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Fructose is one type of sugar molecule. It occurs naturally in fresh fruits, giving them their sweetness. Because of this, many people consider fructose “natural,” and assume that all fructose products are healthier than other types of sugar. Likewise, fructose has a low glycemic index, meaning it has minimal impact on blood glucose levels. This has made it a popular sweetener with people on low-carbohydrate and low-glycemic diets, which aim to minimize blood glucose levels in order to minimize insulin release. But the glycemic index is not the sole determining factor in whether a sweetener is “healthy” or desirable to use. Because fructose is very sweet, fruit contains relatively small amounts, providing your body with just a little bit of the sugar, which is very easily handled. If people continued to eat fructose only in fruit and occasionally honey as our ancestors did, the body would easily process it without any problems. Unfortunately, the traditional is extremely high infructose, which is present in many processed foods, soda pop, baked goods, crackers, canned goods, and many others. The result is a toxic load. According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, has increased dramatically in the past few decades. The problem with fructose is that when you consume large amounts of it in its concentrated form (agave, crystalline fructose, high-fructose corn syrup), it goes straight to your liver, avoiding the gastrointestinal tract altogether. This places a heavy toxic load on your liver, which must work very hard to process it, sometimes resulting in scarring. Additionally, fructose is converted by the liver into glycerol, which can raise levels of triglycerides. High triglycerides are linked to increased risk of atherosclerosis and heart disease. According to the AJCN article cited above, “hepatic (liver) metabolism of fructose thus favors lipogenesis.” High fructose intake has been associated with:
*Some studies show that fructose creates AGE’s up to 10 times more efficiently than glucose Bottom line: A little fruit is just fine – it contains small amounts of fructose the body can easily metabolize. Concentrated fructose in HFCS, agave, and crystallized fructose on the other hand, can cause a real health problem and should be avoided.
When you want something sweet, what can you do? Try some natural sweetness from a piece of fruit, a dried fig or date, or a smoothie. You may also enjoy stevia (different brands taste better than others. I like NuNaturals), which is a sweet herb or xylitol, which is a sugar alcohol that has negligible effect on blood sugar levels. For liquid sweetener needs, raw coconut nectar is great as it is only 10% fructose (compared to agave, which is up to 97% fructose) and is rich in minerals in amino acids. Even maple syrup is a better choice than agave. Besides avoiding refined white sugars and artificial sweeteners, be sure to avoid fructose-loaded sweeteners such as agave and high fructose corn syrup. What’s the one thing I want you to remember from this blog, which I repeated about twelve times? Here it is again: Avoid agave, agave-containing products, and restaurant dishes that include agave in their ingredient list (if you are not sure, ask!).
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