Fructose: Nutritional Bombshell

In a previous post, I discussed how the common sugar, fructose, exerts unique and undesirable effects on health distinct from other sugars, like glucose. Fructose is commonly found in sucrose (table sugar¾half glucose, half fructose), the widely used sweetener high-fructose corn syrup, and sweetened soft drinks and fruit juices.

Compared to glucose, fructose has been shown to trigger:

• Greater abdominal fat accumulation
• Increased LDL cholesterol
• Marked increase in small LDL (the worst kind of LDL particles)
• Increased triglycerides

The effect is "dose-dependent," meaning the more you ingest every day, the greater the effects. Clear-cut effects on triglycerides, in particular, become substantial starting at 50 grams of fructose intake per day.

Avoiding sucrose is easy: Don't add table sugar to your coffee or tea (try artificial sweeteners like sucralose); avoid candies and other obviously sweet snacks made with sucrose.

Avoiding high-fructose corn syrup is a little trickier, since food manufacturers have added it to nearly all processed foods, such as ketchup, beer, breads, fruit drinks, energy drinks, spaghetti sauce, low-fat salad dressings, sodas, breakfast cereals, etc. One easy rule: minimize your exposure to processed foods. (In fact, is the protuberant abdomen I call "wheat belly" really a combination of "wheat belly" and "fructose belly"? I believe it is.)

Just avoiding sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup-containing products will dramatically reduce your fructose exposure. But if you are really interested in further reducing your exposure to this unhealthy sweetener, consider the fructose content of some foods: 

(Fructose content of corn syrup is shown for comparison; data from the USDA Nutrient Database. Remember that sucrose is approximately half fructose; dates, listed below, for example, contain a total of 23 grams fructose from sucrose and fructose.)

Corn syrup, 100 grams (approx. 1/3 cup HFCS-55)

Dates, ½ cup, chopped

Honey, 2 tablespoons

Honeydew melon (1/2 melon, 6-7" diameter)