This 1974 classic, based on a lifetime of work by surgeon captain T. L. Cleave, might be familiar to those of us who read Gary Taubes' work.

The Saccharine Disease - online

It is available as a website, with each chapter a new page. Subtitled "Conditions caused by the Taking of Refined Carbohydrates, such as Sugar and White Flour" and explains his theory that refined carb consumption is the "master disease" that causes a large number of chronic conditions.



In this case "saccharine" refers to sweetness, not the artificial sweetener.

Enjoy!

Thanks werebear, I'll get that! I finally finished The Case against Sugar yesterday. Maybe not as gripping for me as his previous works...just because I had read all the previous Taubes works, and all his articles like the Mother Jones one also. Much repetition for me, but if you want every nuance to the sugar story, this is it.

Six years ago I found a .pdf of Yudkins Pure, white and deadly. It is a photocopy of the print book, it was out of print at that time, still have it, 108 pages.
Since then, that book has been reprinted and is available for purchase, but I still see free .pdf copies floating around the interwebs.

Thanks for that - of all the works Taubes cited, this one looked key to me. Atkins, Yudkin, Cleave & MacKarness (Eat Fat and Grow Slim) were all pointed in the right direction, but in the 1970s politics took over and pushed carbs due to heavy lobbying from purveyors of sugar and starch and ruined the health of several nations.

Exactly my take! So I was pleased to come across this find.

And his insight began in the 1950's, a time when "processed food" was otherwise real food when it was canned or frozen. Now, looking at the list of ingredients that isn't food on a typical frozen dinner, it's really daunting what is in there, and could be screwing with our metabolism in other nefarious ways.

As someone gluten free, this entire industry is forbidden ground. They put wheat in everything now. I agree with Dr Davis, of Wheatbelly, that they are using it as a "hungry additive" as well as a cheap filler: a meal that makes your customer want another meal. Evil genius!

Yes. Stephan Guyunet has a post defending sugar--sort of. Basically looking at "sweet spot" studies where at a certain level of sugar, animals will eat the most, and increasing or decreasing sugar from this point will decrease food intake. Those of us interested in how people could be healthier read studies like this to see how things can be made better--industry reads them to see how profits can be increased. Besides evil genius, there's the sort of natural selection at work in the free market. Bet you can't have just one--foods that can't make this claim, disappear from the shelves.

With the wheat--tiny bits of wheat or gluten can make big differences in consistency and flavour, even for people without an actual gluten intolerance. Take a piece of toast--even a little browning, involving a fraction of the surface of the bread makes a massive difference in taste. Same with sugar, the "sweet spot" is obviously very malleable when browning reactions come into the picture.

That is a great point, hadn't thought about how browning can increase the "sweet spot". So wonder how Guyunet handles that in his new book. Our library ordered it (can't always account for their buyers' taste )
"The problem, argues obesity and neuroscience researcher Stephan J. Guyenet, is not necessarily a lack of willpower or an incorrect understanding of what to eat. Rather, our appetites and food choices are led astray by ancient, instinctive brain circuits that play by the rules of a survival game that no longer exists."

I actually agree with that. And I am no Guyenet Fan!

However, for everything he gets right... he gets something else wrong, at least in my experience

Also, while it is not referenced of late, Sugar Blues by William Duffy was famous in its day. I recall it had a lot of WWII research in it.

I found that book in a used book store maybe ten years ago. I liked it but was disappointed at the end where his answer was keeping a tupperware container with rice sushi rolls handy.