The Glucose Expert: The Only Proven Way To Lose Weight Fast! Health Experts Are Wrong About Calorie Counting!

Robert Lustig (0:00)

Let's be clear and honest about this. Calories are not the issue. This is all about. That's the problem. That's how you lose weight.

Steven Bartlett (0:07)

Dr. Robert Lustig is an endocrinologist whose first-hand research has explored. The role sugar has on fueling the world's most destructive human conditions. An answer is how we can regain control of our health.

Robert Lustig (0:18)

If you consume one sugared beverage per day, your risk for diabetes goes up by 29 percent. So this is a big problem. We also know that if you have high sugar consumption, it's got multiple detrimental effects, such as mental health problems, cognitive decline, early death. We also know it's the primary driver of ADD, but the problem is sugar is addictive. And 73 percent of all of the items in the grocery store are spiked with added sugar by the food industry because they know when they add it, you buy more. You can't believe what they're telling you. If they say something is healthy, it's usually the opposite. And I'm part of numerous lawsuits suing the food industry because they knew that sugar was a problem, but they paid off scientists to say it wasn't. You've been hacked.

Steven Bartlett (1:04)

But a lot of people don't have time to be doing a fine tooth comb over every single thing that they're putting into their body. They're not a scientist.

Robert Lustig (1:11)

Agreed.

Steven Bartlett (1:11)

So what advice do we give that is simple and actionable?

Robert Lustig (1:14)

Food can be medicine. Food can also be poison. And the question is how do you figure out which is which? So here's the secret.

Steven Bartlett (1:29)

Dr. Robert Lustig, on the front of your book, it says, the hacking of the mind. Very strong words to use.

Robert Lustig (1:39)

Indeed.

Steven Bartlett (1:39)

Whose mind has been hacked and who is doing the hacking?

Robert Lustig (1:42)

Yours, mine, everyone's. Who's been doing it? Well, pretty much anyone with a belief system that's not yours, and that's pretty much everybody. The bottom line is we have been sold a bill of goods. We as a society, we as individuals have been sold a bill of goods. And the idea of the book, the reason I put the book together is because it actually makes us miserable. It has stolen our birthright. And our birthright is to be happy. And we are not, if anything, we're the opposite of happy. We're extraordinarily unhappy. Just look at the incidence of depression around the world, not just in America, not just in the UK, but everywhere. The World Health Organization now says that 5% of all of the people on the planet are clinically depressed. And here in America, it's at 22%.

So we're really unhappy. The question is, why is this? If our goal is to be happy, it's in the Declaration Of Independence. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Well, we're not. So why? The reason is because we have substituted pleasure for happiness. What's the difference between pleasure and happiness? Well, pleasure is short-lived, happiness is long-lived. Pleasure is visceral. You feel it in your body. Happiness is ethereal. You feel it above the neck. Pleasure is taking, like from a casino. Happiness is giving, like habitats for humanity. Pleasure is experienced alone. Happiness is usually experienced in social groups. Pleasure can be achieved with substances. Happiness cannot be achieved with substances. The extremes of pleasure, whether they be substances or behaviors, so substances like cocaine, amphetamine, nicotine, alcohol, sugar, or behaviors, shopping, gambling, social media, internet gaming, pornography. In the extreme, all lead to addiction. There's an aholic after every one of those, shopaholic, sexaholic, chocoholic, alcoholic, etc. But there's no such thing as being addicted to too much happiness. And lastly, number seven, the one that is the reason for the book, Pleasure Is Dopamine, Happiness Is Serotonin. And they are not the same. So two different neurotransmitters, two different sets of receptors, two different areas of the brain, two different mechanisms of action, two different clearance mechanisms. Dopamine is an excitatory neurotransmitter.

Steven Bartlett (4:38)

What does that mean?

Robert Lustig (4:39)

It means when dopamine is released in the area of the reward center, the nucleus accumbens, it's an actual anatomic structure in the brain which you can see on imaging. When dopamine is released there and it binds to its receptor, like so, you get the, you transduce the feelings of reward. And reward is good. Reward is what gets you out of bed in the morning. If you don't have reward, basically you shrivel up and die. Reward is essential to the survival of the species. Orgasm is reward, okay? You know, you need it. It's part of daily life. But, okay, too much reward is a different story. And the reason is because dopamine, because it's an excitatory neurotransmitter, it causes the next cell to fire. Well, if it causes the next cell to fire and fire and fire, that cell dies.