Sugar May Be Bad,
But This Sweetener is Far More Deadly
By Dr. Mercola
A 2009 study from University of California, Davis takes its place
in a growing lineup of scientific studies demonstrating that consuming
high-fructose corn syrup is the fastest way to trash your health. It
is now known without a doubt that sugar in your food, in all it's myriad
of forms, is taking a devastating toll.
And fructose in any form -- including high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS)
and crystalline fructose -- is the worst of the worst! Fructose, a cheap
sweetener usually derived from corn, is used in thousands of food
products and soft drinks. Excessive fructose consumption can cause
metabolic damage and triggers the early stages of diabetes and heart
disease, which is what the Davis study showed.
Dr. Richard Johnson also does a fabulous job of comprehensively reviewing this important topic in his new book The Fat Switch.
In the study, over the course of 10 weeks, 16 volunteers on a
controlled diet including high levels of fructose produced new fat
cells around their heart, liver and other digestive organs. They also
showed signs of food-processing abnormalities linked to diabetes and
heart disease12.
Another group of volunteers on the same diet, but with glucose sugar
replacing fructose, did not have these problems. Fructose is a major
contributor to:
- Insulin resistance and obesity
- Elevated blood pressure
- Elevated triglycerides and elevated LDL
- Depletion of vitamins and minerals
- Cardiovascular disease, liver disease, cancer, arthritis and even gout
A Calorie is Not a Calorie
Glucose is the form of energy you were designed to run on. Every cell
in your body, every bacterium -- and in fact, every living thing on the
Earth--uses glucose for energy.
If you received your fructose only from vegetables and fruits (where it
originates) as most people did a century ago, you'd consume about 15
grams per day -- a far cry from the 73 grams per day the typical
adolescent gets from sweetened drinks. In vegetables and fruits, it's
mixed in with fiber, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and beneficial
phytonutrients, all which moderate any negative metabolic effects.
It isn't that fructose itself is bad -- it is the MASSIVE DOSES you're
exposed to that make it dangerous. There are two reasons fructose is so
damaging:
- Your body metabolizes fructose in a much different way than
glucose. The entire burden of metabolizing fructose falls on your
liver.
- People are consuming fructose in enormous quantities, which has made the negative effects much more profound.
Today, 55 percent of sweeteners used in food and beverage manufacturing are made from corn, and the number one source of calories in America is soda, in the form of HFCS.
Food and beverage manufacturers began switching their sweeteners from
sucrose (table sugar) to corn syrup in the 1970s when they discovered
that HFCS was not only far cheaper to make, it's about 20% sweeter than
table sugar. HFCS is either 42% or 55% fructose, and sucrose is 50%
fructose, so it's really a wash in terms of sweetness.
Still, this switch drastically altered the average American diet.
By USDA estimates, about one-quarter of the calories consumed by the
average American is in the form of added sugars, and most of that is
HFCS. The average Westerner consumes a staggering 142 pounds a year of sugar! And the very products most people rely on to lose weight -- the low-fat diet foods
-- are often the ones highest in fructose. Making matters worse, all
of the fiber has been removed from these processed foods, so there is
essentially no nutritive value at all.
Fructose Metabolism Basics
Without getting into the very complex biochemistry of carbohydrate
metabolism, it is important to understand some differences about how
your body handles glucose versus fructose. I will be publishing a major
article about this in the next couple of months, which will get much
more into the details, but for our purpose here, I will just summarize
the main points.
Dr. Robert Lustig[i] Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of
Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco, has been a
pioneer in decoding sugar metabolism. His work has highlighted some
major differences in how different sugars are broken down and used:
- After eating fructose, 100 percent of the metabolic burden
rests on your liver. But with glucose, your liver has to break down
only 20 percent.
- Every cell in your body, including your brain, utilizes
glucose. Therefore, much of it is "burned up" immediately after you
consume it. By contrast, fructose is turned into free fatty acids
(FFAs), VLDL (the damaging form of cholesterol), and triglycerides,
which get stored as fat.
- The fatty acids created during fructose metabolism accumulate
as fat droplets in your liver and skeletal muscle tissues, causing
insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
Insulin resistance progresses to metabolic syndrome and type II
diabetes.
