Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: thedoc on 15/06/2012 12:30:01
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James Muirhead asked the Naked Scientists:
Dear Chris and colleagues,
I have not heard your team discussing Robert Luastig's work on the potential production of vLDL due to their different metabolism compared to glucose.
I have listened to his most recent talk about 5 times and he puts across a persuasive argument on the latent formation of fat from fructose. He also provides, what appears to be, valid reasons for why this mistake was made back in 1982.
Unfortunately my knowledge of biochemistry is not good enough to know whether all his reasoning and deductions are valid, but I have not come across any strong counter argument.
The fact that fructose does not inhibit the appetite enhancing grelin, nor cause the release of insulin [telling the brain that enough food has been eaten] nor stimulates the release of leptin would seem to be sound grounding for why so many people do not seem to be able to control their weight
During my work as a physio dealing with complex low back pain, I was horrified at the number of patients who were obese and who had no real grasp of the link with type ii diabetes and what a grim disease that can be.
The projected figures for NHS expenditure on type ii diabetes makes the eyes water and so, if Lustig is correct, then surely more heralding of his work should be done.
I look forward to your interpretation and analysis of his work.
As ever, keep up the excellent podcasts (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/podcasts/).
Regards
James Muirhead
What do you think?