Pure, White, and Deadly

How Sugar is Killing Us and What We Can Do to Stop It

De: John Yudkin

Narrado por: Chris MacDonnell

More than 40 years before Gary Taubes published The Case Against Sugar, John Yudkin published his now-classic exposé on the dangers of sugar - now with a new introduction by Robert H. Lustig, the best-selling author of Fat Chance.

Scientist John Yudkin was the first to sound the alarm about the excess of sugar in the diet of modern Americans. His classic exposé, Pure, White, and Deadly, clearly and engagingly describes how sugar is damaging our bodies, why we eat so much of it, and what we can do to stop. He explores the ins and outs of sugar, from the different types - is brown sugar really better than white? - to how it is hidden inside our everyday foods and how it is harming our health.

In 1972, Yudkin was mostly ignored by the health industry and media, but the events of the last 40 years have proven him spectacularly right. Yudkin’s insights are even more important and relevant now, with today’s record levels of obesity, than when they were first published. Brought up-to-date by childhood obesity expert Dr. Robert H. Lustig, this emphatic treatise on the hidden dangers of sugar is essential reading for anyone concerned about their health, the health of their children, and the well-being of modern society.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2016 John Yudkin (P)2017 Post Hypnotic Press Inc.

A Real Lifesaver and Factual

I skipped this book at first because I did not care for the narrator's English accent, but I came back around and wow this John Yudkin and all these facts Through Out The Years of sugar, well suddenly I saw a clear picture of Life today that I am swallowed up by and my thinking. I am also trying to step out of the box of our diets and see the truth. Well, John Yudkin did it for me, he opened my eyes wide open. I now look at all the products before I put them in my mouth I had no idea that it was in literally everything.....it has been so easy to change my diet and my sugar consumption is now down to about 10% - to 15% found in processed foods. I wish you all the best of luck I have studied and listened to so many everything's on sugar in order to stop eating it well now I HAVE!!!

The wicked truth!

Pure, white and deadly is an eye opener, a game changer and call to examine your own lifestyle.
If you buy the whole argument is not the point. To recognize and tick off in my own life the effects of high sugar consumption is enough to set changes for the future in motion.
Disturbing? Perhaps. But my experience tells me it is truth.
I’m grateful for the resurrection of this work.

An Oldie But a Goodie

Most of the books information is from the 1972 publication, but there are some additions at the beginning and the ending. Despite it being an older book, so much stands true today and it is very sad to know our food industry has such a grip on politics and health information today (2023). Thankfully with the internet people are able to get free information the sugar industry cannot dispute. Worth a read!!!

Very Informative and supportive book a must read

Very Informative and supportive book a must read for knowledge of the sugar consumption in its affects on our health.

Must read for diabetics

John Yudkin had to fight the sugar industry the way others had to fight the tobacco industry. Though parts of this book are now out of date, I thoroughly agree with the title.

the godfather of the anti sugar movement

excellent perspective. pioneer of the true cause of heart diease.
lost the battle against big agra but won the war.

Everyone interested in general health should listen.

Everyone interested in general health should listen to this. I struggled to make it through & had to rewind often, but I’m glad I stuck it out. I might request college credits! It’s a tough listen but is truly something to consider. I may have finally put to rest my obsession with pecan pie.

Dense but important

Not gonna lie....this isn't a fast paced sensational read, but it's hard hitting and eye opening. I think we're all aware in 2020 that sugar isn't our friend, but I don't think we recognize how far reaching the substance is in our history, childhoods, and daily lives. It truly is a must read, especially if you're either thinking about kicking the sugar addiction, or already on that path.

I wish I read this book decades ago

It’s staggering that this book is over 50 years old and so few people have heard of it. This book could have saved my brother’s life. Most everyone in the 80’s and 90’s was greatly misinformed about nutrition including our family and my brother gained a lot of weight that eventually led to congestive heart failure and his death in his mid thirties. Sugar is more like “palate cocaine”, and we’re surrounded by corporate dealers everywhere we turn. Thank you, Professor Yudkin, for having the courage to write this. Side note, after listening to this book, I’ll always want to pronounce sugar like the narrator does, “shuGAH” 😄

Puts the Seven Countries Study in the trash

Chances are you've never heard of John Yudkin. He was a British physiologist and nutritionist whose seminal work is on how sugar is the main cause of diabetes, heart disease, weight gain, tooth decay, and ulcers. That was in 1972. That was also what he felt he could pin on sugar based on what data he had and experiments he conducted. There were correlative hypotheses for certain cancers (like breast), myopia, and a host of other issues because of the hormonal changes that sugar creates in the body aside from insulin production, like estrogen, but he just didn't have the resources nor time to do the appropriate research on.

So why has John been regulated to the dustbin of history? Two reasons: Sugar producers and Ancel Keyes. The first one is obvious. The second one, maybe not so much. Ancel Keyes was an American physiologist who authored the Seven Countries study. In particular, he hypothesized that dietary saturated fat causes cardiovascular heart disease and should be avoided. He is the reason we have the "Food Pyramid" where grains are at the bottom that you should have the most of, and fats and oils and sweets are at the top you should have least of.

John Yudkin vehemently disagreed with Ancel Keyes, namely because coronary heart disease was a fairly recent phenomenon and human beings were hunter gatherers for hundreds of thousands of years eating plenty of dietary fat and protein from animals, seeds, and nuts. Given that heart disease being the leading cause of death has only been so for the past 100 years, give or take, John felt that Ancel was discounting the evolutionary changes that would need to happen in order to make the animal fat hypothesis viable. Those changes just didn't exist, which means something recent had to have changed externally in our food consumption.

That change has been sugar. Sugar production in 1800 was 250,000 tons. In 50 years, it grew to 1.5 million tons. In 1900, it was 11 million tons. In 1950, 35 million tons. In 1982 (the last update of the book) it was 101 million tons.

Your average colonial citizen in the US consumed 15 grams of sugar per week. Now teenagers consume 150 grams per DAY.

I urge you to seriously consider the health and longevity ramifications of eating sugar. It is literally killing us.