- Fructose is the most lipophilic carbohydrate. In other words,
fructose converts to activated glycerol (g-3-p), which is directly used
to turn FFAs into triglycerides. The more g-3-p you have, the more fat
you store. Glucose does not do this.
- When you eat 120 calories of glucose, less than one calorie is
stored as fat. 120 calories of fructose results in 40 calories being
stored as fat. Consuming fructose is essentially consuming fat!
- The metabolism of fructose by your liver creates a long list of
waste products and toxins, including a large amount of uric acid,
which drives up blood pressure and causes gout.
- Glucose suppresses the hunger hormone ghrelin and stimulates leptin,
which suppresses your appetite. Fructose has no effect on ghrelin and
interferes with your brain's communication with leptin, resulting in
overeating.
If anyone tries to tell you "sugar is sugar," they are way behind the times. As you can see, there are major differences in how your body processes each one.The bottom line is: fructose leads to increased belly fat, insulin resistance
and metabolic syndrome -- not to mention the long list of chronic
diseases that directly result. And eating sugar may accelerate the aging process itself.
Panic in the Corn Fields
As the truth comes out about HFCS, the Corn Refiners Association is
scrambling to convince you that their product is equal to table sugar,
that it is "natural" and safe. Of course, many things are "natural" --
cocaine is natural, but you wouldn't want to use 142 pounds of it each
year.
The food and beverage industry doesn't want you to realize how truly
pervasive HFCS is in your diet -- not just from soft drinks and juices,
but also in salad dressings and condiments and virtually every
processed food. The introduction of HFCS into the Western diet in 1975
has been a multi-billion dollar boon for the corn industry.
The FDA classifies fructose as GRAS: Generally Regarded As Safe. Which
pretty much means nothing and is based on nothing. There is plenty of
data showing that fructose is not safe -- but the effects on
the nation's health have not been immediate. That is why we are just
now realizing the effects of the last three decades of nutritional
misinformation. As if the negative metabolic effects are not enough,
there are other issues with fructose that disprove its safety:
- More than one study has detected unsafe mercury levels in HFCS[ii].
- Crystalline fructose
(a super-potent form of fructose the food and beverage industry is now
using) may contain arsenic, lead, chloride and heavy metals.
- Nearly all corn syrup is made from genetically modified corn, which comes with its own set of risks.
The FDA isn't going to touch sugar, so it's up to you to be
proactive about your own dietary choices. For a real eye-opener about
what sugar has down to the health of America, I recommend watching a
piece that 60 Minutes did on this issue.
What's a Sugarholic to Do?
Ideally, I recommend that you avoid as much sugar as possible. This is
especially important if you are overweight or have diabetes, high
cholesterol, or high blood pressure. I also realize we don't live in a
perfect world, and following rigid dietary guidelines is not always
practical or even possible. If you want to use a sweetener
occasionally, this is what I recommend:
- Use the herb stevia.
- Use organic cane sugar in moderation.
- Use organic raw honey in moderation.
- Avoid ALL artificial sweeteners, which can damage your health even more quickly than fructose.
- Avoid agave syrup since it is a highly processed sap that is almost all fructose.
Your blood sugar will spike just as it would if you were consuming
regular sugar or HFCS. Agave's meteoric rise in popularity is due to a
great marketing campaign, but any health benefits present in the
original agave plant are processed out.
- Avoid so-called energy drinks and sports drinks because they are loaded with sugar, sodium and chemical additives. Rehydrating with pure, fresh water is a better choice.
If you or your child is involved in athletics, I recommend you read my article Energy Rules for some great tips on how to optimize your child's energy levels and physical performance through good nutrition.
Did You Know?
Discover the fructose content of common foods, beverages, sauces, and even sugar substitutes in our infographic "Fructose Overload." Use the embed code to share it on your website.
Discover the fructose content of common foods, beverages, sauces, and even sugar substitutes in our infographic "
Fructose Overload."
What Else Does the Science Say about the Health Impact of Fructose?
According to GreenMedInfo.com,
scientific studies have linked fructose to about 30 different specific
diseases and health problems. Select the hyperlinks provided to review
how fructose may:
What if you were to learn that every day, 25 percent of your calories came from a poison, disguised as a food?
And what if you discovered that this chemical imposter was responsible for your insulin resistance and weight gain?
And elevated blood pressure ...
