David Gillespie on Sweet Poison: Low Carb Down Under

November 24, 2012 : General, Low Carb Down Under
Low Carb Down Under

First up at The Low Carb Down Under Seminar in Byron was David Gillespie, author of Sweet Poison and Big Fat Lies.

This was the second time I had seen David speak (the first was last weekend in Melbourne) and he was fantastic!

David Gillespie shared his weight-loss story with us, having lost 40 kgs since cutting out sugar and minimising polyunsaturated vegetable oils.

The audience was enthralled, hanging off of David’s every word…and words were all he needed.
A flashy powerpoint presentation was totally unnecessary for this ex-lawyer as he expertly made the case about the many dangers of overconsuming fructose.

In nature, fructose is only readily available in summer fruits and historically we only consumed around 1 tsp per day.  But, in the last 100 years this consumption has rocketed up to around 35 tsp per day.

 There are many problems with this, as fructose:

David Gillespie, sorry not David’s best shot!
  • Appears to be added to everything with a nutritional label on the packaging.
  • Is effectively invisible to insulin, meaning our “I’m full, stop eating” button is taken offline.
  • Messes with our brain’s ability to sense how much energy we have on deck (aka our fat levels), meaning our “Yep, still full” button is also faulty.
  • Is not only addictive but also harder to give up than smoking.
    To give up smoking you just have to not put any cigarettes in your mouth…if you do happen to find one there, then just don’t light it. (Ah, I love David’s dry humor!)
    On the other hand, sugar is devious and hides in many foods so you might not actually know when you are putting it in your mouth!

All of which leads us to eat more, more often.

(This is why David refers to sugar as white gold, because food manufacturers know that if it is in there, we will buy more of it than any food without it.)

David Gillespie’s top tips for avoiding excess fructose are:

  • Don’t add sugar (or sweeteners & sugar substitutes) to any foods.
  • Don’t eat anything with a heart foundation tick on it, especially if it is a breakfast cereal.
  • Avoid anything that has a ‘low fat’ label (more on why later).
  • Avoid yoghurt that tastes sweet, because yoghurt does not naturally taste sweet!

You can check out more of David’s work here and here.

Sweet Poison, Why Sugar Makes Us Fat Big Fat Lies, How the Diet Industry is making you Sick, Fat & Poor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was David’s presentation, filmed in Melbourne:

Summaries of the other Low Carb Down Under Byron Presentations:

Connect with us here on the Low Carb Down Under Facebook Page.

If you are in Australia and want to hear more, get onto the Facebook Page or LCDU website and tell us who you would like to see in the line-up for next time!