Glaring Flaws in Sugar Toxicity Study

A new study has claimed that obese children could find rapid health improvement by small sugar reductions, without caloric restrictions. According to the lead author, Robert Lustig, the new study shows that sugar may not be harmful because of how it leads to weight gain, but “rather sugar is metabolically harmful because it’s sugar.” According to the study, a diet with 10 percent sugar in place of one with 28 percent sugar can in just nine days produce a reduction in blood pressure, triglycerides and LDL-cholesterol—and improved glucose tolerance and lower levels of insulin circulating in the blood.

Does a miracle diet promising incredible results in just nine days sound too good to be true? Not to the news media, which gobbled up the study’s conclusions as the proof that sugar really is the big evil in our diet (see sidebar). But as we shall see, the science in the study is about as good as it is for other fad diets.