I was doing research on Psoriasis: a lot of my clients have Psoriasis… very unpleasant, ugly, and can turn cancerous. I found this article… and it is about my favorite politically incorrect topic, fructose… here is the article in its entirety
Fructose: undoubtedly one of the most dangerous items in our food supply right now
Our food supply is being subjected to dramatic changes with untested chemicals, additives, and processing techniques.
There have been books written on the dangers of chemical additives, but rarely on the sweetener fructose (often referred to as high fructose corn syrup), which is undoubtedly one of the most dangerous items in our food supply right now.
In 1966, refined sugar (sucrose) was the number-one sweetener in soft drinks, sweets, and foods. It accounted for 86% of all sweeteners used. There was no high fructose corn syrup. Since that time, high fructose corn syrup consumption has gone from zero to an estimated 63.8 pounds annually per person in 2000. (The Agriculture Fact Book 2001–2002; Chapter 2, Profiling Food Consumption in America) Most people don’t realize that fructose is addictive. Food processors have added fructose to more and more foods knowing it triggers an increase in sales. Out of the five tastes we perceive, sweet is the strongest and can override any of the others, as well as mask signs we would normally recognize as being rancid or toxic.
At higher levels, fructose is also a toxin. It’s true that a lot of compounds are toxic. Even certain vitamins like D and A can be toxic if taken at high dosages for extended periods of time. The difference is they aren’t being overused or abused like fructose.
We’re definitely not being overdosed with these vitamins from our foods or through normal supplementation. The story is different with fructose.
Fructose has been implicated in numerous inflammatory disease processes including eczema, psoriasis, arthritis, gout, ADHD, Alzheimer’s, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, thyroiditis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and insulin-dependent diabetes.
High fructose corn syrup has become the sweetener of choice because government subsidies for corn, and production quotas and import tariffs on sugar, have made it less expensive. It can also be made to be sweeter than sugar and is easier to transport since it’s a liquid.
Not All Calories Are the Same There’s a lot of conflicting research when it comes to high fructose corn syrup and many claim it is no more harmful than sugar.
To them a calorie is a calorie and a carbohydrate is a carbohydrate, regardless of the source. As you know, I’m certainly not a fan of sugar, but research continues to humble us by showing there’s a lot more to nutrition, weight gain, and obesity than just counting calories.
Not all calories are the same.
Fructose is absorbed differently from glucose in the intestinal tract.
Glucose stimulates the release of insulin from the pancreas. Fructose doesn’t. Instead of insulin, cells use glut-5 transporter to move fructose into cells. Most cells only have very limited amounts of this transporter, so it’s primarily cleared by the liver, where it’s easily transformed either into fat or components that eventually increase blood lipids like triglycerides.
Some will argue (correctly) that the sweetness and sugar content of most fruits come from naturally occurring fructose. There are major differences, however, when you consider that fruits also contain other natural sugars, trace minerals, vitamins, and fiber, all of which have an influence on the digestion and utilization of fructose.
Obviously, our bodies were made to handle a limited amount of fructose but, like many matters in life, we have a habit of taking things to the extreme.
And, fructose has a toxicity factor beyond its caloric equivalent.
I’m not sure the research is so definitive to state that commercial fructose is the sole or primary cause of our obesity problem, but I won’t be the least bit surprised if that’s proven to be true in the near future. It does, however, appear to be the physiological passageway through which obesity progresses to increased insulin resistance and then full-blown metabolic syndrome. Add this to the increase in other highly refined carbohydrates, like wheat products, and we have a disaster in the making. I don’t think it’s simply coincidental that during the last 30 years, as high fructose corn syrup has become the primary sweetener in our food supply, the number of diabetes cases has doubled worldwide. (Lancet 11;378(9785):31–40)
Fructose is so pervasive in our food supply that it’s almost impossible to avoid it completely. But you can drop your intake dramatically if you just avoid sweets and sodas…. (And in my personal experience, limit your fruits… fruit juices.)
