Robert H. Lustig (born 1957) is an American

pediatric endocrinologist Pediatric endocrinology (British: Paediatric) is a medical subspecialty dealing with disorders of the endocrine glands, such as variations of physical growth and sexual development in childhood, diabetes and many more. By age, pediatric endocrinol ...

. He is Professor emeritus of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It cond ...

(UCSF), where he specialized in

neuroendocrinology Neuroendocrinology is the branch of biology (specifically of physiology) which studies the interaction between the nervous system and the endocrine system; i.e. how the brain regulates the hormonal activity in the body. The nervous and endocrine ...

and

childhood obesity Childhood obesity is a condition where excess body fat negatively affects a child's health or well-being. As methods to determine body fat directly are difficult, the diagnosis of obesity is often based on BMI. Due to the rising prevalence of ...

. He is also director of UCSF's WATCH program (Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health), and president and co-founder of the non-profit Institute for Responsible Nutrition. Lustig came to public attention in 2009 when one of his medical lectures, "Sugar: The Bitter Truth," was aired.Robert Lustig
"Sugar: The Bitter Truth"
University of California Television, May 26, 2009; July 20, 2009. He is the editor of ''Obesity Before Birth: Maternal and Prenatal Influences on the Offspring'' (2010), and author of ''Fat Chance: Beating the Odds against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease'' (2013).

Biography

Lustig grew up in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York, and attended

Stuyvesant High School Stuyvesant High School (pronounced ), commonly referred to among its students as Stuy (pronounced ), is a State school, public university-preparatory school, college-preparatory, Specialized high schools in New York City, specialized high school ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

."About Dr. Robert Lustig"
''About Dr. Robert Lustig''. He obtained a bachelor's degree from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

in 1976 and an MD from

Cornell University Medical College The Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University is Cornell University's biomedical research unit and medical school located in Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York. Weill Cornell Medicine is affiliated with New ...

in 1980. His pediatric

residency Residency may refer to: * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or maintaining a residence in a given place ** Permanent residency, indefinite residence within a country despite not having citizenship * Residency (medicine), a stage of postgrad ...

was completed at St. Louis Children's Hospital in 1983 and his clinical fellowship in

pediatric endocrinology Pediatric endocrinology (British: Paediatric) is a medical subspecialty dealing with disorders of the endocrine glands, such as variations of physical growth and sexual development in childhood, diabetes and many more. By age, pediatric endocrino ...

at UCSF the following year. After this he worked at

Rockefeller University The Rockefeller University is a private biomedical research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and provides doctoral and postdoctoral education. It is classif ...

for six years as a post-doctoral fellow and research associate in neuroendocrinology. Before returning to UCSF in 2001, he was a faculty member at the University of Tennessee, Memphis, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and worked at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis."Robert Lustig, MD"
University of California, San Francisco. In 2013 he completed a

Master of Studies in Law A Master of Studies in Law (M.S.L.), also Master of Science of Law or Master of Legal Studies (M.L.S.) or Juris Master (J.M.) or Masters of Jurisprudence (M.J.) or Master in Law (M.L.), is a master's degree offered by some law schools to students ...

(MSL) from

UC Hastings College of the Law The University of California, Hastings College of the Law (UC Hastings) is a public law school in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1878 by Serranus Clinton Hastings, UC Hastings was the first law school of the University of California as ...

."Robert Lustig, M.D., Professor, pediatric endocrinology, UCSF"
University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Lustig has authored 105 peer-reviewed articles and 65 reviews."Robert Lustig"
''The Conversation''. He is a former chair of the obesity task force of the Pediatric Endocrine Society, a member of the obesity task force of the

Endocrine Society The Endocrine Society is a professional, international medical organization in the field of endocrinology and metabolism, founded in 1916 as The Association for the Study of Internal Secretions. The official name of the organization was changed ...

, and sits on the steering committee of the International Endocrine Alliance to Combat Obesity. He is married with two daughters and lives in San Francisco.

Publications

Lustig's publications discussed a proposed toxic effect of dietary

fructose Fructose, or fruit sugar, is a Ketose, ketonic monosaccharide, simple sugar found in many plants, where it is often bonded to glucose to form the disaccharide sucrose. It is one of the three dietary monosaccharides, along with glucose and galacto ...

