Fructose and glucose cause the same amount of weight gain and same amount of fat gain notes Kimber Stanhope, PhD, a researcher from the University of California at Davis, who has done studies comparing the effects of consuming glucose vs fructose, who was interviewed on ReachMD.com.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta: If you limit your sugar you decrease your chances of developing cancer?

Lewis Cantley, PhD: Absolutely.

Cantley, a Harvard professor and the head of the Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Center, says when we eat or drink sugar, it causes a sudden spike in the hormone insulin, which can serve as a catalyst to fuel certain types of cancers.

Lewis Cantley: What we’re beginning to learn is that insulin can cause adverse effects in the various tissues. And of particular concern is cancer.

Why? Nearly a third of some common cancers—including breast and colon cancers—have something called insulin receptors on their surface. Insulin binds to these receptors and signals the tumor to start consuming glucose [which allows it to grow].

Lewis Cantley: Every cell in our body needs glucose to survive. But the trouble is, these cancer cells also use it to grow. So if you happen to have the tumor that has insulin receptors on it then it will get stimulated to take up the glucose that’s in the bloodstream rather than go into fat or muscle, the glucose goes into the tumor. And the tumor uses it to grow.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta: So far be it for people to realize this ‘cause sugar is everywhere, but you’re saying this is one of the most addictive substances possibly that we have?

Eric Stice, PhD: It certainly is very good at firing the reward regions in our brain.

Eric Stice says by scanning hundreds of volunteers, he’s learned that people who frequently drink sodas or eat ice cream or other sweet foods may be building up a tolerance, much like drug users do. As strange as it sounds, that means the more you eat, the less you feel the reward. The result: you eat more than ever.

Eric Stice: If you overeat these on a regular basis it causes changes in the brain that basically it blunts your reward region response to the food, so then you eat more and more to achieve the same satisfaction you felt originally.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta: The mantra that you hear from most nutritionists is that a calorie is a calorie is a calorie.

Kimber Stanhope, PhD: And I think the results of the study showed clearly that is not true.

Stanhope has found that fructose increase small dense LDL cholesterol as well as other risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

Lewis Cantley’s research team is working on developing drugs that will cut off the glucose supply to cancer cells and keep them from growing. But until there’s a breakthrough, Cantley’s advice? Don’t eat sugar. And if you must, keep it to a minimum.

Cantley, a Harvard professor and the head of the Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Center, says when we eat or drink sugar, it causes a sudden spike in the hormone insulin, which can serve as a catalyst to fuel certain types of cancers.

Lewis Cantley: What we’re beginning to learn is that insulin can cause adverse effects in the various tissues. And of particular concern is cancer.

Why? Nearly a third of some common cancers—including breast and colon cancers—have something called insulin receptors on their surface. Insulin binds to these receptors and signals the tumor to start consuming glucose [which allows it to grow].

Lewis Cantley: Every cell in our body needs glucose to survive. But the trouble is, these cancer cells also use it to grow. So if you happen to have the tumor that has insulin receptors on it then it will get stimulated to take up the glucose that’s in the bloodstream rather than go into fat or muscle, the glucose goes into the tumor. And the tumor uses it to grow.

Kimber Stanhope, PhD: We found that the subjects who consumed [25% of their calories as] high fructose corn syrup had increased blood levels of LDL cholesterol and other risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta: How quickly did these changes occur?

Kimber Stanhope: Within two weeks.

“The chances are good that sugar is a bigger part of your daily diet than you may realize which is why our story tonight is so important,” Dr. Sanjay Gupta noted on the television show ‘60 Minutes’ on April 1, 2012.

“New research coming out of some of America’s most respected institutions is starting to find that sugar, the way many people are eating it today, is a toxin and could be a driving force behind some of this country’s leading killers, including heart disease.”

Dr. Sanjay Gupta: What are all these various diseases that you say are linked to sugar?

Dr. Robert Lustig: Obesity, type II diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease itself.

Lustig says the American lifestyle is killing us.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta: And most of it you say is preventable?

Dr. Robert Lustig: Seventy-five percent of it is preventable.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Is it worse than just table sugar?

Dr. Robert Lustig: No. ‘Cause it’s the exact same. They are basically equivalent. The problem is they’re both bad. They’re both equally toxic.

Since the 1970s, sugar consumption has gone down nearly 40 percent, but high fructose corn syrup has more than made up the difference. Dr. Lustig says they are both toxic because they both contain fructose—that’s what makes them sweet and irresistible.

Some researchers have said that insulin is not the cause of obesity, so Robert Lustig, MD gives and example of how excess insulin makes you tired, hungry and fat in this in this 15 minute video interview.

“The people who object to this… are saying that injecting insulin is different then normal physiological insulin production.”

“It has everything to do with it, and I’ll show you how. Let’s take you, Andreas [the doctor doing the interview], your nice and thin.”

“Let’s say you eat 2000 calories per day and burn 2000 calories per day. You feel good.”

“Are you going to gain weight, lose weight, or stay the same? You’re going to stay the same, right? Right, because you burn what you eat, and nothing is stored.”

