Metabolical: The Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine

by Robert H. Lustig

The key to fending off chronic disease is to keep those eight subcellular pathways running right—and each and every one of them can be made to run right with two simple dictates: Protect the liver. You have to protect the liver from fructose, glucose, branched-chain amino acids, omega-6 fatty acids, iron, and other oxidative stresses—all of which end up causing fat accumulation and liver damage, and generate insulin resistance. This can be done by either reducing the dose of dietary liver stressors (e.g., a low-sugar diet) or their flux (e.g., a high-fiber diet, which blocks sugar absorption, thus reducing the rate by which fructose and branched-chain amino acids reach the liver). Feed the gut. If you don’t feed your microbiome, your microbiome will feed on you; it will literally chew up the mucin layer that protects your intestinal epithelial cells, which increases the risk for leaky gut, inflammation, and more insulin resistance. The goal is to deliver more nutrients farther down the intestine (e.g., a high-fiber diet).