The Sugar Fix: The High-Fructose Fallout That Is Making You Fat and Sick

by Richard J. Johnson, Timothy Gower

In The Sugar Fix, Dr. Richard Johnson, who oversees a pioneering research program, reports on discoveries about how fructose impacts the body—and directly connects the American obesity epidemic to a frightening escalation in our fructose consumption.

It comes as no surprise that the sugar is found in processed foods like candy, baked goods, canned foods, and frozen meals in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, but it is also hidden in less obvious foods like peanut butter, egg products, and soups. Many fruits and vegetables contain high levels of it naturally. Dr. Johnson shows how to cut way back on the sweetener by making effective substitutions. The daily meal plans included here contain no more than 25 grams of fructose, one-quarter of the amount the average American now ingests.

Rather than the low-carb approach of so many recent diets, Dr. Johnson recommends a much easier to enjoy and stick to formula: 50% carbs, 25% fat, and 25% protein. The immediate benefit of this diet is to help anyone shed excess weight. The additional benefits are even more impressive—reduced risk for such serious health problems as high blood pressure, elevated blood fats, and insulin resistance, conditions directly linked to heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, and stroke.

Genres: Health, Nutrition, Nonfiction, Science, Food

320 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2008

About the author

Richard J. Johnson, M.D. is a practicing physician and clinical scientist who is internationally recognized for his seminal work on the role of sugar and its component fructose, in obesity and diabetes. His new book, Nature Wants Us to Be Fat, tells of the discovery of a biological switch that helps animals become fat and insulin resistant to help them survive periods of food shortage. Work led by the author and his research team have shown that this switch is turned on in many people and is playing a key role in the obesity epidemic. This has led to significant breakthroughs in both understanding the cause of obesity as well as how to prevent or treat it. His science is highly regarded and highly cited, and he has published over 700 papers. He previously authored The Sugar Fix with Timothy Gower in 2008 (Rodale) and The Fat Switch in 2012 (Mercola.com) He is currently a Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado in Denver. He lives in Aurora, Colorado with his wife, Olga, children, Tracy and Ricky, and two miniature golden doodles

Reviews

[William Schram · Rating 3 out of 5]

High Fructose Corn Syrup is bad for you. That is the gist of the book. The author explains why that is, and provides recipes and alternatives to the ubiquitous food additive.

I enjoyed the book. Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.

[Betsy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. This book wasn't really what I thought it would be about. Half of it explained how sugar effects the body, which was interesting. A lot of it was over my head and I don't think I got a clear understanding of it really works. Purines and uric acid and all that jazz.

The other half of the book, which I wasn't thrilled about, was his diet plan. The food on that list looked like a really crappy diet. Breakfast of an english muffin and a slice of swiss cheese? There were also several recipes that called for Splenda, which I don't wish to use. And diet soda? Who even still drinks that? A lot of sugar free products were OK with him. I would try and avoid all the chemically produced stuff and just stick with clean eating. How about fresh foods that haven't been processed or genetically modified?

Bottom line, sugar is bad. I did enjoy the history aspects of how sugar was discovered and how it evolved into the big, bad high fructose corn syrup. I will definitely stay away from HFCS. I did take away some good information, and while reading this book, I severely cut back on sugar. I'm trying my best to limit my intake of refined sugar and I feel the need to indulge it will be on dark chocolate or fruit.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm, this book makes me feel very torn. I thought the science was interesting and thus he had a lot of good points. He makes the case that fructose is a major factor in the obesity epidemic, but even more than excess weight, sugar causes toxic levels of uric acid in the blood which manifests in a variety of health issues-- heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer. Not only do we all need to eat drastically lower levels of fructose, we need to start out with a two-week fructose fast to bring down our enzyme levels, during which we can't eat carrots or apples. After those two weeks, you can add fruit back in, but still have to keep fructose consumption to 25-35 g per day. But after lambasting sugar (fructose) for three-quarters of the book (despite not having conclusive sceintific proof yet) he then says that despite some evidence to the contrary artificials sweeteners are probably safe, so all we have to do is eat sugar-free processed food instead. His "diet" cuts out carrots, but includes sugar-free cocoa mix. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to believe when he puts fudgcicles into a low-sugar diet. So I'm kind-of trying a low-fructose diet, except without the artificial sweeteners and the processed food. On a five-star scale, this book is maybe a four in theory, one in practice?

