. My grandfather and father both died of cancer, and because of this talk I will take specific actions in hopes to not be the 3rd in a row.

  • Kelley Jan says:

    Dr. Lustig saves lives. He is one of my heroes!

  • Zane Loney says:

    I’ve learned more on youtube over the past month concerning sugar, carbs and intermittent fasting than my primary care physician knows. I am dead serious. Time to get a younger doctor or PCP who actually does some follow-on learning after med school.

    • Nick Johnson says:

      Same here. My highly rated endocrinologist seems only to have vague awareness of these issues. As a Type 2 diabetic, he never once told me about limiting sugar or carbs. Now I’m following the science on the internet and doing much better than when I saw him.

    • Kirra says:

      The new doctors also don’t know much, sad isn’t it.

    • Evert DuToit says:

      Doctors aren’t trained in nutrition. They are trained to write prescriptions. Follow the money. There is no money to be made from healthy eating.

    • Petra PB says:

      Me too Zane! I hear you!

    • Elizabeth Abbott says:

      I had a hard time quitting but now zero sugar; No idea if this is legitimate or a fraud but I tried a product at a health food store which is meant to control or eliminate a so called Candida yeast overgrowth internal which may cause sugar craving… anyway a licensed naturopath said it is OK to try it. I also use some pure Canadian maple syrup which is delicious and does not seem to cause me to have symptoms related to sugar. years ago I showed a bad rash to a doctor and he said Oh my God, does diabetes run in your family?

  • FactualCounterpoints says:

    What a brilliant teacher!! Was so bored of biochemistry until this lecture. Thank you Dr Lustig ❤️

  • Saul Savelis says:

    we are lucky to have such scientists and medical doctors like Lustig

  • Hey Ray says:

    this is greatly underrated, he practically explained the cure of cancer, diabetes, and Alzeheimers (because of the fact that its known as diabetes type 3) this information is of great value.

  • Michael Dillon says:

    Fantastic lecture Doctor . It’s so reassuring that there are people like you out there looking to prevent illness . ‘ Just because you are obese it doesn’t mean you are sick , but just because you are thin doesn’t mean you are healthy ‘ .

  • Build It Planning says:

    As a RN/MSN that works ICU/ER, this is one of, or the, best lecture I have ever watched. PROFOUNDLY important information that needs prolific distribution to the public. Your staff should be proud to work with you. What you are doing truly changes lives. Thank you Dr. Lustig for this OUTSTANDING presentation.

  • Chele Lee says:

    My husband recently went to the doctor for routine lab work. As a testicular cancer survivor, he gets checked for certain issues every 6 months. His doctor had told him, one year ago, that his cholesterol was high and to start a statin. He started the statin drug and went back after 6 months. His cholesterol was even worse than before, and this time the doctor said he was pre-diabetic. That day, I decided to educate myself on the meaning of all his blood work so I could provide a healthier diet for him. (I’m a bit old fashioned in that respect. I love providing meals for my husband and family). Anyway, in just a few days, I learned that insulin resistance was what had been causing the bad blood work as well as many other medical issues he’d been having; sleep apnea, testicular cancer, arthritis and intermittent explosive disorder. He was someone who would grab a couple little Debbie cakes for snacks throughout his day and ate a bag of chips in one sitting. He was not overweight or obese and very muscular, so we thought he was OK. He works a very physically demanding job and we believed he was always eating simply because he burned so many calories. Well, I was wrong. He was insulin resistant and to combat the issue, we immediately adopted a keto diet. He was absolutely miserable the first 2 weeks. He had sugar/carb cravings every 2 hours. Now, he is doing very well, feeling and looking younger and has more energy. He has blood work again in a month and we are hoping we’ve improved his health as far as lab work is concerned. His case is a primary example of someone, whom is not obese, actually having dramatic problems going on inside because of our reliance on sugar and carbs. Oh, and though I naturally ate low carb, I joined him in the keto diet and lost 20 lbs after just 6 weeks. Altogether, I’ve lost 40 lbs but had plateaud. I am finally a weight considered to be in the normal range, not overweight or obese, for the first time since my 20s. Keto started my weight loss up again and I feel healthier. I will try to remember to update this comment when we get his labs again.

    • Chele Lee says:

      Update- my husband went back for new labs and was much better. His cholesterol was still considered a little high but had dropped by 60 points. His triglycerides improved and he was taken off his statin medication. Even though he could have gone back to eating carbs after his “diet”, he decided he wants to continue low carb. He said he feels too good to go back. He’s looking and feeling healthier than ever.

    • Jack Delane says:

      That’s wonderful, glad you’re both in a better place

    • Alan Boddy says:

      Thanks for taking the time to contribute 😊

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