Pure, White, and Deadly: How Sugar Is Killing Us and What We Can Do to Stop It by John Yudkin

Pure, White, and Deadly: How Sugar Is Killing Us and What We Can Do to Stop It Reviews

• 
  Luffy Sempai

  Such is the force behind the concept of sugar being harmful that this book embodies, that I have given up sugar instantly. This may be a fad. So, just to make sure I go on losing weight, I decided to read Pure, White, and Deadly, over and over again.
  
  The last chapter shows a pockmarked battlefield where sugar's sacred guardians keep on belittling John Yudkin, the author. They employ sneaky tactics to relegate the author's studies to crackpot theory land.
  
  I first heard of this book from another one; Fat Chance by Robert H. Lustig. Fat Chance is very informative. But though it's the successor to Yudkin's book, and has modern statistics at hand, Pure, White, and Deadly is the better book, by sheer force of the intellect.
• 
  Liz

  I read this book in 1972 when it first came out. I wish that I had remembered it and stayed away from sugar. Now i have read it again and i recommend it to anyone who values their health. Yudkin believed, based on research and observation, that it is sugar not fat which causes coronary artery disease. His research was ignored in favour of the big anti fat message propagated first by Ancel Keys and then by the US health organisations. Yudkin shows how Keys research was faulty. Penguin has reissued the book this year although you can still find and download the pdf version.
• 
  Karen

  3.5 Stars to be precise. Although aspects of Yudkin's work are outdated and the science has come a long way, the central core to his thesis - refined sugar (sucrose) is a poison and we should be working towards limiting it, and not increasing it, in our diets - was visionary. Sadly, it was a cry that went unheeded, especially in the United States, where not long after this 1972 publication, we began to add exponential amounts of sugar to our diets in the form of High Fructose Corn Syrup. (Thank you President Nixon & US Farm subsidies, but I digress.) At the time of its publication, Yudkin was essentially a lone wolf and his ideas seemed so radical, despite the commonly known mal-affects such as tooth decay, no one else was crying "Poison!" Many of his health predictions - the drastic increase in the number of people in our population who suffer from diabetes, obesity, and other health issues such as acid reflux (he terms indigestion) and gout is undeniable. Sadly, it seems unlikely that we are any closer to heeding his advice now then we were then.
  
  There are 2 claims of his I do dispute:
  1) Artificial sweetener is perfectly safe.
  2) Brown and wholegrain breads are nutritionally the same as (enriched)refined white flour breads.
  Here, the science though still disputed by some, has generally shown otherwise. Certainly, there are other parts of his work where medical knowledge, especially regarding diabetes, has greatly improved as well as changed, since the nature of the disease itself has evolved.
  
  Yudkin died in 1995, just as the "diabesity" crisis was visibly growing. At the time Yudkin wrote his work, the sugar consumption in the U.K. was around 120 lbs per person per year - which was a number he found to be abhorrent. The USDA now estimates that Americans now (2012) consume, on average, 156 lbs of sugar and high fructose corn syrup. Food for thought indeed!
  
  I stumbled across Yudkin's work because of watching a medical lecture by Dr. Lustig on YouTube, who cited Yudkin, anyone interested in Yudkin's work should find it of interest. (FYI:It's 1.5 hours)
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniu...
  
  
• 
  Meaghan Halkett

  This is one of the best, most interesting, educational books I have read in a long time. It was out of my comfort zone. Besides teaching me a bit about sugar and nutrition, it also taught me a bit about the influences of politics. An area I have struggled to understand, and show an interest. I have definatly reduced my sugar consumption after reading this book. Not just white sugar, but glucose fructose. I do not believe that there is 1 cause for obesity, and health issues, but too much of anything isn't good. This book delves into the north american diet, and the amount of sugar we consume, regularly, and how the food industry is increasing it all the time, to improve flavour. It's not sugar that's causing health problems, diabetes, cholesterol, weight gain, *speaking sarcastically* No! We have to reduce fat and carbohydrates. This is a very interesting book. Not to long, educational, and a great read!
• 
  Justin Griffiths-Bell

