This Common Food Ingredient Can Really Mess Up Your Metabolism

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This Common Food Ingredient Can Really Mess Up Your Metabolism

Posted by: Dr. Mercola

January 26 2010 | 236,917 views

by Dr. Mercola

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 also about 20 times sweeter than table sugar. So it was expected

that

less sweetener would be needed per product. Instead, the amount of

sweeteners

has steadily risen.

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.

•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.

No wonder there is an obesity epidemic.

The War on Fat

Sugar's rise to power was really an accidental by-product of three

political

winds, beginning with the Nixon administration:

1.In 1972, 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.

2.In 1975, HFCS was introduced, replacing sugar because it was cheap and

readily

available.

3.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. 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. 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.

Image from Clinton Community College

Fructose is not the same molecule. Glucose is a 6-member ring, but

fructose is a

5-member ring. Sucrose (table sugar) is 50 percent glucose and 50

percent

fructose, and HFCS is 42-55 percent fructose.

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

as a

bolus from sweetened drinks. In vegetables and fruits, it's mixed in

with fiber,

vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and beneficial phytonutrients, all which

moderate

the negative metabolic effects.

It isn't that fructose itself is bad -- it is the MASSIVE DOSES you're

exposed

to that make it dangerous.

Before you can understand the differences between how your body

metabolizes

glucose and fructose, you have to have a basic understanding of LDL.

There are Two Types of LDL -- and Only One is Bad

In the 1970s, low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) were discovered. LDLs were

found

to be higher in people with cardiovascular disease, so the focus of

medicine and

nutrition became lowering your LDLs.

One of the crucial pieces of the puzzle that wasn't recognized at the

time was

that there are two kinds of LDL: Pattern A and Pattern B.

1.Pattern A LDLs are large, light, buoyant " floating " LDLs that don't

get under

your endothelial cells, and they don't cause plaque formation. They are

harmless.

2.Pattern B LDL (or VLDLs) are smaller, denser LDLs that are able to

wedge

themselves under your epithelial cells and therefore roughen surfaces

and

stimulate plaque formation. These are the bad guys.

Unfortunately, when you get a standard lipid profile at your annual

check-up,

the LDL measured is a combination of both types. Lab measurements lump

them

together unless you have a very specialized panel, which most physicians

don't

order.

To decipher whether or not you have an excess of the bad type, you can

look at

your triglycerides and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels. (HDL, or

" high

density lipoprotein is commonly called " good cholesterol. " )

Here is a simple way to determine if you have too much bad LDL:

1.If your triglycerides are low and your HDL is high, then the LDL you

have is

the good variety.

2.If your triglycerides are high and your HDL is low, then the LDL you

have is

the bad variety. The triglyceride-to-HDL ratio is a far better indicator

of

cardiovascular disease than the total cholesterol-to-HDL ratio that

everyone

uses.

Now, here's the bottom line: Dietary fat raises your large, buoyant LDL

-- the

one that is harmless. Dietary sugar raises your small, dense LDL -- the

one that

correlates with heart disease!

So, what has happened over the past 30 years was that sugar was added to

our

low-fat foods to improve palatability -- in the form of either HFCS or

sucrose

-- and a high-carb, high-risk diet was created -- simply the worst

combination

for your health.

And the fiber was eliminated.

Fiber Foregone

Fiber is an important nutrient (although not acknowledged as such by the

government) and offers many health benefits, particularly if the fiber

comes

from vegetables.

A high-fiber diet may offer some protection from colorectal cancer,

although the

research is unclear exactly how this works and what all the factors are.

The

benefits of vegetable fiber are not yet completely understood. We do

know that

the risk of colorectal cancer is lower among populations with high

intakes of

vegetables and fruits, and there is some evidence that vegetable fiber

may offer

some protection from prostate cancer.

Fiber has three important roles:

•It reduces the rate of intestinal carbohydrate absorption, reducing

your

insulin response.

•It increases the speed of transit of intestinal contents to your

ileum, which

speeds up release of satiety hormones.

•It inhibits absorption of some free fatty acids to your colon,

which would

become short chain fatty acids, which suppress insulin.

Thousands of years ago your ancestors likely consumed 100 to 300 grams

of fiber

every day. Now, you are lucky to get 12 grams daily.

Why is this?

•Fiber-less foods are cheap.

•They have a longer shelf life and are easier to ship. This makes

them easier to

export to other countries.

•Fiber-rich foods take too long to prepare and eat, and are often

less appealing

to the general public.

The standard American diet (SAD) is typically loaded with processed

foods full

of sugar, and devoid of most nutrients and fiber. Sounds like the

perfect recipe

for an explosion of chronic disease.

