NOTE: The link below is dead – and I forgot what it was about.
Waaaay busy – but I thought you all might be interested in this new article.
Damn our sweet tooths!
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-sweet-brain31-2009aug31,0,2078819.story
More Dismal News About Sugar Substitutes
Published
Low Carb Confidential 
Interesting article. Meanwhile, here’s what’s happening in research on the effects of real sugar on metabolism. Below is a Letter to the Editor of our local paper The Daily Inter Lake I submitted August 30, 2009.
Dear Editor:
I’ve been collecting Daily Inter Lake articles featuring information on nutrition and health for nearly three decades. My file of articles on fat is, well, fat. The file on sugar contains four articles. The fourth one was published on Page A5 of the Tuesday, August 25, 2009 DIL. The headline: “Heart group urges cutbacks on sugar.”
Interestingly, the article was all about advice to reduce sugar consumption; not a single word as to why Americans need to do so. To find out why the American Heart Association is suddenly issuing a strong warning to reduce sugar intake, Google “Sugar:The Bitter Truth” and listen to a nearly 90 minute lecture by Dr. Robert Lustig, a researcher and Professor of Pediatric Endocrinology at the University of California San Francisco. The first half of the lecture is easy to follow. The second half is about biochemical pathways; how fructose is processed by the liver and what the body does with glucose.
If you’re not inclined to listen to a lecture, you can Google “Norman Swan The Obesity Epidemic” and click on “SHOW TRANSCRIPT” (in red). You can read a July 9, 2007 Norman Swan interview with Dr. Lustig. Note that this interview took place about two years ago.
The disturbing thing about all this is the failure of the American Public Health system to get at the truth regarding the causes of obesity and chronic disease. We have an army of dedicated health care professionals out there advising Americans to reduce fat intake to lose weight and limit saturated fat intake to prevent clogged arteries. Neither of these recommendations is effective for preventing anything as long as sugar intake is high. And apparently Americans don’t know how to respond to advice such as “Moderate your intake of added sugars” because sugar consumption has just gone up as people try to lose weight by reducing fat intake.
David Brown
1925 Belmar Dr
Kalispell, MT 59901
Ph/406-257-5123
Nutrition Education Project
Couldn’t find any article on Artificial sweeteners, lots of other interesting stuff, but not that. maybe it expired?
Dang! The LA Times is ephemeral compared to other online newspapers – I try to respect their copyrights and not just lift their articles, and this is what I get.