[Barbara Abate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book started out as a most fascinating read. Loads of sobering information on the evils of High-Fructose (and HF truly is evil!) But sadly the whole deal goes south once the author suggests the use of Artificial Sweeteners. Huh???? Chemical sweeteners have no place in the diet of anyone interested in maintaining a healthy body. The chapters BEFORE the Chem Sweeteners creep in is sound and well worth reading, however. Just be sure and skip the "fake stuff."

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Sugar Fix: The High-Fructose Fallout That Is Making You Fat and Sick warns of the dangers of eating a diet high in fructose and correlates excess fructose consumption to a number of serious medical conditions, including high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and kidney disease.

The book covers all aspects of fructose in detail, including how it's absorbed into the body, the relationship between fructose and uric acid, how fructose doesn't satisfy an appetite, and the significance of high-fructose corn syrup, a sweetener in which fructose is a key component.

One caveat/disclaimer: while the lead author (Richard J. Johnson, MD) comes across as sincere and presents a persuasive argument with ample data and research, he clearly has a vested interest in the success of his argument and even has developed a Low-Fructose diet and submitted several related patent applications. So, as always when at the intersection of an argument and a possible business venture, stay wary of the marketing and take what you can from the underlying data.

[Emily Mellow · Rating 1 out of 5]

OK, I only skimmed this book, but any book that recommends you replace real sweeteners with aspartame is not worth reading. Sugar may be the source of most of our woes these days, but artificial sweeteners are probably worse.

[Jan Peregrine · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like your sugary foods and drinks just fine and have no desire to lose all that flab or to feel less achy and you don't even mind suffering lifelong medication and surgeries and potential death, then read no further. This health book by Richard J. Johnson won't interest you. The Sugar Fix: The High-Fructose Fallout That is Making You Fat and Sick may be the first contemporary book to explain the wealth of science behind the dangers of too much fructose and uric acid, the author acknowledging the work of four other medical doctors who have studied these things.

You may have heard of fructose, which combines with glucose to make sugar. It's naturally in fruit (some more than others), but whole fruit isn't the problem. Sugar, fruit juice and drinks, and high-purine foods are. This includes alcohol, red meat, organ meats, some seafood, and a few veggies.


As well as junk food and highly processed food with added high-fructose corn syrup or sugar.

Please note that this is not a book about eating a plant-based diet and so its usefulness as a diet for me or others wishing to eat only nutritious plants is limited. Many starches are allowed, however.

Johnson helpfully explains why too much fructose is such a bad thing...

Fructose turns on uric acid that leads eventually to inflammation and kidney and liver damage. It shuts off nitric oxide which starves your mitochondria, I think, and depletes you of energy. It also inhibits the burning of fat and your feeling of fullness, causing you to overeat and snack frequently. If that's not enough, many studies show that it leads to obesity and short stature in kids who drank fruit juice all the time. By turning on the enzyme fructokinase, which will remain on with chronic overuse of fructose, it causes inflammation to balloon. There may be a drug now to prevent this (Luteolin, a supplement).

I may be forgetting something,, but you get the idea of how bad too much fructose is for us. It is not your glycemic load you must worry about as a nondiabetic, but your fructose consumption. Fructose seems safe because it doesn't raise blood sugar, but it'll cause insulin resistance stealthily.

The science is fascinating, especially since fructose (except for high-fructose corn syrup) is usually dismissed as harmless, as is excess uric acid. Uric acid causes much more metabolic harm than gout.

I noted that he believes dairy neutralizes fructose because of dairy milk consisting of the sugar galactose, but please realize that brown rice syrup has galactose and no fructose. It's a poor excuse to eat dairy, which is not the best way to get calcium or Vitamin D, either He uses artificial sugar, Splenda especially, but diet soft drinks are just as fattening. His research is from 2008 and I want to see if he has more recent work.

This science was discovered by Alexander Haig MD in 1892 and his concerns were dismissed until lately. More recently the book Drop Acid by David Perlmutter MD. explains the same science. I also reviewed it and you may prefer it.

[db · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good place to start learning about how sugar decreases our health.

[Nina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Simple summary of the book: do you eat anything that contains high fructose corn syrup.

