“Many of our members will remember the excellent talk Dr. Laidler gave to SSE a couple of years ago on autism; several members expressed a desire to hear from him again, so here he is to start off our program for 2009.”

 

Myths about sugar: pretty poison or slandered sweetener?

 

Every day we are bombarded with messages about how “bad” sugar is for us, from the news media, from television “infomercials” and from relatives, friends and acquaintances. We are told that sugar “rots your teeth”, makes children “hyper” and is “bad for us in various (and often vague) ways. We are told that sugar causes diabetes, pancreatic cancer and even Alzheimer’s disease. We are warned of the dangers of “high fructose corn syrup”, “refined” sugar and told that only pure cane sugar is “safe”. With US sugar consumption estimated at over 20 million tons per year (~142 lbs/person/yr), sugar’s impact on health has become a serious issue. The problem is that much of the “information” the public “knows” about sugar is not supported by any data.

 

“Myths about sugar: pretty poison or slandered sweetener” is a discussion of the scientific data about sugar, compared and contrasted to what is generally believed about sugar. Topics covered will include:

 

What is sugar and where do you find it?

Is sugar “bad” for you?

Is refined sugar worse than unrefined sugar?

What is high-fructose corn syrup and is it “bad” for you?

Does sugar make children “hyper”?

What about artificial and “alternative” sweeteners?

 

About the Speaker

Dr. Laidler is a retired anesthesiologist who has devoted much of his time to providing the public with evidence-based information to counter the ever-growing amount of pseudoscience and fantasy-based misinformation about science in general and medicine in particular. He received a BS in biochemistry from Pacific Lutheran Univ. (1981), an MD from the Univ. of Southern California (1985) and is currently working on his PhD in molecular biology.