In a conversational interview, Lewis Howes asks the guest to identify current health myths, leading to a deep dive into the sugar debate. The guest explains that high‑fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is not uniquely toxic; chemically it is a mixture of glucose and fructose just like cane sugar, and any sugar becomes harmful only when consumed in excess. The discussion highlights that the U.S. food system makes HFCS abundant because of agricultural policies that subsidize corn and impose quotas on imported sugar, driving manufacturers to use the cheaper corn‑derived sweetener. Recommended added‑sugar intake is less than 10% of total calories, yet typical American diets far exceed this. While all refined sugars are nutritionally similar, alternative sweeteners such as honey and maple syrup contain trace nutrients and may be marginally preferable, but they still require moderation. The guest advises that enjoying sugary foods is possible within a health‑ful diet by controlling portion size, being aware of dopamine‑driven cravings, and ensuring overall nutrient‑dense eating patterns. The overall message corrects the myth that HFCS is a deliberate poison, reframes sugar concerns as a dose‑related issue, and points to economic forces rather than health motives behind its prevalence.
Chapters
What is a big myth that you're seeing that a lot of people get behind as a health or food trend lately? Or it seems like there's a lot of attention where you're just seeing like, nah, there's not real data or science backing this.
Well, there's so many. Louis.
Share. Where are a few then? What are a few? What are a few that come to mind in the last six to 12 months that you're just like, ah, this is just a myth, or this is just a fad, or this is. I don't know, this isn't going to last over the next couple years.
Yeah, I mean, there. I mean, a couple of big ones. One would be having to do with sugar. So the difference in cane sugar and high fructose corn syrup. Right. This idea that high fructose corn syrup is kind of poisoning us, and that's the issue. And this is one of the things that I try to do is help people to understand, like, first of all, what the science actually says about this, and second of all, what the actual reason for high fructose corn syrup being so prevalent in our food is so that we can direct our energy to changing the food system instead of just like making a swap in, like Coca Cola, for example. So. So the idea that high fructose corn syrup is uniquely harmful to us is just not. It. It just is not validated in the research.
Really?
Because. Yeah, really is that high fructose corn.
Syrup is not harmful to us.
Not uniquely harmful, but it's just harmful. It's a processed sugar. Right. Just like cane sugar. Just like sucrose. If we over consume either one of those, it's gonna be harmful.
Got it.
But it's not uniquely harmful.
It's just harmful. Directly harmful.
No, I mean, again, this is all about toxicity, right? Or it's. It's all about dose. Right? So the dose makes the toxicity. And so if you over consume it, which most. Most Americans over.
So what is. What is over consumption of high fructose corn syrup on a daily basis or. Or cane sugar or any type of sugar?
The recommendation is less than 10% of total calories should come from added sugar.
That's still a lot, isn't it?
It's still a lot in most American foods.
A couple hundred calories a day, right? Yeah. And they're over. They're doing way more than that, right?
Yeah, well, more than that. I don't even. I don't know the exact numbers, but yeah. And so let me just explain this point really fast because I Think this gets confused. Cane sugar and high fructose corn syrup, they're both made out of glucose and fructose. So those are the two simple sugars. They combine and they make table sugar or high fructose corn syrup. The difference is, is that high fructose corn syrup is sugar made from corn, whereas cane sugar is sugar made from sugar cane or sugar beets. And so we. Because in America, and this is the part where we have to understand why high fructose corn syrup is used here so much. Because I think there's a narrative out there that it's like we are intentionally poisoning Americans and that's why we use this. But it's not that, it's that we're supporting our farmers, right? Because we have, through our agricultural policies, made it very cheap to grow corn because corn's a commodity crop. And so we grow a lot of corn in the United States. We grow it really well. But we also incentivize our farmers to grow it and to grow tons of it. And we have done that since the 70s. And so because of that, we've also put quotas on our imports, on our sugar imports. So this is all like economic policy. Right. So we've put quotas on that to protect our farmers. And because of that, because we live in a capitalist economy where, you know, we are trying to maximize profits, again, not to make people sick just at the expense of their health. That's not a value that is up there with profitability. Because of that, food manufacturers who are trying to maximize profits are trying to cut costs. They're trying to get cheaper ingredients. Well, the cheapest ingredient, because we've made it that way in the United States, is corn. For sugar, it's way more expensive to use sugar beet or sugar cane versus in other countries. It's actually like in Europe, it's cheaper to use sugar beet because they put quotas on the amount of high fructose corn syrup they allowed in because they were trying to protect. Protect their sugar beet growers.