— a component of

sucrose Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula . For human consumption, sucrose is extracted and refined ...

(table sugar), honey, fruit and some vegetables – on the development of

obesity Obesity is a medical condition, sometimes considered a disease, in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it may negatively affect health. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI)—a person's we ...

. In the early 21st century, Lustig believed that the liver is damaged by fructose in table sugar and

high-fructose corn syrup High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), also known as glucose–fructose, isoglucose and glucose–fructose syrup, is a sweetener made from corn starch. As in the production of conventional corn syrup, the starch is broken down into glucose by enzym ...

used in manufactured food and beverages (particularly

convenience food Convenience food, also called tertiary processed food, is food that is commercially prepared (often through processing) to optimise ease of consumption. Such food is usually ready to eat without further preparation. It may also be easily por ...

and soft drinks), and by fructose in fruit juice and vegetable juice. His position was that sugars are not simply

empty calorie In human nutrition, empty calories are those calories found in beverages (including alcoholic) and foods composed primarily or solely of sugars and/or certain fats and oils such as cholesterol, Saturated fat, saturated or trans fats, that provide l ...

s, and rejected the idea that "

a calorie is a calorie "A calorie is a calorie" is a tautology used to convey the thermodynamic concept that a "calorie" is a sufficient way to describe the energy content of food. History In 1878, German nutritionist Max Rubner crafted what he called the "isodynamic ...

."Gary Taube
"Is Sugar Toxic?"
''The New York Times'', April 13, 2011. Lustig was a coauthor of the 2009

American Heart Association The American Heart Association (AHA) is a nonprofit organization in the United States that funds cardiovascular medical research, educates consumers on healthy living and fosters appropriate cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability and death ...

guideline on sugar intake, which recommended that women consume no more than 100 calories daily from

added sugar Added sugars or free sugars are sugar carbohydrates (caloric sweeteners) added to food and beverages at some point before their consumption. These include added carbohydrates (monosaccharides and disaccharides), and more broadly, sugars natural ...

s and men no more than 150.

Reception

Lustig's statements regarding fructose as a "poison" and the primary cause of weight gain have been disputed because claims of fructose toxicity are unproven. Excessive consumption of fructose-containing beverages is likely a cause of weight gain and obesity in many people due to the additional

caloric intake The calorie is a unit of energy. For historical reasons, two main definitions of "calorie" are in wide use. The large calorie, food calorie, or kilogram calorie was originally defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of on ...

rather than a specific toxic effect of fructose. Fructose when consumed in excess as a sweetening agent in foods and beverages is associated with surplus calories and greater risk of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disorders as components of

metabolic syndrome Metabolic syndrome is a clustering of at least three of the following five medical conditions: abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high serum triglycerides, and low serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL). Metabolic syndrome ...

. Other reviews indicate that fructose has no specific

adverse effect An adverse effect is an undesired harmful effect resulting from a medication or other intervention, such as surgery. An adverse effect may be termed a "side effect", when judged to be secondary to a main or therapeutic effect. The term complica ...

s compared to any other

carbohydrate In organic chemistry, a carbohydrate () is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 (as in water) and thus with the empirical formula (where ''m'' may or ma ...

. Some researchers state that Lustig's YouTube lecture 'Sugar: the bitter truth' was amplified by increased internet use by the public.

Selected works

Books *(2010) ''Obesity Before Birth: Maternal and Prenatal Influences on the Offspring.'' Boston: Springer Science. *(2013) ''Fat Chance: Beating the Odds against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease.'' New York: Hudson Street Press. *(2013) ''Sugar Has 56 Names: A Shopper's Guide'', Avery. *(2014) with Heather Millar, ''The Fat Chance Cookbook'', Thorndike Press. *(2017) "The Hacking of the American Mind", Avery. *(2021) ''Metabolical: The Lure and Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine''. New York: Harper Wave. Articles *

References

External links

Robert Lustig, MD
University of California, San Francisco.
"Robert Lustig, Talks at Google"
August 2, 2011.
"Fat Chance: Fructose 2.0"

University of California Television University of California Television (known simply as UCTV) is a 24-hour television channel presenting educational and enrichment programming from the campuses, national laboratories, and affiliated institutions of the University of California sy ...