It's easy to miss, but if you care to watch the video, you also want to read the comment on that same page by Professor Richard Feinman.
In summary, he concludes that while it's a nicely presented video, it is factually incorrect.
In summary, he concludes that while it's a nicely presented video, it is factually incorrect.
Surely he's either right or he's wrong. Either the ingestion of fructose leads to 3x the number of calories that must be phosphorylated or it doesn't (versus glucose). The need for this extra phosphor either leads to more uric acid, or it doesn't. So on and so forth.
It's like watching 1 politician argue "This budget will save $X billion over 5 years", while the opposition argues that "No, it will COST $X Billion over 5 years".
Isn't this shit basic chemistry for these professional?
Quickly going Feinman's blog, he seems like a bit of an ass too..
"Avoiding ad hominem is tough. Lustig’s Nature paper contains the single stupidest line in the history of the journal..."
Anyway, most of the time if you use the figurative sense of the word, just replacing it with "growth/increase/spread" is good enough. Why use an overly dramatic word ?
The method of contagion is peer influence on lifestyle and peer acceptance of the symptoms.
People do indeed tend to "get fat by being around fat people". Obesity can be called "socially contagious".
Also, more and more people are getting fatter / obese every day. Clearly genetic predisposition can't explain this problem for such a large scale in such a small amount of time ... so this is in fact a social problem that grows by network effects.
So whether it is our lifestyle, or our diet, it's clearly spreading. Therefore I don't think it's a stretch to call it an epidemic.
But the fact is, obesity is contagious. Habit and culture are huge factors in obesity, both of which are contagious to those who you share extended proximity with.
Are you on a sugar high?
The sky's fat ass is falling! Dude, never in my life did I see fat people like the ones I've seen in US, and bear in mind, I'm in California. The median is pretty fit, but there are some heavy, heavy tails on that bell curve.
Someone else posted this guy's comment (real guy, apparently, funny coincidence he's called Richard Feinman), so here's the reply:
"Hi Richard, Maybe you could update the Wikipedia entry on Fructose then? It's here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fructose . I know it says glucose can be metabolized anywhere in the body, but fructose needs to be trapped in the liver first. So it is handled by the liver, just like alcohol. Also mentioned is how it doesn't trigger insulin, like glucose, nor leptin, and doesn't decrease ghrelin - this means it is sort of invisible calories to the body, it doesn't make you feel full like glucose. Surely you agree that a sugar that makes you feel full is different from a sugar that doesn't when it comes to people living healthy lives? There are a lot of links to studies on weight gain, fatty liver disease, metabolic syndrome, and insulin resistance there as well."