The Metabolic Mind: Sugar, Addiction & Ultra-Processed Food with Guest, Dr Robert Lustig

Dr Rachel Gow sits down with friend and colleague Dr Robert H. Lustig, Professor Emeritus of Paediatrics at UCSF, physician, scientist, bestselling author and one of the world’s leading voices on sugar, ultra-processed food, addiction and chronic metabolic disease.Recorded while Rob was visiting London to speak at the IPM Congress, this is a wide-ranging conversation about the systems shaping our health — from the food we eat and the environments we live in, to the biology of the liver, gut and brain.Rachel and Rob discuss why metabolic disease continues to rise, whether chronic disease can be prevented or even reversed, the addictive nature of ultra-processed food, the metabolic consequences of sugar, childhood development, emotional regulation, food policy, healthcare and prevention.They also revisit their shared work on the Metabolic Matrix and its central principles: protect the liver, feed the gut and support the brain.But this conversation goes far beyond weight and obesity. It asks a much bigger question: what happens when our food, healthcare, societal and planetary systems are all under pressure — and how connected are these crises?Rob is the author of Fat Chance, The Hacking of the American Mind and Metabolical: The Truth About Processed Food and How It Poisons People and the Planet. His landmark lecture Sugar: The Bitter Truth helped bring the metabolic consequences of sugar into global public conversation.This is a big conversation about metabolic health, prevention and what needs to change if we want healthier people, healthier communities and a healthier planet.🎧 Episode 3 of the Nutritious Minds Podcast