Sweet poison

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PETER FITZSIMONS: There are few sights as spectacular as the sugar fields being set alight before the harvest. But these days, not all is sweet with sugar.

They know that when they add the sugar to the food, they know we buy more.

This is substance as addictive as nicotine, which is embedded in everything
we consume.

PETER FITZSIMONS: Growing up, I was firmly told the worst thing a spoonful of sugar on my cereal would give me was a toothache. But lately, I've been wondering did sugar also make me fat? Obesity is just one of the crimes that food's new bad guy, sugar, is being accused of.

David Gillespie: It gives us Type 2 diabetes, it gives us heart disease, it gives us fatty liver disease, it encourages the growth of cancer. All of those things are the reason I call it a poison.

PETER FITZSIMONS: At my flabbiest, I was 144kg heavy. A far cry from this young man. Three, two, one, go. This was me at my peak. Back then, I was playing rugby union for my country and was even nominally ranked as the third-fittest person in Australia. But here on holiday with my family in Africa a few months ago I realised there was a lot more for my wife to cuddle than ever before.

PETER FITZSIMONS: I was frankly worried the bungee cord would snap. In my holiday photos, it was obvious that the difference between me and the elephant beside me was only a few kilos and a red bandana. So there I was, New Year's Day, fat as a fool, getting no change from 144kg in the shade.
Then I read this book 'Sweet Poison'. It has a very simple premise. If you wipe sugar out of your diet, you actually feel less hungry and then you end up losing lots of weight. Too easy, Campese. Where I do sign?

PETER FITZSIMONS: David Gillespie, the author of 'Sweet Poison' was once fat, too, weighing in at 122kg. Since he stopped sugar, he's lost 40kg. This year's it sugar, a couple of years ago it was salt. Before that it was the Atkins Diet. Before that again, I don't know what, the carbohydrate diet - I don't know. I mean, why is this one different to any other one?

David Gillespie: Um, because I'm not selling a diet. I'm not...I'm not selling you some magic potion that you've got to go and buy or anything like that. Yes, there's a book about it but I'll tell you what the book says.
It says, don't eat sugar. Done.

PETER FITZSIMONS: David is a lawyer and says the evidence against sugar is compelling.

David Gillespie: Sugar damages us in multiple ways. The first way is it's converted immediately to fat by our liver. I've got that part. But it's only a bad thing if we're eating vast quantities of the stuff. There's a much more insidious effect which it has which is, it interferes with two of our appetite control hormones, the hormones that tell us to stop eating everything. So, we have this substance that's directly turned into fat
and gives our bodies permission to eat more of everything.

David Gillespie: It was in the early 1800s that sugar was first able to be mass produced cheaply.

Voice: All over the world millions are reaching for Kellogg's new Sugar Frosties.

PETER FITZSIMONS: By the turn of last century food companies were licking their lips.

Voice: These new Kellogg's Sugar Frosties are packed with sugar, packed with two-fisted muscle-building energy.

David Gillespie: They knew they were on to on absolute gold mine. It started appearing in everything. Chocolate was invented around the turn of the 20th century. Soft drinks were invented around the turn of the 20th century. All as vehicles for carrying this brand new white gold that they knew, they put it in something, it sells like crazy.

Dr Robert Lustig: Here's a way of thinking about it. Our ancestors - they really only had sugar one month a year. It was called harvest time. The fruit would drop from the tree, they would eat it. When we only had a small amount of sugar, it was fine. But now, this amount - it's killing us.

PETER FITZSIMONS: In San Francisco, I found Dr Robert Lustig, a world authority on obesity and one of sugar's harshest critics. It's ingrained in our DNA.

Dr Robert Lustig: Even babies know that if it's sweet, it's safe. And so, the food industry has basically utilised that evolutionary principle to their own benefit.

PETER FITZSIMONS: As my search for answers about sugar continue, I met the Spencer family. This is how they shopped until two months ago. They tried to buy healthy but also tried to keep the kids happy. When son Jackson turned four, the sugar highs hit a new low.

Nicole Spencer: My son's birthday is a week before Christmas. So, the combination of all the sugary birthday food, cakes and Christmas just accumulated into him being completely unbearable. I just sat down and explained to him one day that the sugar is making him crazy and we have to stop it.

PETER FITZSIMONS: The Spencers went cold turkey, no sweets, cereals or fruit juice, which I learnt is full of sugar. And after you cut sugar out of his diet did you notice a gradual or an immediate change?

Nicole Spencer: It was pretty much immediate. His sleeping patterns, his routine came into line again and just a happier kid all round.

PETER FITZSIMONS: No sugar does take getting used to and it doesn't mean denying yourself everything. Have a look at breakfast. A month in, I dropped 10kg. My touch footy mates were noticing the weight slip off me.

Man: So, what are you doing to lose the weight, Pete?

PETER FITZSIMONS: Well, I've had no sugar, whatsoever.

Man: And what about the grog?

PETER FITZSIMONS: I've had five days, I couldn't tell you exactly how long without the grog, but I think five days, four hours and three minutes. We've been told that cereals are often full of sugar but healthier-looking food can be worse.

