more than 30 years ago there was this big push by doctors and by the government to get people to eat less fat. that was to help lower the rate of heart disease. low fat, they said, means heart healthy. in went more sugar to keep foods tasting good. here we are. today, as you've heard me say over and over again, we as a nation are more unhealthy than ever. not to mention fatter. we've heard a lot of theories as to why, but one in particular is getting a much closer look. it's about sugar. everybody knows too much is bad, but i have been surprised see just how bad. i did this investigation with cbs's "60 minutes" and it begins with this pediatric endo kronologist who says we're literally poisoning ourselves with sugar. >> is sugar toxic? >> i believe it is. >> do you ever worry that it just sounds a little bit over the top? >> sure. all the time.

but it's the truth. >> dr. robert lustig is a pediatric end kronologist in san francisco and a pioneer in what is becoming a war against sugar. moefshated by his own patients, too many sick and obese children, he has concluded that sugar more than any other substance is to blame. >> what are all these various diseases that you saw are linked to sugar? >> obesity, type ii diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease itself. >> lustig says the american lifestyle is killing us. >> and most of it, you say, is preventible? >> 75% of it is preventible. >> reporter: while he has published a dozen scientific articles on the evils of sugar, it was his lecture on youtube called sugar, the bitter truth, that brought his message to the masses. >> i'm standing here today to recruit you in the war against

bad food. >> reporter: by bad food he means the obvious thing such as table sugar, honey, syrup, sugary drinks and dessert, and just about every processed food you can imagine. sugar is often hidden. yogurts and sauces, bread, even peanut butter. what about the manmade often vilified sweetener high pruk toes corn syrup. >> is it wrs than table sugar? no, it's the exact same. they are basically the ekwifl ebt. the problem is they're both bad. they're both equally toxic. >> since the 1970s sugar consumption has gone down nearly 40%, but high fructose corn syrup has made up the difference. they're both toxic because they both contain fructose. that's what makes them sweet and irresistible. >> we love it. we go out of our way to find it. i think one of the reasons revolutionarily is because there

is no stroout prut stuff on the planet that has fructose that is poisonous to you. it is all good. so when you taste something that's sweet, it's an evolutionary darwinian signal that this is a safe food. >> we were born this way. >> we were born this way. >> reporter: central to his theory is that we used to get our fructose mostly in small amounts of fruit, that came loaded with fiber that slows absorption and consumption. after all, who can eaten oranges at a time? as sugar and high fructose corn syrup became cheaper to produce, we began georging. 130 pounds per year. that's one-third of a pound every day. dr. lustig believes those sweeteners are helping to fuel an increase in the most deadly disease in america, hearted sdoez. he has a controversial voice for years. >> here is our oral isotope. >> now studies done by kim ber

stanhope, a nutritional biologist at the universities of california davis are starting to back him up. she's in the middle of a groundbreaking five-year study which has already shown strong evidence linking excess high fructose corn syrup consumption for risk factors for heart disease and stroke. just calories from added sugars are different than calories from other foods. >> the mantra you hear from most nutritionists is that a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. >> and i think the results of the study show clearly that is not true. sfoo stanhope's conclusions weren't easy to come by. nutrition studies are expensive and difficult. stanhope has paid groups of research subjects to live in this hospital wing for weeks at a time. under a sort of 24-hour lockdown. they undergo scans and blood tests. every calorie they ingest meticulously weighed and prepared. >> they're never out of our sight, so we do know that they

are consuming exactly what we need them to consume. >> and they're not sneaking any candy bars on the side. >> yeah, exactly. >> for the first few days participants eat a diet low in added sugars, so baseline blood levels can be measured. >> you don't have to finish all your cool aid. >> then 25 3erz of their calories are replaced with sweetened drinks and stanhope's team starts drawing blood every 30 minutes around the clock, and those blood samples? they revealed something disturbing. >> and what are you starting to see? >> we found that the subjects who consumed high fructose corn syrup had increased blood levels of ldl cholesterol and other risk factors for cardiovascular disease. >> how quickly did these changes occur? >> within two weeks. >> kim ber stanhope's study says when a person consumes too much sweet stuff, the liver gets overloaded with fructose and

converts some of it into fat, and some of it ends up in the bloodstream and helps generate a dangerous kind of cholesterol called small dense ldl. these particles are known to lodge in blood vessels, form plaque, and are associated with heart attacks. >> did it surprise you when you first got these results back? >> i would have to say i was surprised because when i saw our data, i started drinking and eating a whole lot less sugar. i would say our data surprised me. >> reporter: imagine, for these healthy young people drinking a sweetened drink might be just as bad for their hearts as the fatty cheeseburgers we've all been warned about since the 1970s. that's when a government commission mandated that we lower fat consumption to try and reduce heart disease. >> major coronary risk factors. >> so with the best of intentions, they say time to reduce fat in the american diet. >> exactly. and we did. and guess what, heart disease,