And elevated triglycerides and LDL ...
And depletion of vitamins and minerals ...
And even gout, heart disease and liver damage?
What if you were to discover that this toxic substance had been
dumped into your food in gradually increasing quantities for the last
thirty years, with the full knowledge and blessings of the American
Heart Association, the American Medical Association, the USDA and the
FDA?
Would you be angry?
I wish I could tell you that this is just a dramatic plot from some fiction novel, but it's actually a shocking reality.
The substance dealing such a crushing blow to your health and
responsible for many, if not most of the chronic diseases that are so
rampant in our society, is sugar -- and more specifically, fructose.
We now know without a doubt that sugar in your food, in all its
myriad of forms, is taking a devastating toll on the health of this
nation.
By the end of this article, you will have a solid understanding of
how and why this has happened. In order to really grasp this material,
you'll have to learn a little of the biochemistry of energy, which is
rather technical. But hang in there -- the knowledge you're about to
gain, and the impact it will have on your health, will be well worth the
effort.
I will try my best to make the more technical aspects as simple as I can for you.
Big Gulp, Meet Big Belt
We are eating far more than we were 25 years ago.
On average, men are consuming 187 more calories per day, and women
335 more calories. People who were never heavy before are becoming
overweight, and the obese are becoming more so. We are now a
"supersized" population.
But why?
Modern science has shown that the obesity epidemic isn't simply about
lack of self-control, but rather a phenomenon driven by biochemical
changes that have altered the way your body regulates energy.
Something has caused your appetite regulation system to go awry. Leptin,
the hormone responsible for satiety, isn't working. It isn't simply a
matter of calories in and calories out. Six-month old babies are the
latest victims of the obesity epidemic--diet and exercise cannot explain
that.
So, what are you eating now that you weren't eating thirty years ago?
What are you doing to yourself that started the day you were born?
Studies show that all of those extra calories are coming in the form of carbohydrates.
What carbohydrates in particular?
Sugar -- specifically, sugared drinks. Soft drinks (41 percent) and fruit drinks (35 percent) make up the majority of these extra calories.
Today, 55 percent of sweeteners used in food and beverage manufacturing are made from corn, and the number one source of calories in America is soda, in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). In fact, the average American drinks 60 gallons of soda every year.
High Fructose Corn Syrup Has Only Been Around One Generation!
HFCS was invented in 1966 in Japan and introduced to the American
market in 1975. Food and beverage manufacturers began switching their
sweeteners from sucrose (table sugar) to corn syrup when they discovered
that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) was far cheaper to make -- sucrose
costs about three times as much as HFCS.
HFCS is about 20% sweeter than table sugar. HFCS is either 42% or 55%
fructose, and sucrose is 50% fructose, so it's a wash in terms of
sweetness.
Still, the switch from sugar to fructose drastically altered the average American diet. The statistics are beyond alarming:
-
Corn syrup is now found in every type of processed, pre-packaged
food you can think of. In fact, the use of HFCS in the U.S. diet
increased by a whopping 10,673 percent between 1970 and 2005, according to a report by the USDA[i].
-
The current annual consumption of sugar is 141 pounds per person, and 63 pounds of that is HFCS.
-
Adolescents are taking in 73 grams per day of fructose, mostly from soft drinks and juice drinks -- and 12 percent of their total caloric intake is from fructose alone.
-
In the past century, fructose consumption has increased 5-fold.
-
Processed foods account for more than 90 percent of the money Americans spend on meals.
You've probably heard the statistic that one soda a day is worth 15
pounds of fat per year. However, one soda today does not equal one soda
of yesteryear. The original coke bottle was 6.5 ounces. Now, you have
20-ounce bottles and a 44-ounce Big Gulp.
Tragically, many infant formulas are more than 50 percent sugar -- 43
percent being corn syrup solids. You might as well be giving your baby a
bottle of Coke or Pepsi.
The War on Fat
Sugar's rise to power was really an accidental by-product of three political winds, beginning with the Nixon administration:
-
In 1972, Richard Nixon wanted to reduce food costs as part of his
"war on poverty." He partnered with the USDA to do whatever means
necessary to bring food costs down.
-
In 1975, HFCS was introduced, replacing sugar because it was cheap and readily available.