[Marie Estes · Rating 1 out of 5]

don't waste you time- this book sucks. he spends 160 pages repeating the same information he gives you in the introduction, about fructose and uric acid making us fat. yes, 160 of repeating himself over and over- while making it clear that his research is in the early stages and he doesnt know WHY some of these things are true, just that they seem to be, nothing has been proven though @@ the theory seems ok, but by the time you get to the diet, you feel like screaming. to me, any diet that eliminates healthy fruit but lets you consume as many diet sodas and sugar free ice cream, candy, syrup, etc as you want is written by a quack. yes, I love diet coke too. but I allow myself ONE a day. we all know just because something is sugar free, doesnt mean it is calorie free, and I dont feel it is right to tell an overweight/obese person they can eat as much sugar free items as they want, especially when you are telling them they cant have a healthy, fiber filled apple because it contains fructose. and of course there are always the concerns about artificial sweeteners being safe.
This author just comes off as ridiculous.. he says "I dont know why this is true.." way too many times. if you havent completed your research, WHY did you publish your book? I'm glad I checked this out from the library for free, rather than wasting money on it.

[Farhana Faruq · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a difficult book to rate. It's interesting for the most part, in describing the ill effects sugar (mainly fructose) and uric acid have on the body but at the same time it's based on a lot of theories, so it almost makes it a pointless read.

EVERYONE by now surely knows we consume more sugar than we need to - that isn't new, and it's common sense that eliminating some of it will be beneficial to our overall health. That said, I'm not sure we need a whole 'diet' plan to do that. I also don't think substituting sugar with artificial sweeteners is a good idea.

Even so, the book still has good points. It has charts that give you a basic idea of foods that don't contain fructose. Some might be motivated to cut back on their sugar intake.

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the content of this book. He presented study after study and lots of info on the evils of sugar. I thought I was going to love the book, but the last part of the book he started pushing sugar substitutes. Artificial ones. I don't want artificial stuff in my life and my opinion of the book dropped. If you are looking for info on how sugar affects you body, this is a great book. Just be prepared that it may not have an answer for how to deal with it. His research is mainly about fructose, which means it cuts out honey, and most fruit from your diet as well.

[Terri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty interesting read. I had NO idea I was reading a diet book until about 1/2 way through. It was still full of some interesting info. HOWEVER, I became a little skeptical when he begins to discuss his "diet" in further detail and really starts to promote the use of artificial sweetners. WHAT! Then I questioned his motives.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure I'll read much more of this book. I understand the concept that we eat too much sugar but I don't believe eating cholorinated sugar is actually better for you. A lot of the recipes in the back have Splenda which I don't do. It sounds like he's trying to discover a new sugar subsitute or something. Moderation in all things would be better, not always easy but better.

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book definitely solidified in my mind that we are not buying food with hfcs in them anymore and that preparing meals from scratch is really worth the time. I couldn't really read the menu/recpies on my Nook Simple Touch so I don't know how they looked but I have decided to try limiting my sugar intake and if I can't do it on my own I will get my hands on a hard copy of the meal plan!

[Peter lok · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was an interesting book. teaches you the facts on high fructose corn syrup that you might not have thought were true while killing myths that linger around your mind. Its a bit long but if you want to learn more about what you eat, read this.

[Michelle Devine-Traxler · Rating 4 out of 5]

In our brainwashed society, MARKETING is so powerful, and this is an accurate reflection of the dangers of how hidden sugars creep their way into our diet.
Anyone with kids should read this book. If this doesn't change the way you eat or feed your family, nothing will.

[Donnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-documented review of literature on changes in the composition of our diet over time with increasing insertion of high fructose corn syrup and sugar in general into our diets and the possible consequences of this change. Well worth reading and thinking about.

[Biz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rubbish. Much better books out there. Can't even finish it.

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

to quote EM:
rubbish. can't even finish it

[Todd · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Same old - same old. Sugar Bad, Flavorless mush good.

[Genevieve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful information about how sugar afffects our bodies, and how the huge amounts now in the average American diet is killing us with high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, etc. Very motivational!

[Jeralyn lovell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting why sources of fructose make us fat.

[SpatialH · Rating 2 out of 5]

meh.

stay away from high fructose corn syrup. I don't know what more I thought I would learn from the book. There's some recipes, but you can get that from a diabetes/low sugar cook book.

[Terrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well supported explanation of why we should reduce fructose intake, but there is too much unsuported supposition, opinions, etc. on other topics.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you essentially agree with Johnson's premise, you may appreciate all the information. If you don't, I'm not sure you'll be convinced by it.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting idea. I'm not completely sold on the low fructose diet. I have concerns about a diet that says diet soda is ok, and to drink as much as you want.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Prefer a non-artificial sweetener approach, grabbed a few recipes --

[Kody Dibble · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was crazy, I knew it was bad but not this bad...But we didn't evolve so bad evolution examples. lol.