Fructose Consumption Leads to Obesity

Fructose in the form of high-fructose corn syrup is a common additive to many processed foods and drinks. It is estimated that the average American, whose diet is high in processed foods and heavily loaded with sweets, juices, and even fresh fruits, consumes daily a considerable amount of glucose. Sadly, many researchers warn that a high level of glucose in our daily menu is one of the leading causes of current epidemics of obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.

Many honest doctors, researchers, and nutritionists have long warned us about the dangers of high-carbohydrate diets, including the dietary model outlined in the USDA Food Guide Pyramid. It is estimated that the consumption of carbohydrates, both in simple and complex forms, constitutes a large amount of our daily calories, especially in the latest decade when the medical establishment has been aggressively promoting the low-fat, grain-based dietary model. However, a growing body of research clearly shows that traditional, unprocessed animal fats (lard, butter, heavy cream, beef tallow, etc.), which have nourished countless healthy generations of our ancestors, are not involved in the development of diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. Numerous scientific evidences show that the main suspects in the deteriorating health of our population are simple and complex carbohydrates, vegetable and laboratory-modified oils, and an endless array of chemically-processed, revitalized, fractured, and cremated foods found on every shelf of our supermarkets and even health-food stores.

Fructose, a simple carbohydrate found in nature mostly in fruits, has become one of the main sweeteners that the processing industry adds almost to every form of packaged foods and canned drinks. According to several studies mounted by scientists of the University of California, Davis, high amounts of ingested fructose lead to the development of the metabolic syndrome that manifests as insulin resistance, hypertension, elevated blood levels of triglycerides, and obesity. Fructose is readily converted by the liver into harmful fatty acids. A regular consumption of fructose contributes to the development of type II diabetes and encourages weight gain, particularly unhealthy gain of adipose tissue in the abdominal area.

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition confirms the fact that glucose directly contributes to weight gain, the insulin resistance syndrome, and other metabolic abnormalities, especially in middle-aged people. Their data show that the consumption of simple sugars from both high-fructose corn syrup and sucrose has risen in the last decade by more than one fourth.

If you want to eliminate most fructose from your menu in order to lose weight and improve health, you will have to avoid almost every canned beverage and processed type of food. Most soft drinks, sports beverages, power drinks, canned teas, “health” beverages, and sweetened high-vitamin waters, as well as breakfast cereals, processed meats, and numerous “snacks”, are loaded with fructose in the form of either crystalline fructose or high-fructose corn syrup. Beware of!

Lada Brown