Comments on: All About Fructose and Why You Shouldn’t Panic

By: Paul Rogers

Paul Rogers — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:10:34 +0000

Ashley, I agree (and I did above) that consuming too much fructose is not a healthy thing to do — soft drinks and juice included and perhaps the worst way to consume fructose.

Re Parks et al, it’s no secret that sugar consumption increases blood triglycerides; that’s been known for years. In that study, feeding sugar sweetened drinks to a fasting individual without solid food may very well enhance the known effects of fructose’s absence of ‘rate limiting’ in the liver.

Even so, and allowing for possible leptin influences on satiety, the first law of thermodynamics still holds: you don’t get fat unless you overeat. How much fructose, per se, induces overeating is no doubt dependent on many variables. The frugivore primates don’t have a problem it seems! And de novo lipogenesis doesn’t magically mean that you get fat because of it.

Fructose is not a poison, (and certainly not like vitamin a (retinol) or selenium is a poison). Take a look at the twinkie diet Prof Haub followed for 2 months. At 50% sugar in twinkies, he lost 12 kilos.
http://tinyurl.com/34lzwy6.

I’ve heard the ABC health report on fructose before. I understand the general concerns. I don’t think we disagree too much. I just don’t go along with the general rhetoric and demonising of fructose as a primary cause of the obesity epidemic. It’s much more complicated than that.

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By: Ashley

Ashley — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 22:50:08 +0000

From what I have read, the danger is concentrated fructose, as you say, confectionery, fruit juice, soda. But the fructose consumed is converted quickly to fat, BUT, bipasses the normal metabolic pathway for fats/carbs. The body does not send out signals to say you are full in response to fructose. Hence concentrated fructose means consuming more calories. Also causes other carbs to be more likely stored as fat rather than burnt.

Not such a big deal for the athlete, diabolical for overweight people in need of an energy hit. To get the brief energy hit, a lot of fat is stored, this fat and the release of insulin makes for feeling lethargic after the hit, hence more need for an energy hit.

Also food sold as low fat is usually high in sugar. Of which a significant amount of the fructose, particularly in a unhealthy person, will be converted to fat, encourage other foods to be stored as fat, and encourage the consumption of more food and calories before feeling full.

Consumed with fibre fructose is not ingested quickly, hence fruit is fine. to a degree, but fruit juice, normally regarded as healthy, has removed all the fibre and retained just the sugar. Fruit juice creates rapid absorption of sugar.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/healthreport/stories/2007/2104024.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/06/10/3241046.htm?site=conversations
http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/utsw/cda/dept353744/files/476605.html

By: Johnny Bourdeaux PhD

Johnny Bourdeaux PhD — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:34:41 +0000

Paul,

In a recent Princeton study rats that had access on HFCS did a lot worse than on eating sugar. We all know that carb metabolism is a bit different in humans and rodents yet this still makes us wonder.

I think researchers’ explanation that the fructose in HFCS has quicker effects on the liver is worth looking more closely. I do not think that the fructose question is done yet.

By: Paul Rogers

Paul Rogers — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:38:00 +0000

In the end, fructose is fructose, enzyme cleaved or not. The problem is with overconsumption — of everything, including fructose — and energy balance.

Some grape and apple juices are likely to contain more fructose per unit than even HFCS soft drinks.

Don’t complicate it. Thanks for the comment.

By: Cynthia1770

Cynthia1770 — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 06:58:47 +0000

Hi,
My google alert for HFCS picked up your post.
I think we should be very concerned about the
ubiquitous presence of HFCS in our foods and
beverages. Take the variant HFCS-55 which is used to sweeten all national brands of soda, fruit drinks and many sports quenchers. The ratio of
simple sugars is 55%fructose:45% glucose. This appears to be close to the 50:50 composition
of sucrose, until you do the math.
55%:45%= 55/45= 1.22. That means that in every can of soda or bottle of Gatorade there is, compared to glucose, 22% more fructose. Could that have a bearing on our health woes? Considering that the average teen chugs one or two cans of day, over time that is a lot of extra fructose. There is also the issue of the free
vs. bound fructose. Sucrose is cleaved by the
enzyme sucrase which then allows for entry of the monosaccharides in the bloodstream. Fructose in the gemisch, HFCS, doesn’t require that enzymatic step. Perhaps that also plays a role in the obesity epidemic.
To your health.