“Now, let’s do a little experiment. I am going to put an IV in your arm… I’m going to follow [you around], and every time you reach for food, I’m going to pump you full of extra insulin that you don’t want, and don’t need. I’m going to over-insulinize you just like we do with our type 1 diabetics.”

“You wake up in the morning and you start out the day eating 2000 calories just like before, but now, because of the excess insulin… 500 of those 2000 [calories] go straight the fat. You are now 500 calories heavier. Now you only have 1500 calories to burn, but your body wants 2000 calories… It’s called starvation.”

“How do you feel when you’re starved? Crappy, tired, slothy, you sit on the couch, you don’t want to do anything, you don’t want to exercise… and, of course, you’re hungry. So in a world of free access to food… what are you going to do? You’re going to eat [those 500 calories that your body wants.] So now you’re eating 2500 calories rather than 2000. But I’m still pumping you full of insulin, so 100 of those 500 [additional] calories goes straight to fat.”

“So now you’re 600 calories heavier, and you’re only up to 1900 calories to burn, so you still don’t feel great, so you go to a doctor and you say, ‘Doc, I don’t get it. Every time I get on the scale, I weigh more. How come I’m so fat?’”

“And the doctor tells you, ‘I know why you’re fat. Because you’re a glutton and a sloth.’”

“Because they’re looking at the… outcome of that biochemical process, not the cause.”

“The cause [of gluttony, sloth and weight gain was the excess insulin that I was pumping you full of], where is the outcome was a change in your behavior [increasing your calorie intake to make up for those calories that were lost to fat.]”

“The problem was [caused by] too much insulin, not gluttony and sloth.”

Author Gary Taubes talks about the exact same thing in his book “Why We Get Fat”.

Lustig says that he believes the increase in obesity in the past 25 years is mostly due to an increase in fructose consumption which causes insulin resistance, which raises insulin levels, which causes the body to convert more calories into fat, which makes people tired and hungry, and makes them fat.

Lustig says that the idea that people have gotten fatter due to a lack of will power is not correct.

When asked about the idea that overweight people merely need to eat less and exercise more, Robert Lustig, MD says in this 15 minute video interview, “I think that [message] is what has set us back so severely in this entire disaster [of increasing obesity] is this concept “Eat less, exercise more.”

“First of all, people can’t eat less, and people can’t exercise more,” Lustig continues.

Lustig says that he believes that there are biochemical forces driving people to overeat and under-exercise, and he believes that one of the major forces is excess insulin caused by excess fructose consumption.

“Prior to 1940, pretty much across the board, people recognized that obesity was a defect in fat deposition,” notes Robert Lustig, MD in this 15 minute video interview.

Author Gary Taubes refers to it as a problem with fat regulation rather than fat deposition, but Lustig and Taubes are talking about the same thing.

Lustig says that he believes the increase in obesity in the past 25 years is mostly due to an increase in fructose consumption which causes insulin resistance, which raises insulin levels, which causes the body to convert more calories into fat, which makes people tired and hungry, and makes them fat.

Lustig says that the idea that people have gotten fatter due to a lack of will power is not correct.

“The two behaviors that we associate with obesity… gluttony and… sloth are actually markers for the biochemical process rather than causes,” notes Robert Lustig, MD in this 15 minute video interview.

“The question is, which comes first?” Lustig continues.

“[The gluttony and sloth are] a result [of this biochemical process that causes obesity], not a cause.”

Author Gary Taubes talks about the exact same thing in his book “Why We Get Fat”.

Lustig says that he believes the increase in obesity in the past 25 years is mostly due to an increase in fructose consumption which causes insulin resistance, which raises insulin levels, which causes the body to convert more calories into fat, which makes people tired and hungry, and makes them fat.

Lustig says that the idea that people have gotten fatter due to a lack of will power is not correct.

“The question is, what is the biochemical force that is driving weight gain?” asks Robert Lustig, MD in this 15 minute video interview.

“Well, there are several, but, I would say that 90% of obese people have one [biochemical force that is driving weight gain]... Insulin,” Lustig continues.

“Insulin is the energy-storage hormone.”

“Insulin’s job is to take whatever you’re not burning and stored as fat.”

Author Gary Taubes talks about the exact same thing in his book “Why We Get Fat”.

Lustig says that he believes the increase in obesity in the past 25 years is mostly due to an increase in fructose consumption which causes insulin resistance, which raises insulin levels, which causes the body to convert more calories into fat, which makes people tired and hungry, and makes them fat.

Lustig says that the idea that people have gotten fatter due to a lack of will power is not correct.

“More insulin [means] more fat. Period,” says Robert Lustig, MD in this 15 minute video interview.

“If you have high insulin levels, then you will become obese in the long run? Absolutely.”

“It just so happens that when you say high insulin levels, you make it sound like that’s an easy thing to figure out. [But] it’s not so easy.”

Author Gary Taubes talks about the exact same thing in his book “Why We Get Fat”.

Lustig says that he believes the increase in obesity in the past 25 years is mostly due to an increase in fructose consumption which causes insulin resistance, which raises insulin levels, which causes the body to convert more calories into fat, which makes people tired and hungry, and makes them fat.

