Why Fructose May Be Your Worst Enemy
Fructose and Obesity-related Diseases 
Dr. Richard Johnson, the nephrology head at the University of Colorado, engages in clinical research in an active manner. For the last twenty-five years, his research has centered on fructose and corpulence-related illnesses. His research is financed by the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Johnson has not only published five hundred papers in the peer-reviewed literature but he has authored books as well. His most recent book titled The Fat Switch” is a truly fascinating book that shatters a lot of our antique myths about weight loss and diet.
Dr. Johnson’s hypothesis is that, instead of being compelled by way of eating way too many calories and also deficiency of exercise, being overweight can be generally aggravated by when too much refined sugar is taken, especially fructose. As Doctor Johnson says:
“The conventional wisdom is that people are eating too much and exercising too little. Of course, there’s a lot of evidence that supports that. It’s too much energy in, too little out, and the rest is turned into fat. This is the law of thermodynamics, and there’s some truth to it. The issue is that when people talk about this, they seem to think that it’s the culture that’s driving obesity.”
We are all cognizant that animals are generally able to control their excess weight really perfectly. If we put a wild animal in a zoo, and overfeed it, it will get fat. Basically, we are all wild animals living in captivity. In other words, we are not eating as nature intended.
How Leptin Resistance Leads to Obesity
In order for your body to put on a lot of weight, you have to first become resistant to leptin. Leptin is a hormone that makes it possible to control your desire for foods. When the degree of leptin increases, that brings a sensation that you are full, so you will hopefully stop eating. However, when you become more and more used to leptin, you eat more food than before. A lot of people who are obese also have the problem of their body’s ability to oxidize excess fat; that leads to a low-energy state. The concern then is: what compels this key process? What is the reason behind people becoming leptin resistant to begin with? Doctor Johnson’s research evidently demonstrates that refined sugar (fructose to be specific) can remarkably create leptin resistance in animals, and also it can prevent the burning of excess fat. “When one gives fructose to animals, they will lose their capability to control their desire for foods, they will tend to eat much more, and they exercise much less. Fructose looks like it contributes a great deal to gaining excess weight,” he states.
His analysis reveals that fructose has effects other than this mechanism to induce this metabolic syndrome. Whereas fructose will increase weight through the normal mechanism of stimulating a lot of food intake and interfering with the burning of fat, even after you take control of caloric intake, fructose will have an effect on body composition.
This is because once you eat fructose, you in will generate additional fat in your liver for a similar quantity of energy intake compared to different kinds of sugar. For instance, if you limit the calorie intake of an animal but offer a high-sugar diet or high-fructose diet, it will still get a fatty liver and can still become resistant to insulin.
As Dr. Johnson states, fructose has 2 effects:
- It accelerates weight gain through its effects on your appetite and by interfering with the burning of fat.
- Additionally, it changes the composition of your body to raise body fat even as you are under a caloric restriction
Fruits: Could You Be Taking Too Much of a Good Thing?
Most obese Americans have some level of leptin and insulin resistance. This includes individuals with diabetes, and lots of people with high blood pressure or high cholesterol. If you are in this class, you should limit your fructose consumption to around 15-25 grams of fructose per day from all sources.
Naturally, fruits have fructose as well. However, they contain several useful anti-oxidants and nutrients. For somebody who is corpulent, he or she must take care of the intake of fruits that have substantial fructose content. Some fruits like lemons and limes have negligible fructose content and are, therefore, safe. Other fruits like kiwi, berries and grapefruit have comparatively low fructose content and a high level of nutrients. Nonetheless, dried fruits, fruit juices and a few fruits that are rich in fructose (such as red apples, plums and pears) ought to be consumed in lesser amounts.
Dr. Johnson explains: “A majority of animals can regulate their weight extremely well. They can even regulate it in a seasonal manner. Towards the autumn and before winter, most animals do gain weight, especially animals that hibernate. They significantly increase their fat. Many of them do that by changing into being leptin resistant and by limiting with their ability to oxidize fat. This is the similar mechanism that is sees in individuals who have become fat except that the animals do it deliberately in preparation for hibernation. It is a survival strategy. Generally, a natural fruit is rich in fructose. However, most natural fruits have comparatively little amounts of fructose, like 4 to 8 grams. If you eat plenty of fruit, that might cause a problem. However they also provide lots of things that are enormously healthy, like flavonols, antioxidants and many others. We have realized that a lot of those compounds in natural fruit might counter a number of consequences of the fructose. Thus once you take a fruit that contains a bit of fructose, the healthy parts of the fruit may often keep it neutralized.”
In an interesting manner, as a fruit ripens, the sugar content increases whilst a lot of the antioxidants and other useful nutrients go down—and animals seem to instinctually understand this. Bears, for instance, may eat large amounts of berries during the fall so as to plump out. It’s important to keep this in mind because the fructose in fruit may add up rapidly if you eat plenty of it.
“There was only a paper that was published in the British Medical Journal, that viewed individual fruits as a risk factor for diabetes and obesity,” Doctor Johnson states. “Some fruits, that we all know have comparatively low-sugar content and extremely high antioxidant and contents but are in actual fact quite healthy. Berries, especially blueberries, are really healthy.
However, when juices are from different fruit are put together; you get plenty of sugar in a single glass. It is simply an excessive amount of sugar. Once you drink that, you will flood your liver with fructose, and thus overwhelm the advantages of all the antioxidants. You will get an added risk for obesity, diabetes and fatty liver from the drink.”
Obesity Will Increase Your Body’s Absorption of Fructose
Another fascinating fact is that if you are resistant to insulin and corpulent, it does not take a lot of fructose to set the processes that may keep you fat in motion. Some of Dr. Johnson’s latest studies show that the higher the high-fructose syrup taken, the higher the amount you absorb and the more you will metabolize it. Thus, taking fruits could also bean added problem if you are insulin resistant, whereas fruit intake will probably be safer or perhaps helpful if you are healthy and lean.
This helps explain the contradiction in terms of the manner in which some extremely fit individuals will eat lots of fruit while not gaining any weight. I’m not insulin resistant, and once I made a decision to try with adding some additional fruit to my diet during strength training days, I in fact lost 5 pounds; that to me didn’t add up at the start, since fructose ought to do the reverse.
According to Doctor Johnson, if you exercise often, a little quantity of fructose may really be helpful, since the fructose can improve muscle performance and accelerate glucose absorption in your gut. However, it significantly depends on the manner in which your body metabolizes the fructose. In general, your body cannot absorb fructose well. Nonetheless, the higher the level of fructose you take, the more the transporters that provide for fructose uptake in your gut are turned on. Thus, the higher the level of fructose your body can absorb. Lean kids tend to just absorb approximately 50% of the fructose they consume, while corpulent kids who have fatty liver disease absorb virtually 100%.
As you can see, if you are obese, losing weight is essential to avoid the added risks of eating fructose.
Dr David M. Spitz is the founder and clinic director of the Chiropractic Health Center of Bristol, located in Bristol, CT. Since 1982, he has treated thousands of patients for various conditions ranging from neck and back pain, to migraine headaches. He specializes in treating patients who have suffered whiplash injuries and/or back injuries in a motor vehicle accident.
Dr Spitz was a volunteer EMT-I and a lieutenant for several years at the Burlington Volunteer Fire Department. He has lectured throughout CT on various topics including, chiropractic, stress management, headaches and preventing back injury in the workplace.