David Gillespie: The trouble is that when you turn it over and look at the fine print on the back, you see that it's 80% sugar. There's more sugar in that than there is in chocolate. There's more sugar in that than there is in is in most lollies.

PETER FITZSIMONS: I was shocked. That's organic apple snacks. Right there, it's got "no added sugar". And when you read the fine print, it's actually 80% sugar. Does that shock you?

Senator Ron Boswell: No, it's fruit. Are we going to ban fruit? Do you really want to ban apples and oranges and bananas?

PETER FITZSIMONS: Queensland senator Ron Boswell has another point. Sugar means jobs. 17,000 Australians are employed by the industry. We're the world's third-largest raw sugar supplier. But critics, like Robert Lustig,
argue that sugar's harm outweighs any benefits. He wants punitive taxes and age restrictions on the sale of soft drinks. Therefore, you should be over
18 years old before you can drink a Coke?

Dr Robert Lustig: That would be my suggestion.

Senator Ron Boswell: That's just a ludicrous proposition. What does he want?
Someone to turn up with their licence or age identity and produce that
before they buy a can of Coke?

PETER FITZSIMONS: Yes.

Senator Ron Boswell: Well, put that to the people and he will be laughed out of Australia.

PETER FITZSIMONS: He's a passionate advocate of it, he's a scientist, he's gone through the research. His premise is that sugar is killing us.

Senator Ron Boswell: It's a natural product. Taken in moderation, it doesn't do anyone any harm.

Jamie Oliver: I need to open his eyes to what's going on. This is the stuff I've got to do to get people to pay attention. One 8-ounce little tub of flavoured milk has 28 grams of sugar. What I'm gonna do right now, is I'm gonna pump this bus, this icon of trust, full of one week's worth of added sugar, just for flavoured milk in the LAUSD.

PETER FITZSIMONS: TV chef Jamie Oliver wanted Californian parents to know
how much sugar was in the chocolate milk their kids were drinking.

Jamie Oliver: OK guys, you think we're done?
We are done. We're done now.

PETER FITZSIMONS: We hear from one side that sugar is toxic. On the other, people say, "Oh, no, it's OK in moderation". Where do you fit?

Jamie Oliver: Well...It's not tough at all actually. Sweetness is joy, it's happiness. It's in our DNA to be drawn to sweet fruit, to honey. But the massive part of the problem is that there is sugar hidden in everything. Whether it's flavoured milk, whether it's bread, whether it's spreads,
whether it's sauces, whether it's all kinds of food additives, it's just laden in everything and I think that's where the out-of-controlness gets.

PETER FITZSIMONS: On a wet Wednesday night in the Oliver household when you're on dinner, which I presume is most nights, do you feed your kids dessert, with sugar?

Jamie Oliver: Um, twice a week? Twice a week. I mean they'll have fruit,
fruit and yoghurt.

PETER FITZSIMONS:Soft drink in the fridge?

Jamie Oliver: Never, ever.

PETER FITZSIMONS: Flavoured milk?

Jamie Oliver: Never, ever.

PETER FITZSIMONS: Seven glorious weeks without a spoonful of sugar and my own decision to cut out sugar was put to the test - again. I'd lost 13.5 kilos.
It was like magic. And then I met this bloke.

Dr Alan Barclay: There's nothing magical about it.

PETER FITZSIMONS: But for me, it's magic. I've been on the yo-yo diet for the last 25 years, 30 years, up and down and up and down, and I simply get rid of sugar and it's just going down before my very eyes.

Dr Alan Barclay: Most people can sustain these kinds of diets for about six months. But by 12 months, they've gone back to their old eating habits. We've got to stop thinking about food as enemy. We've got to get back to basics - real foods, whole foods, whole ingredients. So, Shirley, what would you have had for breakfast this morning?

PETER FITZSIMONS: Dr Alan Barclay, the Chief scientist for the Glycemic Index Foundation, which argues a moderate amount of sugar should be a part of a healthy diet. He makes an interesting point, which would be stronger if the foundation didn't accept money from food companies selling products with sugar.

Dr Alan Barclay: All I can say is that we endorse foods that have been tested
according to their GI that meet strict nutrition criteria and part of that endorsement process, there is a licence fee to use the logo on foods that meet our nutritional...

PETER FITZSIMONS: That's the very long answer. The bottom line is that we, the people, and I'm one of them, we don't know.

Dr Alan Barclay: I think we've answered that question, Peter.

PETER FITZSIMONS: I don't think we have.

PETER FITZSIMONS: Last week, 128.3. This week, survey says...
126.8. Well done, Peter. Does it surprise you, no joke, eight weeks ago, I stopped all processed foods, all sugar, and I've dropped 17 kilos. Does that surprise you?

Jamie Oliver: No, not at all.

PETER FITZSIMONS: How am I looking?

Jamie Oliver: You look good. If I was a woman, I would.

PETER FITZSIMONS: Here we go. The moment of truth on the scales of justice. I've lost 20 kilos. Yes! So much how much is 20 kilos? It's that much. That is how much weight I have lost in just two months. The weird thing is I didn't cut out sausages - I just cut out sugar.