And yet Lustig thinks fruit is fine as long as it is consumed whole, not juiced. Nothing makes me hungrier an hour later than fruit.

I like Taubes' argument that sugar is what first compromises the body's ability to deal with carbs. If you eat enough sugar, then you become less able to deal with starches as well. That seems to make sense for societies that consume high carb/low sugar (especially refined sugar). Assuming the Chinese are really eating significantly more refined sugar than they were 50 or 100 or 500 years ago it explains why they are beginning to show metabolic damage even though they've long eaten a relatively huge amount of rice.