By Laura Schmidt, Special to CNN

Editor’s note: Laura Schmidt and her colleagues, Robert Lustig and Claire Brindis, are the authors of “The toxic truth about sugar.” To read the full commentary, visit the science journal Nature.

(CNN) — I am a medical sociologist, which means I study the health of whole societies. I’ve spent more than 20 years studying the best possible ways to address alcohol problems in societies — what works and what doesn’t to protect people from harm.

I work as a professor in the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine and at the UCSF Clinical and Translational Science Institute. This allows me to connect with other scientists who come from very different backgrounds but who want to work together on big problems — think of a Manhattan Project, only one focused on protecting health through the collaboration of scientists who study everything from tiny cells to entire societies.

So three years ago, a pediatric endocrinologist named Rob Lustig walks into my office and asks for my help. Rob tells me that he’s finding many connections between the metabolism of fructose (sugar) and ethanol (alcohol) in his work on metabolic functioning, liver damage and the obesity epidemic.

Rob runs the obesity clinic at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, where he spends his days trying to help morbidly obese kids who feel hungry all the time. One of the saddest effects of sugar overconsumption is to dampen the natural hormones that tell kids’ bodies when they’ve eaten enough, leading them to feel hungry even as they overeat.

Rob says he’s also seeing that too much sugar in these kids’ diets causes severe liver damage — they have even started doing liver transplants on some of the kids in his clinic.

Fast-forward to today, and here’s what we’ve learned:

– More people on the planet Earth are dying from chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes than anything else. This is even true for developing countries that have turned a critical page on health: People in those countries are now more likely to die from the “diseases of affluence” than from the “diseases of poverty” like malaria and cholera. Major risk factors in chronic disease, of course, are alcohol, tobacco and junk food consumption.

– Many of the health hazards of drinking too much alcohol, such as high blood pressure and fatty liver, are the same as those for eating too much sugar. When you think about it, this actually makes a lot of sense. Alcohol, after all, is simply the distillation of sugar. Where does vodka come from? Sugar.

– We may be thinking about obesity and chronic disease in the wrong way. Most experts are worried about sugar because it’s “empty calories” that make people fat. But what leads to chronic disease is actually something called metabolic syndrome, which can be caused by the toxic effects of sugar.

– Added sugar at the levels consumed by many Americans changes our metabolism — it raises blood pressure, critically alters the signaling of hormones that turn hunger on and off, and can damage the pancreas and liver. Worldwide consumption of sugar has tripled over the past 50 years, and along with that has come an obesity pandemic. But obesity may just be a marker for the damage caused by the toxic effects of too much sugar. This would help explain why up to 40% of people with the metabolic syndrome — what leads to diabetes, heart disease and cancer — are not clinically obese.

What should we do about all this?

Click here to read more.

What’s the ‘gayest’ U.S. city? Not necessarily the most gay friendly

By Stephanie Siek, CNN

(CNN) – Salt Lake City, Utah, is known for breathtaking mountain scenery, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the 2002 Winter Olympics.

But today it was also named the Gayest City in America by The Advocate magazine.

The Advocate ranked cities according to its own admittedly nonscientific criteria, including the number of gay and lesbian bookstores, elected officials who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, and some edgier metrics like the number of International Mr. Leather competition semifinalists and the presence of nude yoga classes. This year’s list intended to examine cities that are outside the usual orbit of San Francisco, Boston, Miami and New York, and came up with several surprises – Grand Rapids, Michigan, Knoxville, Tennessee. Even Little Rock, Arkansas, ranked 11 out of 15.

Salt Lake City LGBTQ advocates were pleasantly surprised by the rankings.

“Well, you know, we’re all very proud of our community here, and we’ve done a lot of growing and empowering of each other and our allies in the community,” said Valerie Larabee, the executive director of the Utah Pride Center, but “we probably wouldn’t have a higher ranking if the homework was done … We don’t have naked yoga, or at least none of us know about it.”

(For the record: The Advocate counted one nude yoga class there, and one Mr. Leather semifinalist, too.)

According to 2010 Census data analyzed by UCLA’s Williams Institute, 15.36 out of every 1,000 households in Salt Lake City are headed by a same-sex couple. Salt Lake City ranks 81^st out of 1,415 cities nationwide in its number of same-sex couples per capita.

The same analysis found that Little Rock had 7.51 gay or lesbian couples for every 1,000 households, ranking it 392^nd.

Salt Lake City was ranked higher than several cities many would presume to be gay-friendlier, like Denver, Austin, and Atlanta. But Larabee said that Salt Lake’s top ranking shouldn’t overshadow the discrimination and lack of acceptance that many LGBTQ Utahns still face.