The Molecule that Makes Fat Stick to You

Obesity is a disorder of excess fat accumulation. But what regulates fat

accumulation?

Fat is a metabolically active tissue. Your adipose tissue is in a

perpetual

state of flux with free fatty acids (FFAs) being converted into

triglycerides

and back again, in an ongoing cycle.

FFAs can move in and out of your cells, across cell membranes, but

triglycerides

(three fatty acid molecules plus one glycerol molecule) are too big to

cross.

Fat enters and exits a cell as FFA, but is stored as a triglyceride.

When fuel

is needed, the triglyceride is broken down into FFAs, which can then be

burned

as fuel.

The glycerol molecule, which is a primary component of a triglyceride,

comes

from something called glycerol-3-phosphate (g-3-p), or " activated

glycerol, "

which originates from the metabolism of glucose. The amount of G-3-p you

make

determines the rate that FFAs are " esterified " into triglycerides inside

your

fat cells[xi].

The rate of deposition of fat into your fat cells is dependent on the

presence

of g-3-p. The more g-3-p that is available, the more fat is deposited.

Carbohydrate Biochemistry 101

I promised you a crash course in biochemistry -- so here we go.

Much of the following information comes from the important work of Dr.

Lustig[xii] Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at

the

University of California, San Francisco.

In order to appreciate just how damaging fructose is to your body, it is

crucial

to have a basic understanding of how different types of carbohydrates

are

metabolized.

We'll start with glucose since it's the basic carbohydrate energy source

for all

living cells.

I. Glucose Metabolism

Glucose is the basic fuel for living organisms, from bacteria to humans,

and is

the primary energy source for your brain. It is a product of

photosynthesis and

is found in rice, corn and other grains, and bread and pasta.

Once you take in glucose from a meal -- like, say, from two slices of

bread --

80 percent of it is used by all of the organs of your body -- every

single cell.

The remaining 20 percent goes to your liver to be metabolized and

stored.

The following is what happens to that 20 percent, once it reaches your

liver:

•Whatever glucose your body doesn't need immediately gets converted

into

glycogen for storage in the liver. Glycogen is your body's non-toxic

short-term

energy storage package, where it can be easily converted to energy when

you need

it. Your liver has no limit to how much glycogen it can store without

detrimental effects. (That is what athletes take advantage of when they

" carbo-load. " )

•A small amount of pyruvate is produced, which ends up being

converted to ATP

(the chemical storage form of energy) and carbon dioxide. An even

smaller

quantity of citrate is produced from this process through the " citrate

shuttle, "

which ends up as VLDL (very low density lipoproteins, the bad ones) in a

process

known as de novo lipogenesis -- but we're talking about a very small

amount

(less than one calorie from two slices of bread).

•Insulin is released by your pancreas in response to the rise in

blood glucose

(i.e., blood sugar), which helps the glucose get into your cells.

Without

insulin, your cells would not be able to process the glucose and

therefore would

have no energy for movement, growth, repair, or other functions. Insulin

is key

to unlocking the door of the cell to allow the glucose to be transferred

from

the bloodstream into the cell.

•When you consume 120 calories of glucose, less than one calorie

contributes to

adverse metabolic outcomes.

This is all very normal, and it's how you were designed to operate.

II. Ethanol Metabolism

Ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, is the favorite carbohydrate of many. But it

is also

a carbohydrate that undergoes a very different metabolic process,

leaving in its

wake a trail of toxins a mile long.

Ethanol is an acute central nervous system toxin and a chronic

hepatotoxin due

to the fact that it must be metabolized almost completely in the liver.

After consuming an alcoholic beverage, 10 percent of the ethanol gets

broken

down by the stomach and intestine as a " first pass " effect, and another

10

percent is metabolized by the brain and other organs. The fact that

ethanol is

partially metabolized in your brain is the reason you experience that

familiar

" buzz. "

The remaining 80 percent hits the liver, where it must be broken down.

This is

four times the load on the liver as the same number of calories from

glucose.

But the metabolic process in the liver is quite different from that of

glucose.

This metabolic cascade can be summarized as follows:

•The liver converts ethanol to aldehydes, which produce free

radicals that

damage proteins in the liver.

•Some of these aldehydes are converted to glucose, but a large

amount of excess

citrate is formed in the process, stimulating " junk chemicals " that

result in

free fatty acids (FFAs), VLDL and triglycerides. As compared to the 1

calorie

from glucose that was converted to VLDL (see previous section), the same

caloric

intake from ethanol produces 30 calories of VLDL that are transported to

your

fat cells and contribute to your obesity, or participate in plaque

formation.