-
In the mid 1970s, dietary fats were blamed for heart disease
(more about this later), giving rise to the "low-fat craze." Market
response was an explosion of processed convenience foods, all nonfat and
low fat, most of which tasted like sawdust unless sugar was added.
Fructose was used to make fat-free products more palatable.
In 1982, the American Heart Association (AHA), the American Medical
Association (AMA), and the United Stated Department of Agriculture
(USDA) reduced fats
from 40 percent of your diet to 30 percent. You eagerly complied,
believing you were lowering your risks for both obesity and
cardiovascular disease.
Yet, as the low-fat craze spread, so did rates of heart disease,
diabetes, and obesity -- the very illnesses you thought you were
preventing. Clearly, the plan wasn't working.
Justification for Low-Fat Diet
But how did the war on fat start, in the first place?
It began with a study called the Seven Countries study by Ancel Keys[ii],
a Minnesota epidemiologist who used multivariate regression analysis to
examine diet and disease. He compared the diets of seven countries, and
his main conclusion was that saturated fats were responsible for
cardiovascular disease. After much heated public debate, this notion
that saturated fats caused heart disease was widely adopted, especially
once he made the cover of Time Magazine in 1980.
Keys' study laid the foundation for nutrition science, education, and public policy for the next three decades.
There was only one problem. His conclusions were dead wrong.
Keys' neglected to perform the converse analysis demonstrating that the effect of saturated fat on cardiovascular disease was independent of sucrose.
In other words, sucrose and saturated fat were co-mingled into his
data. In retrospect, it is impossible to tease out the relative
contributions of sucrose versus saturated fat on cardiovascular disease
in this study because the original data is long gone and Keys has passed
on.
Additionally he never separated out the issue of how the fat was
consumed. There is a major difference in raw and cooked animal fat,
especially fat cooked at high temperatures, which clearly produces known
carcinogens.
Nevertheless, lowering fat (without regard to sugar) became the
nutritional model that persists to this day, despite copious evidence
that it doesn't work.
As your fats went from 40 percent to 30 percent, your carbohydrates
went from 40 percent to 55 percent. And this carbohydrate increase was
of the worst possible kind: SUGAR.
Proof that Sugar Cause Obesity
The American Beverage Association claims there is "no association between high fructose corn syrup and obesity."[iii]
However, a long lineup of scientific studies suggest otherwise:
-
Dr. David Ludwig of Boston Children's Hospital did a study of the effects of sugar-sweetened drinks on obesity in children[iv].
He found that for each additional serving of a sugar-sweetened drink,
both body mass index and odds of obesity increased in the children he
studied.
-
Dr. Kelly Brownell of Yale University did a systematic review and
meta-analysis of 88 studies about the association between soft drink
consumption and health outcomes[v]. He found clear associations between soft drink consumption and higher body weight.
-
The Fizzy Drink Study in Christchurch, England explored the
effects on obesity when soda machines were removed from schools for one
year. In the schools where the machines were removed, obesity stayed
constant. In the schools where soda machines remained, obesity rates
continued to rise[vi].
-
A study by Schulze in JAMA in 2004[vii] provides further evidence that sugared drinks cause type II diabetes.
-
A similar study in 2008 of African American women[viii] demonstrated higher intake of both sugar-sweetened soft drinks and fruit drinks leads to higher rates of type II diabetes.
-
In a very recent study[ix],
sixteen volunteers were fed a controlled diet including high levels of
fructose. Ten weeks later, the volunteers had produced new fat cells
around their hearts, livers and other digestive organs. They also showed
signs of food-processing abnormalities linked to diabetes and heart
disease. A second group of volunteers who were fed a similar diet, but
with glucose replacing fructose, did not have these problems.
But it doesn't stop at soft drinks.
Sweetened fruit drinks are contributing to your expanding waistline
as well. High fruit juice intake (sucrose) is associated with childhood
obesity, especially in low-income families[x].
What is it in soft drinks and juice drinks that is damaging your health?
Primarily, it's the fructose. Read on to discover exactly how and why this is so.
Fructose is NOT the Same as Glucose
Glucose is the form of energy you were designed to run on. Every cell
in your body, every bacterium -- and in fact, every living thing on the
Earth -- uses glucose for energy.
Via:article.mercola
……or just devour yourself.