“I appreciate that there’s some humor in the selections, in the indices that were used, but we shouldn’t kid ourselves,” Larabee said. “We, like many of these communities, still have some issues that need to be addressed. While we have a thriving community here, we’re united because we have to be.”

Opinion: Attention Rick Santorum – here’s how to support a gay child

Randi Romo heads the Center for Artistic Revolution in Little Rock, which serves as the state’s LGBTQ organization. She was also bemused by the city’s inclusion.

To see the entire list and read more, click here.

It’s common to lack sexual energy when your head hits the pillow. “If the first time you think about being intimate is when you crawl into bed, it’s like starting a cold engine,” explains Stella Resnick, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and author of the forthcoming book “Heart of Desire.”

Resnick advises stoking your libido in little ways throughout the day: Take a break to let yourself fantasize, or give your guy a passionate kiss when you get home from work. You’ll feel less spent and more psyched for sex when you hit the sack.

Health.com: Surprising libido boosters

The excuse: I have zero time to get busy.

We hear you — you’ve got a zillion things going on. But all you need is a few (low-impact, refreshing) minutes to squeeze sex into your schedule. The secret, as unsexy as it sounds, is prioritizing: If doing the deed isn’t high on your to-do list, it will always get bumped for seemingly more pressing pursuits.

“Women sometimes buy into the myth that good sex has to be spontaneous, which is nonsense,” says sex expert Trina Read, author of Till Sex Do Us Part. A pre-planned mini block of sweet lovin’ can be just as satisfying — and is way better than no sex at all.

The excuse: I’m not loving my thighs.

Having a bad body-image day? Sex with your sweetie can actually have a positive effect on your confidence. To jump-start feeling sexy, Resnick suggests slipping on something that makes you feel hot, whether it’s lingerie or a killer pair of heels.

During the act, refocus your attention on how your body feels instead of how it looks, Resnick advises. Also tune in to how much he’s admiring what your body can do!

Health.com: 10 reasons you’re not having sex

The excuse: But those kooky Kardashians are on.

There’s a reason they invented TiVo, gals. If you’re concerned you’ll be mystified by the hot Twitter trending topics tomorrow, set the DVR, get busy for 15 minutes, then come back and watch your show in all of its commercial-free glory.

Read more and if have haven’t already, check out how much sex our members are having at www.mensnationalsexstudy.com!

(CNN) — Pioneering gay rights activist Frank Kameny died Tuesday evening at home in Washington, a spokesman said. He was 86.

“He said everyone needs to know they are of value and respected, and by saying, ‘Gay is good,’ he thought that reflected that feeling. He wanted dignity and self-respect, and that’s what he fought for,” according to Bob Witeck of the Kameny Papers Project.

Kameny died peacefully of natural causes, according to his sister Edna Kameny Lavey.

He was at a Human Rights Campaign dinner a week ago in a wheelchair, she said.

“Frank Kameny led an extraordinary life marked by heroic activism that set a path for the modern LGBT civil rights movement,” Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese said in a statement. “From his early days fighting institutionalized discrimination in the federal workforce, Dr. Kameny taught us all that ‘Gay is Good.’

“As we say goodbye to this trailblazer on National Coming Out Day, we remember the remarkable power we all have to change the world by living our lives like Frank — openly, honestly and authentically,” said Solmonese, whose group works for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.

A seat at the front of the audience was reserved for Kameny when President Barack Obama in December 2010 signed into law the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” which banned gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the U.S. armed forces.

Kameny attended the ceremony wearing the Combat Infantryman Badge that he was awarded for his service in World War II. Kameny recalled his service fighting in the wake of the Battle of the Bulge: “I dug my way across Europe slit trench by slit trench, practically.”

But Kameny was not invited because of his heroism in World War II, but for his work toward changing the military policy of discharging homosexuals.

Kameny, who had been discharged from the Army Map Service in 1957 for being gay, led a demonstration at the Pentagon in 1965. Kameny called upon the nascent gay rights movement to model itself upon the civil rights movement.

The homophile movement, as it was called at the time, said that homosexuals were triply condemned: The medical establishment deemed them mentally ill, the law made them criminals and religions branded them sinners.

At a time when lesbians and gay men were so ostracized, the homophile movement decided its best tactic was to embrace the label of sickness: at least that seemed a half-step up from being criminals. But Kameny argued that such an approach was counterproductive, and that gay people should demand equality with heterosexuals. To gain equality, he argued, the movement needed to assert itself.

Read more.

By Anne Harding, Health.com

After a woman was asked to turn a T-shirt reading “Marriage is so gay” inside out while attempting to visit Dollywood’s Splash Country in early July, Dolly Parton has issued a personal apology for the incident.

