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384 pages, Paperback
First published December 27, 2016
The conditions in the womb—in the intrauterine environment—influence the development of the fetus, so that subtly different conditions will lead, in effect to the birth of newborns who respond differently to the environment they face outside the womb. In particular, the nutrients that the developing child receives in the womb—including the supply of glucose—pass across the placenta in proportion to the nutrient concentration in the mother's circulation. The higher the mother's blood sugar, the greater the supply of glucose to the fetus. The developing pancreas responds by overproducing insulin-secreting cells. "The baby is not diabetic," says Roy Metzger, who studies diabetes and pregnancy at Northwestern University, "but the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas are stimulated to function and grow in size and number by the environment they're in. So they start over-functioning. That in turn leads to a baby laying down more fat, which is why the baby of diabetic mother is typified by being a fat baby."I interpreted the above as probably leading to increased sensitivity to the detrimental effects of sugar. However, Taubes elsewhere says it may increase or decrease sensitivity, he's not sure which.
... if sugar causes insulin resistance and elevates triglycerides and makes us fat, then it very likely causes hypertension, too—if not directly, then at least indirectly, through its effect on insulin resistance and weight. Sugar is the culprit.At this point Taubes proceeds to address the major Western diseases, one by one, to discuss the likelihood that sugar is responsible, or at least largely responsible. He proceeds to go into a detailed discussion of the hypothetical biochemical mechanisms by which ingestion of sugar can be linked to gout, hypertension, cancer and Alzheimer's disease. Taubes doesn't claim definitive proof according to the rules of science, and indeed it may never be possible to establish absolute proof. But Taubes has certainly laid out a string of circumstantial evidence and mechanisms by which simple sugars can lead to the Western diseases that I find compelling.
So here's the if/then hypothesis: If these Western diseases are associated with obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance, and metabolic syndrome, which many of them are, then whatever causes insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome is likely to be the necessary dietary trigger for the diseases, or at least a key player in the causal pathway. Because there is significant reason to believe that sugars—sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup in particular, the nearly fifty-fifty combinations of glucose and fructose—are the dietary trigger of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome, it's quite likely they are a primary cause of all these Western diseases, including ... cancer and Alzheimer's disease. Without these sugars in the diet, these chronic diseases would be relatively rare, if not, in some cases, virtually nonexistent.
If this were a criminal case, The Case Against Sugar would be the argument for the prosecution