This is what leads to the dyslipidemia of alcoholism.

•The resulting lipids, together with the ethanol, lead to an enzyme

that begins

an inflammation cascade, which in turn causes hepatic insulin

resistance, liver

inflammation and cirrhosis.

•Fat globules accumulate in the liver as well, which can lead to

fatty liver

disease.

•Free fatty acids (FFAs) leave the liver and cause your skeletal

muscles to

become insulin resistant. This is a worse form of insulin resistance

than

hepatic insulin resistance and can lead to type II diabetes.

•After a 120-calorie bolus of ethanol, a large fraction (about 40

calories) can

contribute to disease.

Why am I including a discussion of ethanol metabolism in a report about

fructose?

Because, in nearly every way, fructose is metabolized the same way as

ethanol,

creating the same toxins in your body.

III. Fructose Metabolism

Now we finally come to fructose.

When you consume fructose, 100 percent of it goes directly to your liver

to be

metabolized. This is why it is a hepatotoxin -- it overloads the liver.

Fructose

metabolism creates the following adverse effects:

•Fructose is immediately converted to fructose-1-phosphate (F1P),

depleting your

liver cells of phosphates.

•The above process produces waste products in the form of uric acid.

Uric acid

blocks an enzyme that makes nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is your body's

natural

blood pressure regulator, so when it is blocked, your blood pressure

rises --

leading to hypertension. Elevated uric acid levels can also cause gout.

•Almost all of the F1P is turned into pyruvate, ending up as

citrate, which

results in de novo lipogenesis, the end products of which are FFAs,

VLDLs, and

triglycerides. The result -- hyperlipidemia.

•Fructose stimulates g-3-p (activated glycerol), which you will

recall is the

crucial molecule for turning FFAs into triglycerides within the fat

cells.

Remember, the rate of deposition of fat into fat cells is dependent on

the

presence of g-3-p. The more g-3-p that is available, the more fat is

deposited.

Fructose is the carbohydrate most efficiently converted into g-3-p11. In

other

words, fructose is the most lipophilic carbohydrate.

•FFAs are exported from the liver and taken up in skeletal muscle,

causing

skeletal muscle insulin resistance.

•Some of the FFAs stay in the liver, leading to fat droplet

accumulation,

hepatic insulin resistance and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

(NAFLD)[xiii][xiv].

•Insulin resistance stresses the pancreas, which pumps out more

insulin in

response to rising blood sugar as your cells are unable to get the sugar

out of

your bloodstream, and this can progress to type II diabetes.

•As with a bolus dose of ethanol, a 120-calorie bolus of fructose

results in a

large fraction (again, about 40 calories) that directly contributes to

disease.

Do these symptoms sound a bit familiar to you? Hypertension, lipogenesis

and

dyslipidemia, obesity, inflammation, insulin resistance, and central

nervous

system leptin resistance?

If you are thinking it sounds a lot like classic metabolic syndrome, you

are

dead on!

The point to take away is: consuming fructose is consuming fat. Fructose

is not

really a carbohydrate -- a high fructose diet is a HIGH FAT diet. A

high-fat

diet that creates a vicious cycle of consumption that won't turn itself

off.

You can see by comparing the metabolism of fructose with the metabolism

of

ethanol that they are very similar. In fact, when you compare the

metabolism of

150 calories of soda with 150 calories of beer (a 12 ounce can of each),

about

90 calories reach the liver in either case. Fructose causes most of the

same

toxic effects as ethanol because both come from sugar fermentation.

Both ethanol metabolism and fructose metabolism lead to visceral

adiposity

(belly fat), insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome.

Studies are accumulating that bear this out.

For example, high-fructose diets were shown to cause dyslipidemia in

healthy

people with and without a family history of type II diabetes, a recent

study

showed[xv].

Two other studies were done using medical students, both looking at

biological

responses to fructose loading. In the first, the med students were given

either

a large glucose load or a large fructose load. In the students given

fructose,

almost 30 percent of the calories ended up as fat. In the students given

glucose, almost none ended up as fat.

In the second study, medical students were given a high-fructose diet

for 6

days. In just that short time, their insulin resistance and

triglycerides

doubled!

The Neurochemical Basis for Gluttony

You eat as a result of the activation of the " reward pathway " (also

known as the

hedonic pathway) of your brain.

Your brain's pleasure center (aka ventral tegmental area, or VTA, and

nucleus

accumbens, or NA) is the root of all behavior, driven by chemical

messengers

that are intimately tied into the energy processes I have outlined

above.

