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34 reviews for:
Pure, White, and Deadly How sugar is killing us and what we can do to stop it
John Yudkin
3.8 AVERAGE
34 reviews for:
Pure, White, and Deadly How sugar is killing us and what we can do to stop it
John Yudkin
3.8 AVERAGE
Reading this book made me understand what caused my mother's death and all the health issues that my grandparents deal with from diabetes to gallblader stones and high blood pressure. Its an eye opener to how unhealthy the lifestyle of people who are so close to me is. Sugar really must be banned. Its sickening how selfish corporation manipulate the sciences and the public. We live in such a dangerous era to say the least. We should be Screaming the content of this book at the top of our lungs. Its saddening how in 2020 people are still unaware of the lethal repurcurtions of sucrose consumption and myth like the cholestérol hypothèses still haunt us.
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
informative
slow-paced
I read this as a companion piece to Robert Lustig's Fat Chance. Lustig pays huge respect to his predecessor Yudkin, who back in the 50s, 60s & 70s was researching the negative consequences of a high sugar diet. Pure White and Deadly was originally published in the early 70s.
Both books demonstrate what a clear and present danger sugar is. Lustig's is more up-to-date in that he incorporates new knowledge about our hormonal systems but both men come to a similar conclusion - we should avoid sugar as much as possible.
Yudkin was up against the American scientist Ancel Keys, who insisted that animal fat, not sugar, was harmful to health. The discovery in the 70s that high cholesterol in the bloodstream correlated to heart disease initially appeared to vindicate Keys, and governments in both the USA and Europe got behind Keys's "high carbohydrate - low fat diet" and since then we have had decades of indoctrination. Yudkin was forgotten & his book went out of print.
But now it appears Yudkin was right and Keys entirely wrong.
Poor Yudkin struggled so bravely against overwhelming odds - his final shocking chapter recounts the manifold instances of sabotage and bullying perpetrated against him by the food industry - it seems unfair to wonder if it was something about his style which failed to persuade originally. He was an elite scientist (as is Lustig) writing for a mass audience, so tries to explain his concepts very carefully: perhaps too carefully, as I felt spoken down to a bit. Also, his many careful explanations tend create a meandering experience which detracts from a strong central argument. Perhaps also he was an academic captive in his ivory tower, wedded to the idea that scientific truth on its own merits would prevail over falsehood and ignorance. Lustig is far more politically minded, and fully understands the nature of the fight against Big Sugar: explicitly comparing it to the fight against the tobacco industry.
Yudkin's book is interesting now from an historical perspective, and also because he fills in research around some medical conditions Lustig leaves out - but as I implied above, Lustig creates a very strong and persuasive central argument that ties sugar to the spiralling obesity and metabolic syndrome problems of North America and Europe. Therefore, I would recommend Fat Chance above Pure White and Deadly.
Both books demonstrate what a clear and present danger sugar is. Lustig's is more up-to-date in that he incorporates new knowledge about our hormonal systems but both men come to a similar conclusion - we should avoid sugar as much as possible.
Yudkin was up against the American scientist Ancel Keys, who insisted that animal fat, not sugar, was harmful to health. The discovery in the 70s that high cholesterol in the bloodstream correlated to heart disease initially appeared to vindicate Keys, and governments in both the USA and Europe got behind Keys's "high carbohydrate - low fat diet" and since then we have had decades of indoctrination. Yudkin was forgotten & his book went out of print.
But now it appears Yudkin was right and Keys entirely wrong.
Poor Yudkin struggled so bravely against overwhelming odds - his final shocking chapter recounts the manifold instances of sabotage and bullying perpetrated against him by the food industry - it seems unfair to wonder if it was something about his style which failed to persuade originally. He was an elite scientist (as is Lustig) writing for a mass audience, so tries to explain his concepts very carefully: perhaps too carefully, as I felt spoken down to a bit. Also, his many careful explanations tend create a meandering experience which detracts from a strong central argument. Perhaps also he was an academic captive in his ivory tower, wedded to the idea that scientific truth on its own merits would prevail over falsehood and ignorance. Lustig is far more politically minded, and fully understands the nature of the fight against Big Sugar: explicitly comparing it to the fight against the tobacco industry.
Yudkin's book is interesting now from an historical perspective, and also because he fills in research around some medical conditions Lustig leaves out - but as I implied above, Lustig creates a very strong and persuasive central argument that ties sugar to the spiralling obesity and metabolic syndrome problems of North America and Europe. Therefore, I would recommend Fat Chance above Pure White and Deadly.