To fructose or not to fructose
There is a lot of information out there on the different types of sugar “substitutes”. As far as I am concerned there is no substitute for sugar. You either ban it outright or you decrease your intake. Having a substitute is simply allowing you to deceive yourself that you are doing yourself good, but in reality you may be putting the body under more pressure than is healthy. Another major problem with using substitutes is that people seem to eat more servings. They feel seeing as they are being “so good” they can have more.
Fructose is one of those products I am going to write about. Fructose has made a household name for itself, especially in the diabetic world, as being a great SS (sugar substitute). The mechanism behind fructose is that it does not go directly into the bloodstream after you eat it (as what happens when glucose and sucrose is digested). Fructose heads straight to the liver where it gets metabolised and is slowly released into the bloodstream. What happens is that insulin levels do not increase BUT it does increase your insulin resistance, which is a major contributor to Type 2 diabetes.
When large amounts of fructose are ingested, it is rapidly converted into fatty acids which are then added to your fat stores, especially in the liver and around the stomach. These fatty areas are very hard to get rid of and also are major contributors to developing Type 2 diabetes. When you ingest fructose you do not get the satiety feeling in the brain. Fructose does not cross the blood/brain barrier, hence you can find yourself eating more sweet foods sweetened with fructose because the brain has not registered that it has had enough sweetness.
Lastly, fructose can raise triglyceride levels, thus increasing resistance to heart disease. A study published in The Science Daily (2009) , found that obese people who drank a fructose sweetened drink with a meal had nearly 200% higher triglycerides levels than those who drank a glucose sweetened drink with their meals. I am not advocating drinking glucose sweetened drinks but you can see my point.
Hi Julie.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for your observations. Very interesting.
Could you please tell me if there is a danger in eating too many apples a day, as I understand that apples contain a type of sugar?
If someone ate say 3 apples a day, can that be offset by eating another vegetable or fruit to balance out the sugar intake from the apple?
Thank you.
Paul.
Apples contain both lots more than just sugar, they also contain insoluble fibre (to help keep you regular) and quercetin (great for hay fever). Yes you can eat too many in a day, as you need a variety of foods. Wheatgrass (both by juicing the grass or as a powdered supplement) as well as any green vegetables are great to alkaline the system, as well as giving you different nutrients that the body needs. You should try and rotate all your foods, even healthy treats need rotation.
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