The part of your brain that responds to what you eat is the same part

that

responds to nicotine, morphine, amphetamine, ethanol, sex and exercise!

That is

why people taking narcotics tend to overeat.

Leptin and insulin are modulators of these reward responses, decreasing

this

VTA-NA activity. In other words, leptin and insulin cause your brain to

send you

signals to stop eating.

Fructose undermines these normal satiety signals, increasing caloric

consumption

both directly and indirectly:

1.Fructose does not stimulate a leptin rise, so your satiety signals are

diminished.

2.Glucose suppresses ghrelin (the hunger hormone—it makes you want

more food),

but fructose does not.

3.By raising triglycerides, fructose reduces the amount of leptin

crossing your

blood-brain barrier.

4.Fructose increases insulin levels, interfering with the communication

between

leptin and your hypothalamus, so your pleasure signals aren't

extinguished. Your

brain senses starvation and prompts you to eat more.

5.Fructose decreases the production of malonyl-CoA, which may help

promote a

sense of energy adequacy.

Along with causing insulin resistance, fructose alters the hedonic

response to

food thereby driving excessive caloric intake, setting up a positive

feedback

loop for overconsumption.

Big Fat Lies From the Corn Industry

Now that scientific studies have shown the metabolic similarity between

HFCS and

sucrose, the Corn Refiners Association has embarked on a vociferous

campaign to

convince the public 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 141 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.

Now the corn industry has come up with another product it's using in

beverages

called " crystalline fructose. " This is produced by allowing the fructose

to

crystallize from a fructose-enriched corn syrup, resulting in a product

that is

99.5 percent pure fructose -- a fructose level twice as high as regular

HFCS!

Clearly, all the health problems associated with HFCS could become even

more

pronounced with this product.

Making matters worse, crystalline fructose may also contain arsenic,

lead,

chloride and heavy metals -- a virtual laundry list of toxic agents you

should

clearly avoid. In fact, more than one study has detected unsafe mercury

levels

in HFCS[xvi]. If you have children, all of these contaminants can impact

your

child's development and long-term health.

Why doesn't the FDA regulate fructose since it poses the same health

risks as

ethanol -- and it regulates ethanol?

The FDA doesn't touch chronic toxins. They regulate only acute toxins,

and

ethanol falls into that category because it produces immediately toxic

neurological effects. Fructose doesn't get metabolized in the brain, so

it's

effects, although damaging, are cumulative and magnify over time.

Also realize that nearly all HFCS is made from genetically modified

corn, which

comes with its own set of risks.

The FDA classifies fructose as GRAS: Generally Regarded As Safe. Which

pretty

much means nothing and is based on nothing.

It is interesting to note that soda taxes[xvii] have recently been

proposed both

in New York and California, and legislation for the removal of soft

drinks from

schools has been enacted in several states.

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.

In fact, I believe that the positive health impacts of breaking the

country's

sugar addiction would be even greater than if everyone stopped smoking,

because

elevated insulin levels are the foundation of nearly every chronic

disease known

to man, from cancer and arthritis to cardiovascular disease.

I also realize you 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:

1.Use the herb stevia

2.Use organic cane sugar in moderation

3.Use organic raw honey in moderation

Avoid ALL artificial sweeteners, which can damage your health even more

quickly

than HFCS.

And I don't recommend 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 has gained meteoric popularity

due to a

great marketing campaign, but any health benefits present in the

original agave

plant are processed away.

Be sure to eat your sugar with fiber ... as in a piece of fruit. As Dr.

Lustig

says, " When God made the poison, he packaged it with the antidote:

fiber. "

Wait 20 minutes before second portions at meals, giving your brain a

chance to

receive satiety signals.

And exercise regularly. Dr. Ludwig recommends you " buy your screen time

with

physical activity. "

Exercise is important for several reasons, some of which might surprise

you:

•Exercise improves skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity (insulin

works best in

your muscles)

•Exercise reduces stress and lowers cortisol, which decreases

appetite

•Exercise suppresses ghrelin, thereby decreasing appetite

•Exercise speeds up metabolic cycles, reducing citrate levels, thus

reducing fat

production

•Exercise can make you sharper, reduce arthritis, lift your mood,

strengthen

your bones, and even slow down aging

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.

A Word of Warning About Infant Formula

And finally, be extremely careful about the infant formula you are

feeding your

baby. Nearly all infant formulas have as much or more high fructose corn

syrup

than a can of soda -- in addition to many other things that are

extremely

detrimental to your baby's health and development.

You have learned that, metabolically, there is very little difference

between

ethanol and sugar, so by giving your infant formula, you might as well

be giving

him a bottle of beer or soda!