metabolic syndrome, diabetes, death, are skyrocketing. >> he says we replaced a lot of that fat with added sugars. >> when you take the fat out of the food, it tastes like cardboard. the food industry knew that. so they replaced it with sugar. >> this idea that sugar increases this particularly bad ldl, the small dense particles that are associated with heart disease, do most doctors, do they know this? >> no, they do not know. this is new. >> and it turns out sugar has become a major focus in cancer research too. lewis cantley is looking at the connection. >> if you limit your sugar, it decreases your chance of developing cancer. >> absolutely. >> this harvard professor and the head of the beth israel deacon is cancer center says when we eat and drink sugar it causes a sudden smik in the hormone insulin which can fuel certain types of cancers. >> what we're beginning to learn is that insulin can cause adverse effects in various

tissues. of particular concern is cancer. >> why? nearly one-third of some common cancers, including breast and colon cancers, have something called insulin receptors on their surface. insulin binds to these reseptemberors and signals the tumor to start consuming glucose. 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 a tumor that has insulin receptors on it, then it will get stimulated to take up the glucose. it's in the bloodstream. rather than going to the fat or the muscle, it now goes into the tumor and the tumor uses it to grow. >> just seeing that tumor turn blue, which is essentially reflective of the glucose going into it. >> that's right. >> so these cancers, much in the same way that muscle will say, hey, i would like some of that glucose, the fat says i would like some of that glucose, the

cancer advisory learned how to do that themselves as well? >> they have evolved the abil y ability -- >> lewis cantly's research team is working on developing drugs that will keep cancer from growing, but until there's a breakthrough, cantly's advice, don't eat sugar. if you must, keep it to a minimum. >> in fact, i live my life that way. i rarely eat sugar. when you see a sugary drink or if i were to offer you one, what -- with all that you know, what's going through your mind? >> i probably would turn it down and get a glass of water. >> but for most of us, that's easier said than done. >> turns out sugar is much more addictive than i think we had sort of realized early on. >> eric, a neuroscientist at the oregon research institute is using functional mri scanners to learn how our brains respond to

sweetness. >> sugar activates the brain in a special way that's very reminiscent of, you know, drugs like cocaine. >> reporter: that's right. cocaine. >> all right. let's give it a shot. >> reporter: i climbed into the mri scanner to see how my brain would respond. that's a straw that's been rigged to deliver a tiny sip of soda into my mouth. >> stay as still as you can, okay? >> reporter: just as it hit my tongue, the scanner detected increased blood rushing to certain regions of my brain. in these images, the yellow areas show that my reward region is responding to the sweet taste. dopamin, the chemical that controls the brain's pleasure center is released. >> that's released. that sort of makes me feel good. i'm experiencing some pleasure from having this -- >> that euphoric effect. >> so far be it for people to realize this because sugar is everywhere, but you're saying this is one of the most addictive substances possibly that we have. >> it certainly is very good at

firing the reward regions in our brain. >> eric says by scanning hundreds of volunteers, he has 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. >> 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. >> with all this new science emerging, we wanted to hear from the sugar industry, so we visited jim simon, who is on the board of the sugar association at a sugar cane farm in louisiana. >> would it surprise you that almost every scientist that we talked to in researching this story told us they are eliminating all added sugars, they're getting rid of it because they're concerned about

the health impacts. >> to say that the american consuming public is going to completely eliminate sweeteners out of their diet, i don't think gets us there. >> simon cautions that eliminating sugar wrongly vilifies one food rather than working toward the long-term solution of reducing calories and exercising. >> a lot of people, jim, are saying that sugar is different. that it's bad for your heart and causing a lot of the problems that we are talking about. it is addictive and in some cases might even fuel cancers. and you've looked at this. you must have looked at some of these studies. what do you say about that? >> science is not completely clear here. >> but some of these studies exist. i mean, what is a consumer -- what are they to make of all that? >> well, i would say to them that they've got to approach their diet in balance. >> dr. robert lustig agrees. we need a balanced diet, but his idea of balance is a drastic

reduction of sugar consumption. to that end he co-authored an american heart association report recommending men should consume no more than 150 calories of added sugars a day, and women just 100 calories. that's less than the amount in just one can of soda. >> ultimately this is a public health crisis. it's a public health crisis, and you have to do big thing and you have to do them across the board. tobacco and alcohol are perfect examples. we have made a conscious choice that we're not going to get rid of them, but we are going to limit their consumption. i think sugar belongs ms exact same waste basket. >> now, after that story first ran, we did hear back from the sugar association, and they say it boils down to this. that you can only fight obesity with the combination of changes to your diet and more exercise, and, of course, i think everyone agrees with that. they sent us a letter which says we should try to focus on total

calories, that too many calories remain the fundamental cause of a myriad of illnesses facing americans. to view any single food or ingredient as the main culprit provides little benefit. that's a statement from the sugar association. now, one way people try to cut calories is to use sugar subsubstitutes. a question a lot of people ask is are they better than the real thing, or could they be even worse? [ male announcer ] if you think any battery will do, consider this...