The woman, who according to the Atlantic was attending the park along with her wife and the children of a friend, was asked by the host at Dollywood’s Splash Country to turn her shirt inside out at the park’s entrance.

According to Dollywood’s Splash Country press rep Pete Owens, the park has “a pretty strict dress code,” and the host of the park is charged with deciding whether or not a guest’s clothing is appropriate. In this case, the request to turn the “Marriage is so gay” T-shirt inside out was made “in the spirit of the dress code,” Owens said.

The woman complied with the request, and no one was barred entry. However, Owens told CNN that the park was contacted by the customer on July 19 via email, which said that the couple didn’t believe having to turn the t-shirt inside out was right.

Owens said an offer was made to arrange a meeting to discuss what happened, but that fell through. By August 1, Owens offered to refund the couple’s admission to the park. That gesture was followed up by a personal apology from Parton herself.

“I am truly sorry for any hurt or embarrassment regarding the gay and lesbian T-shirt incident at Dollywood’s Splash Country recently,” she says in the statement. “Everyone knows of my personal support of the gay and lesbian community. Dollywood is a family park and all families are welcome. We do have a policy about profanity or controversial messages on clothing or signs. It is to protect the individual wearing or carrying them, as well as to keep down fights or problems by those opposed to it at the park. We even offer free shirts in exchange to those who want to remain on the park.”

Read more.

From Chris Lawrence, CNN Pentagon Correspondent

(CNN) — The Pentagon is set to certify that the U.S. military is prepared to accept openly gay and lesbian service members, and doing so will not harm military readiness, a U.S. official told CNN on Thursday.

According to the official, who spoke on condition of not being identified, an announcement of that certification — which is required to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy — is likely to come Friday.

Under a bill passed last year that set up a process for repealing the controversial policy, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, along with President Barack Obama, have to sign a certification that confirms the military’s ability to accept the integration of openly gay and lesbian troops.

Even after certification, there will be a 60-day waiting period before the repeal is fully implemented.

In a statement Thursday, one of the leading groups advocating for repeal, Servicemembers United, said it had expected Panetta to act on certification after assessing the situation since he succeeded Robert Gates as defense secretary on July 1.

“We are glad to see that just three weeks into his tenure as secretary of defense, he (Panetta) is already confident that this policy change can take place with little or no disruption to military readiness,” said the Servicemembers United statement.

Repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy would end a convoluted legal battle led by human rights and gay rights groups.

A gay rights group — the Log Cabin Republicans — had sued over the 18-year-old ban on openly gay and lesbian members serving in the U.S. armed forces.

In September U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips declared the military’s ban to be unconstitutional and demanded the government immediately stop enforcing it.

U.S. officials have been moving ahead with dismantling “don’t’ ask, don’t tell” but had objected to having the courts force the government to officially repeal it.

The case put the Obama administration in an unusual position of supporting a repeal but at the same time filing court motions to prevent it from happening faster than planned.

Read more.

By John D. Sutter, CNN
June 23, 2011 6:05 p.m. EDT

(CNN) — Google creates “doodles” for all kinds of random occasions.

The search engine changed — or doodled — the logo on its home page in celebration of the painter Paul Cezanne’s 172nd birthday; Robert Louis Stevenson’s 160th birthday; the first day of school in Poland; and Pac-Man’s 30th anniversary. All of these, with the exception of Poland, which appeared only in that country, were automatically visible to everyone who visited Google.com.

But for Gay Pride Month — which, in case you didn’t notice the parade in the city center, is happening now — the company took a much less visible approach.

It’s one that’s stirred up criticism from the gay community.

There’s never been an actual Google Doodle in honor of Gay Pride. Instead, during June, a little rainbow pops up next to Google’s search bar only when users search for certain “pride-related” terms, including, “gay,” “lesbian,” “homosexuality,” “LGBT,” “marriage equality,” “bisexual” and “transgender.”

“During the month of June, Google is celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Pride,” the company said in an e-mail. “For some Pride-related search queries, we are showing a rainbow at the end of the search bar.”

So why hide this feature beneath specific searches?

A company spokeswoman did not provide specifics.

“We enjoy celebrating holidays and special events at Google. As you may imagine, it’s difficult for us to choose which events to celebrate on our site, and have a long list of those we’d like to celebrate in the future,” a statement said.

Critics say Google is hiding the feature to avoid criticism from anti-gay groups, whose members may be less likely to search “pride-related” terms.

Read more.

If N.Y. bill passes, over 11% of Americans would be eligible for same-sex marriage