FRUCTOSE CONVERTS TO FAT

Joanne_Moniz

an excerpt of an article by Patrick J. Skerrett, Executive Editor, Harvard Health

The following statement taken from part of his article really says a lot!!!

"Every year I attend scores of talks on health and nutrition. Few prompt me to change what I do or what I eat..... thinking hard about sugar in my children’s diets.


This is a good explanation of how sugar converts to fat in the body when eaten in excess.

When fructose is joined to glucose, it makes sucrose. Sucrose is abundant in sugar cane, sugar beets, corn, and other plants. When extracted and refined, sucrose makes table sugar. In the 1800s and early 1900s, the average American took in about 15 grams of fructose (about half an ounce), mostly from eating fruits and vegetables. Today we average 55 grams per day (73 grams for adolescents). The increase in fructose intake is worrisome because it suspiciously parallels increases in obesity, diabetes, and a new condition called nonalcoholic fatty liver disease that now affects up to one-third of Americans. (You can read more about nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in a Harvard Health Letter article.)

Virtually every cell in the body can use glucose for energy. In contrast, only liver cells break down fructose. What happens to fructose inside liver cells is complicated. One of the end products is triglyceride, a form of fat. Uric acid and free radicals are also formed.

None of this is good. Triglycerides can build up in liver cells and damage liver function. Triglycerides released into the bloodstream can contribute to the growth of fat-filled plaque inside artery walls. Free radicals (also called reactive oxygen species) can damage cell structures, enzymes, and even genes. Uric acid can turn off production of nitric oxide, a substance that helps protect artery walls from damage. Another effect of high fructose intake is insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes.


Every year I attend scores of talks on health and nutrition. Few prompt me to change what I do or what I eat. Lustig’s talk has me looking at the amount of sugar I take in, and thinking hard about sugar in my children’s diets.

BigT555

everything converts to fat.
don't overcomplicate everything, thats not what this site is about. sure some foods are worse than others when not aten in moderation but this is about calories in vs. out

_HeartsOnFire_

Please STOP with your scare tactics.

Over consumption of ANYTHING turns to fat.

Sugar is NOT the devil.

SunofaBeach14

Another chicken little post on sugar . . .

Strokingdiction

What everyone above me said except the OP.

MystikPixie

That cereal looks delicious!!

cpdiminish

Thanks for sharing. I love knowing the science and don't see why anyone would think this post was scary or complicated. The process is called gluconeogenesis and the liver is actually involved in the metabolism of things other than fructose.

Even people who are already extremely fit might want to know more about the way we metabolise food because those who have really low fat percentages and have restricted caloric intake could have problems on the other end of the spectrum.

Way too many people on this site forget that fitness is more than just weight or muscle tone. Information like this is much more interesting than just repeating the mantra "calories in-calories out".

kgeyser

Oh Joanne, do you think we can't google? Here's another snip from the article that you conveniently left out:

Experts still have a long way to go to connect the dots between fructose and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Higher intakes of fructose are associated with these conditions, but clinical trials have yet to show that it causes them.

And here's a link to the article in its entirety, since I have a little thing called ethics:

http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/is-fructose-bad-for-you-201104262425

defauIt

Everything converts to fat if you eat too much of it. Fat is just the natural way your body stores surplus energy so it can use it later when it needs it.

Don't eat surplus calories and you don't need to worry about anything getting turned into fat.

It honestly seems like some people refuse to believe in very simple science and instead go out of their way to find some absurd boogeyman to blame all their problems on.

Cranquistador

TADA

Galatea_Stone

Oh Joanne, do you think we can't google? Here's another snip from the article that you conveniently left out:

Experts still have a long way to go to connect the dots between fructose and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Higher intakes of fructose are associated with these conditions, but clinical trials have yet to show that it causes them.

And here's a link to the article in its entirety, since I have a little thing called ethics:

http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/is-fructose-bad-for-you-201104262425

I love it when someone throws in the awesome part of the articles. Thank you.

3dogsrunning

Great, now I'm craving Fruit Loops and the store is closed. :grumble:

kgeyser

We don't mind opposing viewpoints in our quest for knowledge here at MFP, do we?

This review challenges the fructose hypothesis by comparing normal U.S. levels and patterns of fructose intake with contemporary experimental models and looking for substantive cause-and-effect evidence from real-world diets. It is concluded that 1) fructose intake at normal population levels and patterns does not cause biochemical outcomes substantially different from other dietary sugars and 2) extreme experimental models that feature hyperdosing or significantly alter the usual dietary glucose-to-fructose ratio are not predictive of typical human outcomes or useful to public health policymakers. It is recommended that granting agencies and journal editors require more physiologically relevant experimental designs and clinically important outcomes for fructose research.

From Challenging the Fructose Hypothesis: New Perspectives on Fructose Consumption and Metabolism (March 2013)
http://advances.nutrition.org/content/4/2/246.full

PikaKnight

Oh Joanne, do you think we can't google? Here's another snip from the article that you conveniently left out:

Experts still have a long way to go to connect the dots between fructose and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Higher intakes of fructose are associated with these conditions, but clinical trials have yet to show that it causes them.

And here's a link to the article in its entirety, since I have a little thing called ethics:

http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/is-fructose-bad-for-you-201104262425

Oh and big surprise. Joanne cherry picked the article. :laugh:

wheird

I laughed pretty hard at this. :laugh:

omma_to_3

I eat a LOT of sugar. Far more than I should, I know. And yet...I've cut my triglycerides to less than half In The last year. They're far below the top of normal -heck, actually below the optimal level!

Maybe you really can outrun a bad diet? Or...sugar actually isn't evil...

Forty6and2

Dear OP



Sincerely, MFP

jofjltncb6

I prefer Lucky Charms...dry.

I eat all the crappy cereal first and then enjoy the marshmallows.

Oh, I also eat at calorie maintenance of deficit (except when bulking) and have a healthy body weight so I don't have to worry about these "sky is falling" claims about sugar.

ZombieEarhart

You again?! OP, you have all the marks of a true zealot.

3dogsrunning

I prefer Lucky Charms...dry.

I eat all the crappy cereal first and then enjoy the marshmallows.

Oh, I also eat at calorie maintenance of deficit (except when bulking) and have a healthy body weight so I don't have to worry about these "sky is falling" claims about sugar.

It's a tie with Fruit Loops and Lucky Charms. Then I heard they have Fruit Loops with the same kind of marshmallows as Lucky Charms. Need to try this.

I eat it the same way.