  "Yeah, the old white train costs a lot to ride
  Your heart, your soul and even your pride
  Damn sure forever,　it'll freeze your brain
  So take a little advice, stay away from the old white train
  Take a little advice, stay away from the old white train."
  - Mark E. Smith
  
  We watch Mad Men, and see Betty dropping cigarette ash over her children, and Don lighting up the moment he swings his legs out of bed, and it all seems kind of quaint. I wonder if in the Mad Men of the future, they'll laugh and be shocked at how we smilingly pushed sweets into the hands of children we didn't even hate.
  Professor Yudkin died unloved and unrecognised, defeated by the evil Ancel Keys and his "It's the fat what kills you" hypothesis, which suited the sugar industry, not least because the new healthy low-fat foods needed flavour, which comes, of course, from sugar (go and look on the ingredients list sometime). Well, it turns out that it was "It is the sugar what kills you" hypothesis that was right all along. But we knew that. Rober Lustig told us so (watch...Sugar the Bitter Truth:
  http://youtu.be/dBnniua6-oM )
  
  
  
• 
  Krissy

  first written in the 1970s. mentioned in a speech bu Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, called Sugar: The Bitter Truth (
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniu...)
• 
  Wonderperson89

  A Total Five Star Review for a late Scientist who the Sugar Industry slaughtered because they didn't like what he said.
• 
  Laura (Kyahgirl)

  3.5/5; 4 stars
  
  Yes, some of the science in this book is outdated (specifically the claim that artificial sweeteners do no harm) but the most important thing is the many and varied examples of the ways sugar does harm to those who indulge. Dr. Yudkin gave a huge range of examples of areas where negative effects of sugar were experimentally verified. To think, this scientist was trying to sound the alarm about sugar 70 years ago and had this book first published 50 years ago is mind boggling. Here we are, the next generation, reaping the harvest from our five decades of being ill used by the food industry. I think it is worth the time to read this book.
  
  I think one of the most interesting things about this book was the final chapters when Dr. Yudkin described the many ways that agents of the various sugar producers, sugar boards, and compromised nutrition departments tried to block him and derail his publications. It was very enlightening and sounded very much like getting on the wrong side of organized crime.
  
  The narrator of this book, Chris MacDonnell, was superb.
• 
  Marion Husband

  Step away from the sugar bowl now....very interesting and a bit sobering, glad I've not much of a sweet tooth....
• 
  Tanja Berg

  This is the classic boom on the topic of sugar. Sadly, Yudkin lost to the low-fat diet as a solution to heart disease. If he had won through at the time, we would probably have no obesity pandemic. In this book he carefully explains the research that shows how sugar is dangerous to our health, causing both diabetes, coronary heart disease and exacerbating various other problems such as Crohn’s disease.
  
• 
  Madam Bovaread

  Informaţii 'neîndulcite' despre un adevăr ce nu prea dorim să îl auzim. O carte care descrie proveniența, caracteristicile și modurile de producție ale diferitelor tipuri de zahăr, precum și faptul că acesta dă dependență, însă se pune accent și pe faptul că "ceea ce ne satisface ca gust nu mai reprezintă o garanție că ne satisface și nevoile nutriționale", susțînându-se că "nu există nicio nevoie fiziologică de a consuma zahăr."
  
  Sunt prezentate și mai multe studii efectuate pe diverse grupuri de animale și oameni care arată efectul zahărului pe termen scurt și lung, iar acestea sunt destul de grave (răspunzând așadar la 'întrebarea' din titlul cărții): diabet, boli de inimă, ulcer, boli hepatice, boli de piele, carii dentare, defecte de refracție ale ochiului, și nu în ultimul rând, cancer.
  
  Sfatul central al cărții este evitarea zahărului sau reducerea lui măcar, ceea ce va duce la îmbunătățirea vieții în general, fiind încurajată moderația și sunt prezentate și sugestii în această privință.
  
