Fructose, a summary from the Health Report.(ABC, Australia)
This is the material about how fructose makes it too easy to increase weight, and can increase LDL cholesterol, but also be bad for BP, and insulin resistance.
It seems to play a part in some CFS and FMS.
Insulin and hyperinsulinaemia.
There appear to be genes which increase the risk of developing insulin resistance.(EG PPAR, FOXO 1)
Down regulation of PPAR gamma or up regulation of FOXO1, increases gene activation of cytokines TNF alpha and IL6 (inflammatory cytokines)
Insulin resistance with such genes, caloric excess, dietary obesity and particular food eating patterns appear to increase the risk of pancreatic beta cells making too much insulin.
The patient does not necessarily have to be overweight.
This can drive increased sympathetic activity, which can predispose to feeling unwell, and ultimately increase the risk of hypertension.
Insulin has a principal function in promoting and allowing glucose to enter cells, and one part of this is to allow fat cells to receive the glucose.
But excess insulin can increase the amount of fat. Thus, in some degree it is important in obesity.
In normal circumstances, a product of fat cells called leptin, signals the hypothalamus to stop the person continuing to feel hungry.
But there can arise leptin resistance, where the person continues to feel like eating.
Recent evidence has suggested that modern man is at high risk to eat too many calories, the wrong kind of food, and at the same time exercise too little.
One adverse effect of food manufacturers adding sucrose (cane sugar), or fructose (Eg in corn syrup) is the risk that modern man eats too much fructose.
Sucrose has one glucose unit and one fructose unit per molecule.
Now fructose can only really be used by the liver, and if given in excess, is toxic to the liver. This relates more to the chronic fructose load than to individual serves of too much fructose!
Fructose
(1) Increases phosphate depletion in liver cells.
(2) Increases uric acid.
(3) Uric acid inhibits increase in nitric oxide which normally helps keep BP down.
(4) Initiates de novo lipogenesis, and increases LDL (sometimes called “bad cholesterol”)
(5) Increases c jun terminal kinase which increases inflammation.
A proportion of persons develop fatty liver when this situation prevails.
Thus hyperinsulinaemia, and leptin resistance seem to contribute to people feeling unwell, anxious, fatigued and even achy.
One remedy is exercise, since this
(1) Increases skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity.
(2) Reduces cortisol levels.
(3) Decreases visceral fat that results from too much cortisol.
(4) Helps detoxify fructose.
This will work even better when calories are decreased to balance energy expenditure, fructose and sucrose intakes are reduced, fibre intake is increased, and the total glycaemic load is reduced.
In fact most fructose containing fruits are much safer when eaten as whole fruit, or even very small portions of fruit.
Juice intake needs to be minimized.
The sugars may affect your appetite differently because of the unique ways in which they affect malonyl-CoA, an important appetite-suppressing molecule in the brain. Glucose causes malonyl-CoA to rise, resulting in less food intake. Fructose, on the other hand, lowers malonyl-CoA, resulting in more food intake.
How do we know that we have reversed insulin resistance?
Glucose and HbA1C become normal,
Weight falls to give a BMI of less than 25.
Waist measurement shows no pot belly.
Triglycerides fall to < 2mmol/L, LDL falls to 3.5 mmol/L or less, HDL rises.
Post prandial insulin falls to less than 40 mU/L.
Vitamin 25 D3 will be at least 80 nmol/L
Dr J Mercola writes,
“The presence of massive amounts of fructose in today’s Western diet is a driving force behind our diabetes epidemic.
Regular table sugar is 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose, and the two are metabolized very differently . http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/01/26/sugar-may-be-bad-but-this-sweetener-is-far-more-deadly-part-2.aspx
Nearly every cell in your body was designed to use glucose for energy—especially your brain cells—but fructose breaks down into a variety of toxins that can have devastating effects on your health.
Fructose has the following adverse metabolic effects:
Fructose does not stimulate a rise in leptin, so your satiety signals are suppressed.
Fructose raises your insulin and your triglycerides, which effectively reduces the amount of leptin crossing your blood-brain barrier. This interferes with the communication between leptin and your hypothalamus. Your brain senses starvation and prompts you to eat more.
Fructose does not suppress ghrelin like glucose does. Ghrelin is the “hunger hormone,” making you want more food. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2002/09/07/hormones-part-three.aspx
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All of this also sets the stage for overindulgence and hence overweight, placing you on the path toward diabetes.
I strongly advise keeping your total fructose consumption below 25 grams per day.
However, it would be wise for most people to limit fructose to 15 grams or less as it is virtually guaranteed you will be getting “hidden” sources of fructose from just about any processed food you eat.
This includes fruits, which also need to be carefully measured to make certain that you’re not inadvertently going over the fructose limit.”
Metabolic syndrome
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