Yes, yes, it's all very complicated. For many, however, simply removing added sugar/fructose - anything sweet - will turn out to be a “silver bullet” for significant weightloss and better health. And then – as the suddenly sugar-free experience the unexpected joys of trending towards slimness again and away from diabetes - sceptical food scientists watching from the sidelines can ponder all the second-order issues that make a complete understanding of obesity so complicated.
An important part of the anti-obesity story is that SUGAR DOES SOMETHING BAD TO APPETITE CONTROL, KILLING “SELF DISCIPLINE“. That is, scientists need to put more energy into explaining exactly how/why sugar tends to promote food cravings, why a calorie clearly is not a calorie when it comes to satiety. The following study is a neat start in that direction:
http://www.nutritionj.com/content/9/1/51 . Meanwhile, the opinions of “scientists” working on the clearly wrong assumption that “a calorie is a calorie” should be ignored or ridiculed.
My confident forecast is that within a decade or two, across the scientific, medical and nutritionist communities, added sugar/fructose will be linked to obesity and diabetes in the same way that today the sun is linked to sun cancer, and tobacco is linked to lung cancer. It probably is that simple. Set up a Google “Alert” for “fructose“ and watch the evidence - linking the sweet stuff to bad health outcomes – roll in each week, month after month.
My bottom line is that removing added sugar from our food supply is the obvious low-hanging fruit in any serious anti-obesity and anti-diabetes campaign. If society over time can gain a better understanding of – and then reduce – the damaging health effects of excess sugar/fructose, then tens of billions of health-care and aged-care dollars could be saved or redirected, every year. Not to mention the much happier, healthier and longer lives that would be lived by a slimmer population with greater control over its appetite.
A detailed discussion of these issues can be found at the earlier link.
Best wishes,
Rory