Did you think fructose was better than table sugar? Wrong! It’s much, much worse! In fact, it’s the worst form of sugar for your body. In the article below I explain why.
Vyara
Fructose, fatty liver and diabetes
Fructose is virtually in all processed foods (often disguised as corn syrup). Almost every cell in the body can use glucose but no cell has the ability to use fructose except for the liver. Thus, excessive fructose consumption loads the liver tremendously and is ultimately converted into fat. As a result you get fatty liver which, in turn, causes insulin resistance in the liver which, in turn, leads to insulin resistance elsewhere in the body which, in turn, contributes to diabetes, weight gain, heart disease and kidney disease, to name a few.
To measure the effects of fructose on insulin resistance an experiment was conducted back in 1980. Healthy subjects were given an extra 1000 calories a day of either glucose or fructose. The glucose group had no change in insulin sensitivity. But the fructose group showed a 25% worsening of insulin sensitivity within 7 days!
Another study, conducted in 2009, showed that prediabetes can be induced in just 8 weeks by giving healthy subjects fructose. Thus, volunteers consumed 25% of their calorie intake as Kool-Aid sweetened either with glucose or fructose. At the end of the eight week trail the fructose but not the glucose group developed prediabetes.
Now, I know you are asking yourself: “But what about the dietary advice to eat 5 servings of fruit a day?” Indeed, what about it? Fruit has vitamins, minerals and fibre. So the effect of eating moderate amounts of fruit is not necessarily so bad, especially considering that the fibre has some protective function. BUT! This logic only applies to whole fruit (not juices or processed syrup which you find in cookies, biscuits, ice-creams, yogurt, bread, cereal, etc.), and only if you eat the fruit on its own while abstaining from glucose and starchy carbs at the same time. Combine the fruit with glucose (i.e. table sugar or starchy refined carbs), and you are in trouble. Your body will then use the glucose for energy and at the same time it will immediately convert the fructose from your healthy fruit into liver fat.
So by all means have some fruit but only if it is replacing other carbohydrate-rich foods. As for the corn syrup and other forms of highly processed fructose (found in most commercial “treats”), you must avoid them like the plague as they are poison to your body.