Lustig says that the idea that people have gotten fatter due to a lack of will power is not correct.

“There are two insulin… disorders. There is one called insulin resistance which people know about,” says Robert Lustig, MD in this 15 minute video interview.

“And then there’s a second one called insulin hypersecretion which is not nearly as well known.”

“You can’t see it on a fasting [blood sugar] specimen. You have to stimulate [the pancreas to release insulin] to see it.”

“Most people don’t do those studies, so they can’t see it.”

“More insulin [means] more fat. Period,”

Author Gary Taubes talks about the exact same thing in his book “Why We Get Fat”.

Lustig says that he believes the increase in obesity in the past 25 years is mostly due to an increase in fructose consumption which causes insulin resistance, which raises insulin levels, which causes the body to convert more calories into fat, which makes people tired and hungry, and makes them fat.

Lustig says that the idea that people have gotten fatter due to a lack of will power is not correct.

Some children who have brain tumors removed have leptin resistance because their brain cannot see the leptin, which makes the body think it is starving all the time, and causes them to constantly overeat and become massively obese notes Robert Lustig, MD in this 15 minute video interview.

“Those neurons that normally [transmit] the leptin signal in the brain are dead. Their brain sees starvation all the time… ,” Lustig notes.

“[That’s very rare, but] the rest of the world suffers from functional leptin resistance [due to insulin resistance caused by .”

“So this… obesity [seen in these children] is really just a prototype for what’s going on in general obesity.”

Lustig says that he believes the increase in obesity in the past 25 years is mostly due to an increase in fructose consumption which causes insulin resistance, which raises insulin levels, which causes the body to convert more calories into fat, which makes people tired and hungry, and makes them fat.

Lustig says that the idea that people have gotten fatter due to a lack of will power is not correct.

“There are numerous studies that show that the degree of insulin resistance predicts how much food people will eat at a… buffet,” says Robert Lustig, MD in this 15 minute video interview.

Lustig says that he believes the increase in obesity in the past 25 years is mostly due to an increase in fructose consumption which causes insulin resistance, which raises insulin levels, which causes the body to convert more calories into fat, which makes people tired and hungry, and makes them fat.

Lustig says that the idea that people have gotten fatter due to a lack of will power is not correct.

Insulin causes satiety in the short-term, but hunger in the long-term says Robert Lustig, MD in this 15 minute video interview.

“If you go to the literature, it says that insulin causes satiety, and that is true in the acute situation. It is not true in a chronic situation,” Lustig notes.

“And there the data is much less clear, but we have it, and it shows that insulin promotes further food intake.”

“What we are talking about is the chronic effect [of insulin]. Because chronic hyperinsulinemia is a very different animal.”

“In fact, every hormone that exists has a different acute effect then it does a chronic effect. Insulin is no different.”

Lustig says that he believes the increase in obesity in the past 25 years is mostly due to an increase in fructose consumption which causes insulin resistance, which raises insulin levels, which causes the body to convert more calories into fat, which makes people tired and hungry, and makes them fat.

Lustig says that the idea that people have gotten fatter due to a lack of will power is not correct.

“I think there are a lot of things that can cause insulin to go up,” notes Robert Lustig, MD in this 15 minute video interview.

“Branched chain amino acids cause insulin to go up. [Branched chain amino acids include leucine, isoleucine, and valine.] It’s not just carbohydrates. It’s not just fructose.”

“I think those [an increase in fructose] are the big things that have increased globally in the last 25 years that coincide with the obesity epidemic, but I think there are a lot of things that could potentially do it [cause excess insulin release]. For any individual patient, you have to evaluate that patient, and see what’s going on, in direct therapy appropriately.”

Lustig says that he believes the increase in obesity in the past 25 years is mostly due to an increase in fructose consumption which causes insulin resistance, which raises insulin levels, which causes the body to convert more calories into fat, which makes people tired and hungry, and makes them fat.

Lustig says that the idea that people have gotten fatter due to a lack of will power is not correct.

Fructose causes obesity by raising insulin, causing insulin resistance which causes leptin resistance which reduces metabolism and increases appetite says Robert Lustig, MD.

“Our environment is insulinogenic. We have to get the insulin down,” Lustig notes in a slide show.

Growing female rats given 24-hour access to water containing 8% high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in addition to water and given access to regular rat chow, gained 100% of their body weight in seven (7) months compared to a normal weight gain of 77% for rats given access to rat chow and water only according to a study from researchers at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, USA.

Growing male rats given 24-hour access to water containing 8% high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in addition to water and given access to regular rat chow, gained 157% of their body weight in six months compared to a normal weight gain of 102% for rats given access to rat chow and water only according to a study from researchers at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, USA.

Fructose decreases the burning of fat more than glucose when on a reduced-calorie diet according to a recent study from Purdue University.

Liquid calories, such as in soft drinks, do not decrease appetite the way that solid calories do according to a recent study from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Since soda consumption has increased at least 40 percent since the late 1970’s, this may help partially explain the rapid rise in obesity.