  De asemenea, autorul ne mai încurajează să facem distincția între nevoi și dorințe, fiind atenți ca cele din urmă să nu ne domine în detrimentul sănătății noastre, așadar să alegem cu grijă. Dar atenție, "libertatea de alegere există doar dacă există libertate de informare", iar în ultima parte a carții este prezentata cam cum arată o parte din lupta cu corporațiile care, în folosul profitului, vor să ascundă adevarul despre zahăr, luptă care de multe ori se va transforma într-un război lung şi sinuos.
• 
  Al Fernandez

  Dr. John Yudkin was a British physiologist who believed that sugar consumption was closely associated with heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Around the same time, Ancel Keys an American scientist argued that dietary fat was the primary cause of heart disease. Dr. Keys' view became accepted in the US and paved the way to continued heart disease and a growing obesity problem. I believe that Dr. Yudkin was correct in seeing the negative impact sugar was having not only on cavities, weight gain and diabetes but also on heart disease. I was impressed that he saw all this well before others (this book was published in 1972). So I had high expectations as I started to read this book. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what I got from this book which is why I gave it such a low rating and maybe that's why he lost the debate.
• 
  Bam cooks the books

  When an increase in obesity was first noted in the 1970s, Dr Ancel Keys' studies pointed towards fats in our diet as the culprit and thus began the low-fat craze in processed foods. However another scientist at the time, John Yudkin, took the opposing point of view, that it is actually sugar in our diets that is killing us and this book, Pure, White and Deadly, was published in June of 1972. In 2024, obesity rates are even worse than ever, and doctors like Robert Lustig and others believe John Yudkin was right all along.
• 
  Eddie Clarke

  I read this as a companion piece to Robert Lustig's Fat Chance. Lustig pays huge respect to his predecessor Yudkin, who back in the 50s, 60s & 70s was researching the negative consequences of a high sugar diet. Pure White and Deadly was originally published in the early 70s.
  
  Both books demonstrate what a clear and present danger sugar is. Lustig's is more up-to-date in that he incorporates new knowledge about our hormonal systems but both men come to a similar conclusion - we should avoid sugar as much as possible.
  
  Yudkin was up against the American scientist Ancel Keys, who insisted that animal fat, not sugar, was harmful to health. The discovery in the 70s that high cholesterol in the bloodstream correlated to heart disease initially appeared to vindicate Keys, and governments in both the USA and Europe got behind Keys's "high carbohydrate - low fat diet" and since then we have had decades of indoctrination. Yudkin was forgotten & his book went out of print.
  
  But now it appears Yudkin was right and Keys entirely wrong.
  
  Poor Yudkin struggled so bravely against overwhelming odds - his final shocking chapter recounts the manifold instances of sabotage and bullying perpetrated against him by the food industry - it seems unfair to wonder if it was something about his style which failed to persuade originally. He was an elite scientist (as is Lustig) writing for a mass audience, so tries to explain his concepts very carefully: perhaps too carefully, as I felt spoken down to a bit. Also, his many careful explanations tend create a meandering experience which detracts from a strong central argument. Perhaps also he was an academic captive in his ivory tower, wedded to the idea that scientific truth on its own merits would prevail over falsehood and ignorance. Lustig is far more politically minded, and fully understands the nature of the fight against Big Sugar: explicitly comparing it to the fight against the tobacco industry.
  
  Yudkin's book is interesting now from an historical perspective, and also because he fills in research around some medical conditions Lustig leaves out - but as I implied above, Lustig creates a very strong and persuasive central argument that ties sugar to the spiralling obesity and metabolic syndrome problems of North America and Europe. Therefore, I would recommend Fat Chance above Pure White and Deadly.
• 
  melanie

  This book seems so out dated and I found it a real slog to read so I'm quitting on page 85. I think my chemo-brain can't handle so much science right now and I already know that processed sugar is bad for me.
• 
  CJ Hines

  Informative and disturbing about the effects of sugar on our bodies and how it contributes to so many diseases. Only thing about this book is Yudkin didn't 'dumb it down' for readers like me, who get confused with all the medical and biological jargon.
• 
  Laura

  Re-read after 33 years.
• 
  Toni Daugherty

  Is sugar worse than fat? Is Sugar just as bad as High Fructose Corn Syrup? Should we have this in our food supply? Should we all go back to eating what our grandmother's cooked? Do the kids of today know that package food is a fairly new invention? My own kids had never seen a Brussels sprout stock or the green tops of carrots. We have moved so far away from our natural food sources that many kids are actually surprised to find a friend at school who has veggies in their lunchbox. One child even asked my son, "what are you eating? Grass?" My son was eating plain fresh spinach. Take a look in the lunchboxes of children and you'll discover a high sugar, low fiber, low nutrient meal and these children are eating this every single day! It's worse after school when their tired parents cook up what they think is a natural healthy meal from the freezer section, and adding insult to injury, rarely include a fruit and or vegetable with that meal.
  
