Robert Lustig

Robert H. Lustig is an American pediatrician. He is Professor of Neuroendocrinology at the University of California in San Francisco. He was widely known for his research on the relationship between obesity and sugar, especially fruit sugar (fructose ).

Life

Robert Lustig grew up in Brooklyn (New York) and attended Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan.

He lives in San Francisco, is married and has two daughters

Education and professional experience

He graduated from MIT in 1976 with a Bachelor and earned a doctoral degree in medicine at Cornell University ( Ithaca, New York) in 1980. Afterwards he studied six years at Rockefeller University in New York in the field of neuroendocrinology. Since 2001 he has worked at the University of California at San Francisco. He has authored over 85 scientific articles and chapters to 45 books. To this end he acquired in 2013 a master in the field of law at Hastings College of the Law ( University of California, San Francisco).

In 2013 he founded the "Institute for Responsible Nutrition ", a nonprofit organization dedicated to global education on the metabolic syndrome and for the fight against its consequences.

The role of fructose in obesity

The general public was Robert Lustig known by a lecture from 2009, entitled "Sugar: The Bitter Truth ," which was viewed by millions of people on YouTube. A recess offered his lecture from July 2013 on " fructose 2.0". He and his team showed that the increase in sugar consumption and the increase of type 2 diabetes are clearly linked world.

His research showed that the metabolism of fructose, a component of table sugar in the liver a completely different processing than glucose takes place, which in effect means that increased fructose consumption leads to fatty liver - comparable increased with the effect of alcohol consumption. This results in a large proportion of the population to be overweight.

In the U.S., half of all health care expenditures for the treatment of patients is already consumed with diabetes, and at current growth rates it will by 2025 be the entire budget. The mere fact arises Lustig 's view, a political mandate to regulate sugar. In 2009, therefore, the American Heart Association 's recommendation was found that the daily intake of sugar on 9 teaspoon or 150 kcal per day ( men) and 6 teaspoons or 100 kcal per day ( women) should be reduced (instead of the usual 22 teaspoons in the U.S.).

Works

• Obesity Before Birth: Maternal and Prenatal Influences on the Offspring. Boston: Springer Science, 2010 ISBN 978-1441970336.
• Fat Chance: Beating the Odds against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease. New York: Hudson Street Press, 2013 ISBN 978-1594631009.