dr. lustig. i was wondering if you could speak little bit to other disease in addition to obesity, such as autoimmune disease. >> autoimmune disease is a grab bag. this is being televised, taped. and i am about the science. andscience on auto immune disease is very much an open question. to tella little loaathe you how all of this might tie into autoimmune disease, other than to say that people are working on it. i am very interested, but i am not willing to go public on it. not until we have hard science. so i'm going to have to beg the question right now. sorry. , i just wanted to make one brief comment about the idea of if you are taking something away, what are you giving? if you take away sugar, what is the reward? >> i have never said take it away. reduce availability. to a manageable level. a lot of people say i say that, but i have never said that. to not put words in my mouth. if we reduce the exposure to very smalls, in a a sample size, mostly middle-aged midwesterners in the united sta

dr. lustig. was wondering if you could speak little bit to other disease in addition to obesity, such as autoimmune disease. >> autoimmune disease is a grab bag. this is being televised, taped. and i am about the science. the science on auto immune disease is very much an open question. so i am a little loathe to tell you how all of this might tie into autoimmune disease, other than to say that people are working on it. i am very interested, but i am not willing to go public on it. not until we have hard science. so i'm going to have to beg the question right now. sorry. >> dr. lustig, i just wanted to make one brief comment about the idea of if you are taking something away, what are you giving? if you take away sugar, what is the reward? >> i have never said take it away. >> i never said take it away, i said reduce exposure. >> reduce availability. to a manageable level. i never said take it away. a lot of people say i say that, but i have never said that. do not put words in my mouth. >> if we

dr. lustig. educationyou may -- not fixing an addiction abuse situation.ituation,ful stricker is comforting, it triggers dopamine. so i am curious about that. is there any possibility of creating -- if you take something away, what will you give them? >> this is like the holy grail. the $64,000 question. if you take something away that gives pleasure, while they search for something else pleasurable instead? could it be that they substitute something even more dangerous in its place? they go back to smoking, they go to cocaine. the are very concerning. -- these are worrisome issues. i do not know the answer. i do know that something has to be done because we cannot afford health care associated with this. this is an unsustainable model. happenedink about what with tobacco, let's talk about tobacco for a minute as sort of the flip side. die? did smokers ie average age, 64. that is what the actuarial analysis says. the average age was 64. do you know what happens at 64? to medicare and pay into social security. and you die. and you do not get anything out. t

dr. lustig, i just wanted to make one brief comment about the idea of if you are taking something away, what are you giving? if you take away sugar, what is the reward? >> i have never said take it away. >> i never said take it away, i said reduce exposure. >> reduce availability. to a manageable level. i never said take it away. a lot of people say i say that, but i have never said that. do not put words in my mouth. >> if we reduce the exposure to added sugars, in a very small sample size, mostly middle-aged midwesterners in the united states, i can say one of the main rewards that these people are getting in a health education program i am running on this topic is reduction, and when you reduce your waistline circumference, people start to notice and you start getting a lot of compliments. and people respond to that. and it keeps them going. i know it is not the only answer, but behavior modification is one piece when people start to be rewarded by observation. and i can speak from being a midwesterner myself and seeing a lot of people in this area of the country and this age group specif