Tuesday 100309

An Enemy Among Us

Does anyone know exactly what fructose is and in what foods it is in? I mean, I know but do you? The more and more research being done on this monosaccharide. Unlike glucose, that is up took through many tissues of the body, including the muscles, fructose is solely used by the body to refuel liver glycogen stores or energize liver cells but in either case, it is only metabolized by the liver.

The problem is that your liver glycogen stores are almost always full so where do you think this fructose goes? Any extra glucose gets stored as adipose tissue or fat.

Fructose is usually considered a solid carbohydrate source as it has a low glycemic response but as I mentioned above, it can only be metabolized by the liver or stored as fat. The only time this wouldn't be the case is in the morning when glycogen stores in the liver are lower. Most carbohydrates contain some level of fructose but it is those foods that contain a higher concentration that are dangerous.

Over-consumption of fructose has lead to insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance, hypertension, high insulin levels, and high triglycerides. The glucose that is created from fructose that can not be used by the liver, it is stored as fat. Usually it is stored in other areas of the body as the liver will try to keep itself from storing fat within the liver but as our intake of fructose has increased, this has become a problem and now there are more and more cases of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease being diagnosed.

Such foods are obviously HFCS or high fructose corn syrup, table sugar, fruit juices, carbonated sodas. I am assuming you know that fruits contain fructose as well but most of these are in their natural state and there is a trade-off of some sorts since fruits carry a large amount of anti-oxidants and are overly nutritious. Now, I am under the belief that most of the fruit in existence today is a mere ghost of what it was ancestrally. I believe that fruit back then was very bitter and no where as sweet as it is today. With that being said, there are many fruits that contain higher amounts of fructose and if nutrient timing is off can lead to those last few pounds or last percents of body-fat being very difficult to lose.

Take what I am saying with a grain of salt. Before you go and start losing fruit from your diet, take a look at labels of the foods you currently eat. Look for HFCS, corn syrup, crystalline fructose, or levulose. You can also google foods that are high in fructose. Rid your diet from these foods first and only start looking at fruit when you get everything else in check.

Some fruits that are high in fructose are apples, grapes, watermelon, bananas. Fruits lower in fructose are apricots, nectarines, peaches, cantaloupe, raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries.

Again, don't lose the fruit. No, not even apples, before you have everything else in check. Get rid of the processed foods first. Yes, even the processed foods you give your kids just because it's for the kids. I know because I have been guilty of this too. Cereals and grains. Get rid of them.

Once you have everything else in check and you are looking to increase performance to the highest level you are potentially capable of, or to feel the best you've ever felt, or to just look as good as you can, then and only then, do you start to tinker around with nutrient timing of fruit. Certain fruits in the morning and the rest of the day lots and lots of veggies and lots and lots of fat.

Do your own research. There will be websites that tout the benefits of fructose and there will be those that condemn it altogether. Make your own decisions. The best way I and many others promote that you check for yourself is to get off of whatever is being challenged for at least a month and then enter it back into the diet. This is usually enough time to let your body heal if the food is an irritant or in this month's time, your body, performance, and/or health might change dramatically with the food not in your diet or at least significantly reduced in your diet.

Let me know.

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Fructose. Maybe Not So Natural...and Not So Safe, by Jack Challem - The Nutrition Reporter
Fructose: Sweet, But Dangerous, Laura Dolson - About.com
Fruit: Are You Missing It?, by Nikola Howard - CarbHealth Magazine

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Research Just Released Supports the Benefits of Fructose, contact: Beth Hubrich, RD - Calorie Control Council
The Truth About Fructose - A website created by the Calorie Control Council to educate us on the safety of fructose and the reasons it is getting a bad rap in the media.
About the Council - Associated with the article and website above

Remember that there is also a lobby group for High Fructose Corn Syrup called the Corn Refiners Association. They have a website call SweetSurprise that tries to validate the use of HFCS. Check it out and make a decision for yourself.