And studies have shown that the earlier you expose kids to sweets, the

more they

crave them later.

It is important for pregnant women to keep their blood sugars well

managed not

only for their own health, but also for the long-term health of their

children.

Researchers have found that children born to mothers with gestational

diabetes

(high blood sugar during pregnancy) had an 82 percent chance of becoming

obese

between the ages of 5 and 7 through a phenomenon called " metabolic

imprinting. "

Even mothers with elevated blood sugar, short of gestational diabetes,

had

children with a significantly increased risk for obesity.[xviii]

I advocate breastfeeding if at all possible -- it is by far the

healthiest

option.

One of the most clear-cut, non-debatable topics in health care is that

breast

milk is the best source of nutrition for newborns. The benefits to the

baby and

the new mom are enormous. Breastfed infants have shown lower obesity

rates in

later childhood[xix].

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr. H. Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics in

the

Division of Endocrinology at University of California, San Francisco,

for

sharing his incredibly important insights, without which this article

would not

have been possible. Much of the above information came directly from Dr.

Lustig's work related to central regulation of energy balance, and I am

very

grateful for his willingness to share it with me so that I can pass it

along to

you.

------------------------------------------------------------------------\

--------

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[iii] American Beverage Association, News Release, March 25, 2004

[iv] Ludwig D.S., , K.E. and Gortmaker, S.L. " Relation between

consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks and childhood obesity: a

prospective,

observational analysis " The Lancet Feb 17, 2001 Volume 357, Issue 9255,

pp

505-508

[v] Vartanian L.R., Schwartz M.B. and Brownell K.D. " Effects of soft

drink

consumption on nutrition and health: A systematic review and

meta-analysis " AJPH

April 2007, vol 97, No. 41, pp 667-675.

[vi] Esterbrook J. " Schools that can soda cut obesity, " CBS News Health

April

23, 2004

[vii] Apovian C.M. " Sugar-sweetened soft drinks, obesity, and type 2

diabetes "

JAMA 2004;292:978-979

[viii] Palmer J.R., Boggs D.A., Krishnan S., Hu F.B., Singer M., and

Rosenberg

L. " Sugar-sweetened beverages and incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus

in

African American women " Arch Intern Med. 2008;168(14):1487-1492.

[ix] Stanhope K.L., et al. " Consuming fructose-sweetened, not

glucose-sweetened,

beverages increases visceral adiposity and lipids and decreases insulin

sensitivity in overweight/obese humans " J Clin Invest. 2009 May

1;119(5):1322-1334

[x] Faith M.S., Dennison B.A., Edmunds L.S., Stratton H.H. " Fruit juice

intake

increased adiposity gain in children from low-income families: weight

status by

environment interaction " Pediatrics 118:2066-2075.

[xi] Taubs G. Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional

Wisdom

on Diet, Weight Control, and Disease, 2007, Knopf; and Medical Grand

Rounds

presentation, Datmouth-Hitchcock,

[xii] 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)

[xiii] Lim J.S., Mietus-Snyder M.L., Valente A., Schwartz J.M., and

Lustig R.H.

" Fructose, NAFLD, and metabolic syndrome, " Dept. of Pediatrics and

Medicine,

University of California, San Francisco 2009

[xiv] Ouyang X., Cirillo P., Sautin Y., McCall S., Bruchette J.L., Diehl

A.M.

R.J., Abdelmalek M.F. " Fructose consumption as a risk factor for

non-alcoholic fatty liver disease " J. Hepatol. 2008 Jun;48(6):993-9

[xv] Le K.A., Ilth M., Kreis R., Faeh D., Bortolotti M., Tran C., Boesch

C., and

Tappy L. " Fructose overconsumption causes dyslipidemia and ectopic lipid

deposition in healthy subjects with and without a family history of type

2

diabetes " Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Jun;89(6):1760-5

[xvi] " Why is the FDA unwilling to study evidence of mercury in

high-fructose

corn syrup? " 20 Feb 2009, Grist

[xvii] Brownstein J. " Public health leaders propose soda tax "

ABCNews/Health,

September 17, 2009

[xviii] Hillier T.A., Pedula K.L., Schmidt B.A., Mullen J.A.,

M.,

Pettitt D.J. " Childhood obesity and metabolic imprinting: The ongoing

effects of

maternal hyperglycemia " Diabetes Care September 2007 vol. 30 no. 9 pages

2287-2292

[xix] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for

Children

and Families, Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center (ECLKC)

" Prevention

of overweight and obesity in infants and toddlers "