Robert Lustig: Removing Sugar Without Weight Loss Still Greatly Improves Children’s Metabolic Health

We took 43 children with metabolic syndrome with obesity, plus at least one comorbidity. And what we did was we studied them on their home diet and what we did was we substituted complex carbohydrate glucose for sugar, fructose. We did a glucose for fructose exchange, keeping their weight Constant throughout the 10.

Days of the study.

We did an isocaloric fructose restriction, a glucose for fructose exchange. In the vernacular, we took the pastries out, we put the bagels in, we took the sweetened yogurt out, we put the baked potato chips in, we took the chicken teriyaki out, we put the turkey hot dogs in. We didn't give them good food, we gave them crappy food. We gave them ultra processed food, but we gave them kid food, food kids.

Would eat, but it was.

No added sugar food. We took their percent calories as added sugar, from 28% of calories to 10% of calories. Everybody got that. If you do that, you're going to lose 350 to 400 calories a day out of the diet. If you do that for 10 days, you might lose weight.

We didn't want them to lose weight.

Because if we did that and they lost weight and people. And they got better, people say, well, of course they got better, they lost weight.