Sugar May Be Bad, But This Sweetener Is Far More Deadly

[Guest guest]

Sugar May Be Bad, But This Sweetener Is Far More Deadly

Posted by: Dr. Mercola

 

January 02 2010 | 134,292

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Go to : http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/01/02/HighFructose-Corn-Syrup-Alters-Human-Metabolism.aspx

for the video by another doctor.

 

 

 

Scientists

have proved for the first time that fructose, a cheap form of sugar used in

thousands of food products and soft drinks, can damage human metabolism and is

fueling the obesity crisis.

Fructose, a

sweetener usually derived from corn, can cause dangerous growths of fat cells

around vital organs and is able to trigger the early stages of diabetes and

heart disease.

Over 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

disease. Another group of volunteers on the same diet, but with glucose sugar

replacing fructose, did not have these problems.

 

Sources:

 

Grist December

15, 2009

 

J Clin Invest

2009

 

Times Online 2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This study 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 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 also about 20 times sweeter than table sugar.

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

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.

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.

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.

Robert H. Lustig, MD: UCSF

Faculty Bio Page, and YouTube presentation “Sugar: The bitter truth”

and “The fructose epidemic” The

Bariatrician, 2009, Volume 24, No. 1, page

10)

[ii]

“Why is the

FDA unwilling to study evidence of mercury in high-fructose corn syrup?”

20 Feb 2009, Grist

Related

Links:

Dramatic

Example of How the Food Industry Lies to You About Corn

Guess Who

Funds High Fructose Corn Syrup Studies?

Sugar is

Back on Food Labels—This Time as a Selling Point