  Is type II Diabetes a real disease or did we create it by putting sugar, salt, fat and HFCS in our food? This book has a lot of details that will cause non-nutritionist to zone out, but read it anyway and skip those parts. You'll still understand the book and learn why the Sugar Industry has so much power and influence over your food supply and why you cannot stop the madness simply by choosing NOT to eat it. You may also discover that artificial sweeteners are no worse for you than plain old sugar, a concept I could not grasp until now. The reason? They're both TERRIBLE for you. Again, grandma didn't put much sugar or sweetener in her cooking. Cook like grandma and stop buying food in bags. Pull it out of the ground or off of a tree. (Obviously buy what came from the earth - not all of us can have gardens and orchards).
• 
  Quentin

  It's not an easy read, but this is a thoroughly remarkable book and one that should be at the top of the reading list for anyone with an interest in what they eat or how the food industry operates.
  Pure, White and Deadly aroused a furious reaction when it was first published and the sugar industry tried, with some success, to discredit Yudkin and his work, preferring to cast fat as the part of our diets that causes ill-health, obesity, heart disease, etc. This new edition also lists some of the lengths the sugar business went to in its quest to shut him up.
  Yudkin was far ahead of his time. These days it is becoming increasingly clear that the villain is the white stuff. Maybe in a few years sugar will be up there alongside tobacco.
• 
  Marjan

  This could be the most important book on nutrition I have ever read and if you plan to read only one on this subject, than look no further. Despite having a bombastic and somewhat populistic title the contents present a well written view by a researcher who spent his life exploring the effects of sucrose on our bodies. His findings are nothing less than a cause for a serious alarm on our diets (on some aspects I would still call them conservative), yet nothing much seems to happen. Sugar produces craving, and craving produces profits for producers. And in a system where even diseases and suffering can be turned into a profitable business, we are lucky to at least have a few books like these.
• 
  Pat Rae

  It's amazing to think that this book was first written in 1972. As I read it I couldn't help but feel sorry for the author, as he battled all in sundry to get his message heard, only to be labelled a fruit loop. My how history has served to correct the mistakes of the past. While quite a difficult read, his message is clear and to the point. Absolutely loved it.
• 
  Eleanor

  not an easy read. Yudkin foresaw the obesity epidemic even before the advent of HFCS and was vilified by the scientific community. Unfortunately, I think he is preaching to the converted.
  
  The only copy I could get had small print which made it even more difficult for me to read.
• 
  Nancy Craft

  I was impressed that so many decades ago research was being done on the harmful effects of fructose, yet politics and money has kept this from the public.
• 
  Zora

  Visionary. In 1972, he had enough science (little in the lab, plenty in demographics) to see what sugar was doing.
  
  I'm of two minds about the later addition, where he talks about the sugar industries concerted effort to discredit him. I don't argue that he should have spoken of it in the second edition but it does come off as a little whiny. We prefer our heroes to be unbent and unsurprised when Goliath realy does turn out to be a giant.
  
  I think I'm done reading anti-sugar books. I'm convinced!
• 
  Pinar

  Uzun zamandır okuduğum en ilginç kitaplardan biri. Özellikle yazarın konu ile ilgili mücadelelerini anlattığı son bölümü. Şeker ve şeker endüstrisinin durumu, sağlığımıza etkilerini anlatıyor. Kitap 1972 yılında yazılmış, yazıda ileri sürülen çoğu zararlı etki bilimsel olarak kanıtlanmış olmasına rağmen hala konuda herhangi bir gelişme elde edilmemiş olması şeker endüstrisinin gücünü gösteriyor sanırım. Kendiniz ve çocuklarınız için yapacağınız en anlamlı şey ŞEKERİ HAYATINIZDAN ÇIKARTMAK..