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say they will retire on their own terms. get started on the plan you need today -- wells fargo advisors. together we'll go far. a lot of people do try to lose weight by avoiding sugar and using artificial sweeteners instead. in fact, we get a lot of questions about these sugar subsubstitutes. here we have our internist and board certified nutrition specialist. we do get a lot of the questions about the sugar subsubstitutes, especially after the sugar pieces. that message has been getting out there. you say that these sugar stub substitutes are not all the same. can you quickly explain the different types? >> yeah. it's really important to understand that there's both natural and artificial sweet ners and sugar subsubstitutes, and when people are -- most of the concerns people have are around the five fda approved art

initial sweeteners, but it's important to understand that these sweeteners are all different. they have different chemical make-ups ask they're handled differently by the body. some are completely broken down. some are not. you can't just lump them into one thing if you do have concerns about them. >> so from a more basic standpoint, a nutrition standpoint, is a natural sweetener, like stevia, for example, better option than an artificial sweetener? >> you know, i think that point is up for debate, and we don't really know. most people do -- most nutrition experts do believe that the more natural alternatives are better, but just because something is natural doesn't mean it's good for you, and in larger amounts. i think that, you know, if you tend to prefer more natural prkts, that's probably the better way to go, but it's not completely risk-free. i think with all of these things, you know, you just have to consume things in moderation, which we seem to say all the time. >> yeah. that's -- i think that's a message everyone agrees on. one of the specific thing that people ask about artificial

sweeteners is can they cause cancer? now, i mean, this is coming up over and over again. ilgs a controversial topic. studies i seem don't seem to support that theory. bhaets your take? is there any reason people should think sugar subsubstitutes cause it in. >> you know, i totally agree with you. the studies that i have seen and the studies that the national cancer institute has seen and even in new european food safety study, they all point to the fact that in humans there is no compelling evidence. it's really more a very few animal studies, and in the case of sacrin, there was an animal study that showed they caused bladder cancer in rats. it wasn't even a mechanism that was even possible in humans. we don't have convincing research. this is more hype. really a little bit blown and more hype and a little bit blown out of proportion. >> does fake sugar make a person crave more food and more calories? i remember a few stois a few years back, people who drink

diet soda weigh more than people who don't. is there a craving component? >> yeah. that's great question. it's really interesting because a lot of studies show that diet soda is linked to being overweight. we know that some of these artificial sweeteners do cause a lease of insulin and drop your blood sugar and make you crave more and they cause the same addiction like pathways in the brain. we don't know the answer at this point. >> that's good advice. we'll have you back soon. thank you. >> good to see you. >> i'm going to introduce you to this transplant surgeon who became a better doctor after needing a transplant himself. [ y and good night" ] ♪ af-lac ♪ aflac [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac! [ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com.

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dr. carl azaya began his professional life as a priest but he ended up being a transplant surgeon. he would need his colleagues to

help him overcome a rare and deadly disease. >> we just came back from paris. we celebrated 15 wonderful years of marriage. >> for him this wedding anniversary celebration almost didn't happen. three years ago he made a shocking discovery. his lymph nodes were swollen and he suspected he had cancer. his fears were confirmed. he had a rare blood cancer. >> it's difficult to treat and has a poor prognosis. >> when the treatment failed he needed a bone mary rowe transplant. now, with bone mary rowe a near perfect match is necessary for it to being a match. but the donor population in the united states is very small. they only represent about 10%. in his case, a very close match

was found, but then the donor backed out. >> people join the reg city for people that they love or know but when they get a call about a complete stranger, their answer is i'm afraid. i can't do this. >> so doctors took another look at his siblings, and while his brother wasn't a perfect match, he got the transplant anyway. the bone mar rowe started killing the cancer cells. he said it was his faith that helped him through the difficult times and the experience overall had made him a better doctor. well, i'm going to be a better doctor and perhaps even a better friend by telling you something that's probably going to be something music to your ears. eat more to weigh less. i'll explain. [ female announcer ] if whole grain isn't the first ingredient in your breakfast cereal, what is? now, in every box of general mills big g cereal, there's more whole grain than any other ingredient.

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you know, as you set out to do your grocery shopping and plan your meals ahead, there's one tip i want you to keep in mind. this is a key to your own body's metabolism and chase life to a hundred. it's easy to remember. east breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a peasant. some sties show that eating more food for breakfast can actually help you lose weight. how about that? unfortunately that's going to wrap things up for me. follow me. also make an appointment to come back and see us. time now to get you a check of the top stories in the cnn newsroom.