Fructose Discoveries

I know that many people are familiar with fructose. We generally think of it as the natural sugar found in fruit. Well, recently some fascinating things have been discovered about fructose that I want to share with you.

Excess fructose has been found to cause an increase in uric acid. This in turn leads to high blood pressure, bad triglycerides, fatty liver, insulin resistance, kidney disease, and obesity.

Researchers have found in their testing that glucose does not cause these problems by it's self. But if it is combined with fructose, it actually causes the body to have a higher up take of fructose than it would normally have. Thus if glucose and fructose are taken together, the problem is worse than if fructose is taken alone.

Sucrose (table sugar) is half fructose and half glucose.

However, researches also discovered that High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is even worse than the sucrose.

When your body goes through this process of being overloaded with fructose, which consequently overloads you with uric acid, your body then starts to crave the fructose, and a negative spiral ensues.

Interestingly the researchers also discovered that this uric acid problem is also caused by a common item consumed by many people. Beer. Evidently this is why people get beer belly.

So, if you have these kinds of problems what can you do?

The researchers tell us that the first thing to do is stop supplementing with fructose. Of course soft drinks are probably the biggest offender. Then eliminate any food that lists HFCS on the label.

Once you have eliminated fructose from your diet for 2 or 3 weeks, then you can go back to normal fructose intake. Normal means as part of a healthy diet, not what your normal consumption was before.

You see,researchers found that fructose that is eaten as part of a whole food, doesn't seem to cause these problems. The vitamins, minerals, enzymes, phyto-nutrients, and anti-oxidants found in whole foods keeps the fructose from causing the high uric acid problem.

The other thing to know is that if you do have a high uric acid problem in your body, there are several things that the researchers pointed out will help to normalize the situation, thus helping to heal the body.

Exercise helps to balance out uric acid. Vitamin C seems to cancel out the uric acid effects. Foods naturally high in phytates (phytic acid) help to balance out uric acid levels. These include nuts, whole grains, and many legumes. Processing these foods can drastically lower the phytate levels.

For instance leavened bread has a much lower phytate level than unleavened bread. Even sprouts have a much lower level of phytates than the raw whole grain.

Of course sprouts have other benefits. Again it comes down to balance in all things. Eat sprouts sometimes for all of their goodness, but other times just boil up some whole grains for a good dose of phytates. Cooking (at normal temperatures) doesn't destroy phytates.

Well, I hope you found this interesting and informative. Let me know.

Have a great day!
Coach G.

Researchers report can be found HERE if you want to read the whole thing.