Turning the tables on sugar, processed foods

A couple weeks ago, I was very fortunate to to attend the Institute for Integrative Nutrition’s (IIN) Live conference in New York city.

I did my health coach training through IIN and am currently on staff as a Circle Coach facilitating coaching circles with students.

Each March, IIN holds a big two day conference for students and graduates. The event attracts about 1,000 people from all over the world!

The highlight of the weekend for me this year, was to hear Dr. Robert Lustig speak.

Dr. Lustig is a paediatric endocrinologist who has spent more than 16 years treating childhood obesity and studying the effects of sugar on the central nervous system, metabolism and disease.

His work, and in particular his YouTube video Sugar: The Bitter Truth, was one of the tipping points that inspired me to focus my health coaching practice on helping people shift away from sugar and processed foods.

The video has been viewed more than six million times delivering a strong message that the increase in obesity over the last 30 years is the result of increased amounts of sugar in our diet.

Dr. Lustig documented his evidence in a book called Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity and Disease which presents the science and the politics that have led to the explosion of chronic disease over the last 30 years. He’s also written a companion cook book.

Lustig is known as the “anti-sugar guy” essentially having declared war on sugar. He is passionate about not only helping individuals make better choices, but on a mission to change food policy, laws and has taken on big food companies and the government to make some major changes.

After hearing him speak, it is clear he is actually more of an “anti-processed food guy.” His talk walked us through what happened over the last 40 years in our food system and how things got to be so bad.

He explained that in the ’70s, through some faulty science, many health concerns were blamed on dietary fat. This led to the first US dietary guidelines in 1997 demonizing fat. From there the low fat movement was born. Food companies removed much of the fat from food products, but aded in they added in sugar and lots of other chemicals to make it taste good. This combination created what he calls a “toxic food environment.”

Since that time, it’s clear that the number of people getting sick did not go down, in fact the rates have increased dramatically. Dr Lustig said, “The fat’s going down, the sugar’s going up and we’re all getting sick.”

When it comes to sugar and disease, he said that today we have proven causation between sugar and diabetes, heart disease, fatty liver disease and tooth decay. In fact, he believes Type 2 diabetes should be renamed, “processed food disease.” As for cancer and dementia, it’s not proven yet but there is strong correlation.

He truly believes that the last 40 years have been a very damaging human trial, “Processed food is an experiment that has failed,” he said. “The number one answer is real food.”

By “real food” he means moving away from the processed refined food-like products that come in packages and are marketed to you in advertisements. He means cutting out the soda, juice and candy. He means sticking to foods that don’t need labels to explain what’s in them. He means getting lots of fibre, the stuff that is stripped out of processed foods.

I came away from the conference even more inspired, motivated and called to turn the tables on sugar and processed food. I want to be part of this movement away from damaging, disease provoking, food-like products, toward unprocessed, real foods — foods that bring wellness not illness.

If you are interested in learning more and seeing this passionate man in action, I encourage you to take a look at the YouTube video or pick up his books.

If you’ve been experiencing any negative impacts of sugar or processed foods in your life, and want to try breaking free, I invite you to join me from April 1 to 3 for my free three-day no sugar challenge. Please email if you are interested in signing up and I’ll send you the link to join. [email protected].

Michelle MacLean is a wellness coach, nutrition consultant and health writer offering natural solutions to health and healing. Michelle combines whole foods nutrition, behavioural change strategies and coaching principles, with warmth and a hint of sweetness, into practical, proven, step-by-step health solutions. You can find her at

www.michelle-maclean.com.