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[Article] Q&A: 'Toxic' effects of sugar: should we be afraid of fructose?

What a non-sensationalised fructose write up???

Looked pretty good to offset the idiots who demonise fructose.

Interesting point that I haven't researched. In Australia we should not be having the same issue as the US. They use HFCS for so many things yet here we mostly use glucose. Sure we could all drop our sucrose levels a little but I doubt many Australians are near the upper limits of fructose consumption. If anyone can enlighten me on our current added fructose levels in foods here that would be helpful.
 
I know! It's pretty much a sensible review of where things are at and clearly states that more research is needed before we can draw conclusions about the longer term effects of high fructose loads in our diets.

yep, the US is obviously way ahead of us here in Oz in terms of HFCS usage. It has become more common here in Oz over the last few years but not much. The US produces a great deal of corn and we don't so it's not as cheap here I guess.

But there is a big trend that's developed here for low GI sweeteners, some of which are almost pure fructose. Agave syrup is one. Always touted as good for diabetics because it won't produce the immediate insulin spike, but it's pure fructose in a purified/extracted form (ie not as part of a whole food like eating the cactus, fruit, veg etc).

But that may mean the population exposed to high fructose levels here is more skewed.

Still, good to see some balanced, thoughtful scientific writing. makes me proud!
 
Hey guys... If you really want to get freaked out about fructose, watch Food inc. High fructose corn syrup has invaded just about everything in the states. It is extremely cheap to produce and is impacting the whole food industry. It is only a matter of time before we follow suit...
 
Nothing wrong with fructose (from fruit) in the diet in controlled amounts. HFCS on the other hand are terrible.

The big problem I have, and have had, with clients and a lot of people I have trained - is that they love this sort of information. They would read an article like this, and then cut their fructose, or fruit intake.

To me, this is completely futile. There is a pecking order. If you're cutting back on fruit because you're fear mongering over fructose - yet beers, wine and pancakes managed to sneak into your system at some point during the week... well? It's like my old man - he's an intelligent guy, but occasionally will see something on ABC with regards to health/cancer/pesticides et. al.

I'll look at him and say, you're concerning yourself with something that is trivial, and potentially dangerous but inconclusive - yet you have downed a sausage roll and teddy bear biscuits earlier in the day.

Apologies for the rant, but this irks me as I have had clients who hit plateaus and couldn't progress, because they were so caught up with the 10-15% triviality in health and nutrition where the jury was still out - and the bulk 75-80% (foundation!) was somewhat lackadaisical.

Good article none the less, love me a bit of science talk.

I have another rant about "every now and again it's OK to eat x or do y". I'll leave that for another thread, and why this is a fallacy.
 

Yep, completely agree with this.

My dad's doctor has told him to stay away from coconut and avocado due to the fat content, but didn't say anything about the beer, red wine and baileys he drinks.
 
guys, my point (as per below post) was that

a) fructose from whole foods (eg fruit, veg etc) is good so don't cut it out. The exception for limiting is if you have fructose malabsorption (like poor me) or HFI, in which case fructose would be deadly, so avoid

AND

b) fructose extracted and concentrated in a "purified" form such as HFCS or indeed agave syrup and substances like that, are not so good.

Bazza, with regard to HFCS, it's not so much that it has around the same level of fructose as sucrose from cane sugar. It's that it is usually included in larger quantities than sugar and so pervasive in the US diet (read processed foods).
Here in Australia, it's not as widely used for the reason I point out earlier. Cane sugar is produced locally, corn not as much (corn is a staple in the US obviously, not cane sugar).

But agave and even HFCS have become increasingly more common.

I'd be more worried about agave as it's touted as a health food, which is it is definitely not.

It all comes down to how the body processes this stuff. As part of a whole food, like fruit etc, you have the context of all the other nutrients and stuff and the quantities of fructose are relatively small. The liver can process it slowly and in easy loads. When you concentrate it, the liver gets a bigger load and that makes for a whole different story.
Plus, there's the increasing incidence of fructose and fructan intolerances. About 1/3 of the population actually have some degree of malabsorption but only a proportion of these will have symptoms that become unbearable. On the rise in fact. Maybe that's due to greater awareness and better diagnosis but maybe also because we do tend to overload our systems. The food pyramid is a bit to blame too.

The article is mostly about chronic diseases and it's a very balanced article and review. It leaves all the open questions about long term effects of higher fructose loads in our diets over long periods unanswered because there has been no decent study to date that provides any real insight.
 
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