Fructose – Natural and Healthy Right? ….. WRONG!!!

18 Sep Fructose – Natural and Healthy Right? ….. WRONG!!!

The food industry has inundated the market with foods sweetened with fructose.  Look up most any sweet product on the market and you’ll see the now infamous “high fructose corn syrup” listed in the ingredients.  There is a lie being perpetrated that high fructose corn syrup – because it is a “natural sugar” – is a safe and cheap alternative to glucose.  This is not the case.

From 1970 through 1990, American’s consumption of high fructose corn syrup rose by more than 1000% percent.  This increase paralleled the rise of the obesity epidemic.  In fact, if you have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, belly fat, or insulin resistance, you are likely suffering from fructose poisoning.  The reason for these health problems is that high intake of fructose acts like a toxin in your body.  Like toxins, fructose is metabolized almost exclusively in the liver, where it is converted into dangerous byproducts like excess lipids and uric acid.  Fructose results in glycation in the cells – meaning it chemically bakes proteins – so they are rigid and can’t be utilized by the cells.

But fructose is natural right?  Sure…and in the limited amounts you get from fruit and vegetables that contain fruit sugar, especially those that are low on the glycemic index, it is absorbed slowly – allowing your liver to safely clear it without the dangerous by products.  Fructose is a naturally occurring sugar found in fruits and vegetables, Glucose is a naturally occurring sugar found in carbohydrates.  Sucrose or table sugar is made up of 50% fructose and 50 % glucose.

When the food industry discovered that high fructose corn syrup – which has 5% percent more fructose than table sugar – could be produces and utilized in foods for a cheaper price than even table sugar, they were able drive down the cost of sweetened foods, while creating an increased need for sugar sweetened foods.  Because Fructose can’t suppress the appetite the way Glucose does, people will continue eating even after they are full.  With this combination of lower price and higher cravings, sales of these highly sweetened – yet highly dangerous foods rose.

Now we can add to the equation the fact that the corn used to produce this high fructose corn syrup has been genetically modified.  It has been molecularly changed to include a pesticide in the DNA of the corn so that insects who consume it will have their stomachs explode.  Human bodies are not designed to process the pesticide any more than the insects are.

To be safe – let’s avoid the use of high fructose corn syrup in our diets.  Food manufacturers will change if the demand for better sweeteners is high.  All it takes is One Voice!!!