From Fruit to Fat!

                                                                    From Fruit to Fat!
                                                                 

   With the risk of obesity, diabetes, hypertension and atherosclerosis growing larger every day, we have to ask ourselves what is causing this? A common additive present in processed foods like soft drinks, salad dressings, and store bought cakes, cookies, snacks, breakfast cereals and breads.
 
   What is this additive? High fructose corn syrup! High fructose corn syrup, which is made from corn, was developed in the 1970's as a low-cost sweetener for foods. While regular table sugar (sucrose) is 50% fructose and 50% glucose, high fructose corn syrup can contain up to 80% fructose and 20% glucose.
 
    So what is the difference between high fructose corn syrup and fructose? Nothing, they are basically the same. High fructose corn syrup is made of mostly fructose. Fructose is naturally occurring sweetener found in fruits and honey. Eating too much fructose of any type is problematic because fructose is metabolized differently from glucose. Fructose is converted to fat in the liver and can be readily stored as body fat. That's why fruits and processed foods should be portioned or restricted as much as possible. Fruit is generally healthy, containing vitamins, minerals and fiber. Vegetables are a good source of these nutrients because most vegetables do not contain fructose.
 
    In the liver, two things could happen with fructose. The first being that fructose can be absorbed by the liver cells, converted to glucose and then stored as liver glycogen. The second being that fructose can be converted to fat through an enzyme that operates as a switch to decide if a sugar gets stored as glycogen or converted to fat by the liver.
 
    So a large portion of the fructose simply gets converted into fat and released into the bloodstream. As a result you get a dose of fat and the damage doesn't stop there. The rest of the fructose gets converted into liver glycogen. Once your liver glycogen stores are full the liver says, "We've got all the glycogen we can hold, so anymore carbohydrates entering in will get converted to fat."

   The third problem is that fructose cannot be used to replenish muscle glycogen. Fructose is probably one of the worst carbohydrate sources for active individuals.
 
    In summary, fructose does three major things in the body. A large portion of it is converted directly to fat by the liver, it preferentially fills liver glycogen stores so that even good carbohydrates are more prone to be stored as fat, and it cannot be used by muscle to recover glycogen. Calorie for calorie, the only nutrient that will make you fatter than fructose is fat itself!

1. Shafrir E. Fructose/Sucrose Metabolism, it's physiological and pathological implications. Sugars and Sweeteners, Kretchmer N and Hollenbeck CB, Eds. CRC Press, 1991, pp. 63-98
2. Paige DM, Clinical Nutrition. C.V. Mosby Company, St. Louis, 1988, pp. 703-704

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Overindulgence

A temporary moment of bliss could take hours off of your life. When you sit down and add up all moments of overindulgence, the results can be frightening. For example 30 minutes in front of the television could subtract 2 hours of your life. Here are  a few other contributing habits:

• Too much red meat consumption
• Cigarettes
• That extra alcoholic beverage
• A cheeseburger
• An extra 10 pounds of weight.

On the contrary, you can add time to your life with every vegetable and fruit you consume. Exercise as well as coffee can also have a positive effect on your life's longevity.

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