Interesting.
So anyway, all of this goes back to. We have created this system where high fructose corn syrup is just abundant. So it's used in all of these ultra processed foods, mostly low nutrient, ultra processed foods. And so because of that, it's kind of gotten a bad rap of like being uniquely harmful. But it's just, it's just a sugar source that's. That is harmful if you over consume it. Just like any sugar.
Is there a sugar that's better than another type of sugar?
Well, high fructose corn syrups. Like, it's a very processed sugar. Just like sucrose is a table sugar, It's a very highly processed sugar. You have other sugars, like honey and, you know, maple syrup, that there's still sugar. You still don't want to consume them in excess, but they have, like, some redeeming qualities. They have, like some other nutrients in them. So, like, if you're like on the margins trying to figure out which one's better, like, those are going to be more nutrient dense, but again, you don't want over consume any of them.
You still only want a little bit of it.
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. And the more you eat honey, if you eat honey all day, you're gonna gain weight.
Yeah.
And you're gonna.
Well, if you over consume the calories your body needs of anything, you're gonna gain weight.
Exactly.
Yeah. Okay.
So it's not like you're healthier by having sugar or by having honey as sugar versus table sugar.
I mean, on the margins, like, if you really look at it, there's probably. There's more redeeming qualities of honey.
Less processed because it's more.
Yeah, it still has some nutrients in it.
Got it. Okay.
You know, the bees helped to.
They helped something. Okay. I mean, that's like shelf life stable for like a thousand years or something, right? Honey. Doesn't it, like, never go bad or.
Yeah, I think so.
So it's the ultimate process for, you know. Right. It's like it never goes bad. Should that be something. I don't know, something in there. So, okay, so we're talking about sugar. Is there a way in which people can enjoy sugary foods and still live a healthy lifestyle?
Of course.
Tell me, tell me where they don't get addicted to the sugar somehow. And they don't. They don't, you know, only do it once a month.
Yeah, I think that. So sugar is. I mean, sugar basically is glucose. At the end of the day, it all gets broken down into glucose, so carbohydrates. So when we're talking about sugar, we're talking about, like sweetened things. But I mean, sugar is consumed all across the world quite abundantly. Right. Like, and. And not in, you know, and in countries that have far less chronic disease than we do. So again, it's. It's about the amount that you consume. And again, this will be individual for people too. Right. Like, some people may be like, I can't eat one of those cookies because I'll eat 12 of those cookies. And though that's me.
I'm like, just one is hard to do.
Yeah.
So once you get that in your. It's like the dopamine rush. It's like, I just want another one. So I guess try to.
A lot of people who aren't like that.
Yeah.
And so like, I think that will come into like kind of an individual thing. But the idea that like, if you did just stop at that one cookie, that that's somehow uniquely harmful to you is not necessarily true. Right. That can, you can eat a cookie in, in this like in the context of an entire, like nutrient dense, healthful diet.
And you're fine?
Of course. Yeah, yeah. It's just if you're over. If you're eating, you know, 30 cookies a day, probably not the best. If you look at our food system, by Some estimates it's 70% ultra processed food. Over 90% of Americans don't meet vegetable intake guidelines. Over 90% don't meet fiber intake guidelines. We're not eating the dietary patterns that are. What evidence would recommend that we should be consuming to decrease risk of chronic disease?
