The short answer is: yes.
I know, I know. You’ve heard it before. Fat, carbohydrates, red meat, eggs, margarine, chocolate, bananas, carrots, soy…everything it seems has been at one point good for you, and another point something to avoid. I’ll be the first one to say I wish things were simpler. It would certainly make my job easier.
The fact of the matter is, every day we learn a little more. We understand a little better about how the body works and about how different foods and nutrients affect us. Oftentimes we jump to conclusions prematurely, and then when we discover some new knowledge, we have to recant. (Take eggs, for example. Once we discovered that plaques found in arteries contain large amounts of cholesterol, we panicked over the high level of cholesterol found in egg yolks. Now we understand that dietary cholesterol is not actually a significant trigger for plaque production…saturated and trans fats have far more impact. So, once again eggs are okay to eat.)
This brings me to sugar. Before I get too far, it would be useful to understand that the word sugar has many different meanings. To most, and in the context of this blog post, it refers to added sugars such as table sugar, honey, maple syrup, high-fructose corn syrup etc. Sugar is also a generic “catch-all” for what scientists refer to as “simple sugars” or mono – and di-saccharides. This group includes sucrose (table sugar), lactose (milk sugar), and their component parts: glucose, fructose, and galactose. (glucose + fructose = sucrose; glucose + galactose = lactose)
Glucose is the main source of energy for the body. It is a component of all foods containing carbohydrates, including fruits, vegetables, grains, and milk. When we eat these foods, glucose, as the end product of digestion, is taken into the bloodstream where it is carried to all parts of the body to provide a direct source of energy. On the other hand, neither fructose nor galactose can be used immediately; they must be taken to the liver in order to be converted into glucose for use.
I’m not going to address the conversion of galactose; while milk consumption (and I’m thinking of cheese here) has gone up in the last few decades, it comes nowhere close to the increase in fructose consumption. The question to be asked is, what happens when we overload the liver with fructose? The answer: fructose is easily converted to fat. And where does the fat go? It stays in the liver (creating a fatty liver), is released into the blood stream (increased triglycerides), or it is used to produce LDL (aka “bad cholesterol”, the stuff that gets stuck in arteries and causes plaque formation). All of these are risk factors for heart disease.
And that’s just the first problem. There’s also scientific evidence linking fructose to obesity, hypertension, and diabetes. In other words, all of the components of metabolic syndrome.
Today I’ve given you a bit of the science, and for my next post I’ll highlight some of the trends. The case is quite convincing. If you can’t wait to get more information on this topic, then I suggest you look into the work of Dr. Robert Lustig. He seems to be leading the charge in the battle against sugar. 60 Minutes recently did a report featuring Dr. Lustig which is well worth a look.
I’ll be back soon!
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