Why Sugar And Fructose Are So Deadly with Dr. Richard Johnson

The Doctor's Farmacy with Mark Hyman, M.D.

This episode is brought to you by Rupa Health, InsideTracker, and HigherDOSE.

Eighty-eight percent of people are metabolically unhealthy, and since the 1920s we’ve shamed them into believing it’s their fault—that they should just eat fewer calories and exercise more.

But the real culprit is sugar and the processed foods that contain it. The majority of foods on our market shelves contain insane amounts of added sugar and high-fructose corn syrup—ingredients that literally slow down our metabolism and turn on our internal fat storage switch. That means we have the power to turn that switch off by choosing to use food as medicine. Today, I’m excited to talk to Dr. Richard Johnson about how our biological fat storage process works and what we can do to positively affect it.

Dr. Richard Johnson is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado in Denver and has been a practicing physician and clinical scientist for over 25 years. He is internationally recognized for his seminal work on the role of sugar and its component fructose, in obesity and diabetes. His work has also suggested a fundamental role for uric acid (which is generated during fructose metabolism) in metabolic syndrome. He previously authored The Sugar Fix with Timothy Gower in 2008, and The Fat Switch in 2012. His new book, Nature Wants Us to Be Fat was just released.

This episode is brought to you by Rupa Health, InsideTracker, and HigherDOSE.

Rupa Health is a place where Functional Medicine practitioners can access more than 2,000 specialty lab tests from over 20 labs like DUTCH, Vibrant America, Genova, and Great Plains. You can check out a free, live demo with a Q&A or create an account at RupaHealth.com.

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Here are more details from our interview (audio version / Apple Subscriber version):

• What makes sugar so bad? (5:50 / 2:44)
• How our body’s fat-storage switch works (7:25 / 4:06)
• Why eating certain foods makes us hungrier (15:07 / 11:58)
• Why eating sugar slows down your metabolism (18:08 / 14:59)
• Comparing high-fructose corn syrup to table sugar (27:19 / 21:55)
• The physiology of how fructose affects your body’s energy production and weight gain (32:45 / 27:52)
• The difference between eating a high-carb and low-carb diet, even if calorie intake is the same (42:30 / 36:46)
• Why mitochondrial function is key to health and longevity (53:35 / 49:27) /
• Supplementing with vitamin C (59:44 / 55:51)
• Is salt good or bad for us? (1:05:33 / 1:00:46)

Get a copy of Dr. Johnson’s book, Nature Wants Us to Be Fat: The Surprising Science Behind Why We Gain Weight and How We Can Prevent—and Reverse—It, here.

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