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The Dangers Of Fructose You Can’t Afford To Ignore!
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For decades, people around the world have believed it was fatty foods that made one overweight. A fat-filled diet resulted in a fatty body. Logically, it seemed, the solution was to reduce the amount of fats in the diet, particularly saturated fats. It just seemed to make so much sense: consume less fat and fewer calories in general, and there won’t be as much fat on your body. How could it be wrong?
In the latter half of the 20th century, low fat diets became very popular in United States, which had become the most overweight country in the world. Everywhere you looked, there was low fat butter, low fat muffins, reduced fat milk and more. Yet it didn’t seem to be helping. The obesity rate continued to increase, despite widespread awareness that fat should be avoided. More Americans are obese than ever before, and around the world, obesity levels have reached new highs as well.
New research has shown that the previous conceptions about what causes obesity were fundamentally incorrect. As you will learn in this article, it is the consumption of sugar, and fructose in particular, that has been identified as a chief contributing factor to obesity.
The Dangers of Fructose
If you had a plate of pork chops and a 12 pack of cola cans placed in front of you, and were asked which of them was more fattening, which would you choose?
If you’re like most people, you would probably pick the pork chops, but that would be wrong. It’s not your fault, decades of misleading nutritional advice and health campaigns have made you think that drinking a “diet” coke while avoiding hamburgers is the way to lose weight, but it’s based on flawed science. You probably knew that drinking soda all the time could give you cavities in your teeth, but most people would never guess that the soda they had with lunch was one of the main culprits behind their ever-expanding belt size.
Let go of the whole “fat = bad” mindset. Naturally occurring fats like those found in fish and olive oil are actually necessary and quite beneficial for you.
One of the main reasons conventional “wisdom” regarding the causes of obesity is flawed is that it simply regards fat and calories as the culprits and leaves it at that. This is just plain inaccurate. The source of the calories you take in matters. Calories from vegetables, meat, or whole wheat pasta are not the same as calories from soda or sugary snacks.
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Photo credit: bigstock.com
When fructose is consumed in large amounts, it is converted into fat in the body. Over time, it can even have detrimental effects on insulin levels. Insulin is a hormone which regulates blood sugar levels, preventing them from getting to low or two high. The problem is that when high amounts of fructose are consumed, particularly the high-fructose corn syrup found in many soft drinks and snacks, it can lead to insulin resistance in the liver. The liver becomes “numbed” to the insulin in your body and thinks it needs to produce more insulin, resulting in higher levels than your body requires.
And what does high insulin levels in the body do? It hinders the function of an important hormone you’ve probably never heard of: leptin.
Leptin is a hormone which is produced by fat cells. They send a signal to the brain that your cells have enough energy stored up and you can stop eating. The problem is that high insulin levels cause a condition known as leptin resistance, which inhibits the brain’s ability to receive the satiation signals from the leptin hormone. This leads to overeating.
On top of this, studies have shown that sugars (including fructose) have addictive qualities. The reward centers of the brain are triggered when fructose is consumed, but over time, they become desensitized, requiring more and more sugary foods to get the same “high.”
While there is not a 100 percent consensus among scientists on these ideas, the combination of factors listed above presents a compelling argument that’s winning over an increasing number of experts.
Fruit has fructose in it. Does this mean fruit is bad for me? What it the solution here?
No, fruit is not bad for you. The fructose in fruit is natural and furthermore, when you eat fresh whole fruits, you are consuming it in its naturally occurring context. Fruits are also generally rich in vitamins and antioxidants and are absolutely healthy for you.
Fructose is bad in the artificial forms found in many processed foods and beverages. If you reduce or preferably eliminate artificial sweeteners, junk foods and the like from your diet, and replace it with a clean, healthy diet, don’t be surprised if you start losing weight. Oftentimes, it’s not what you eat, but what you don’t eat that makes the most difference.
READ ALSO: Fructose Hazards Infographic
So clean up your diet and eat plenty of healthy fats, proteins and carbs. If you eliminate massive amounts of sugar from your diet, you’re eating healthier than the majority of people living in the Western world, that’s how low the bar is for “eating clean” these days. Try it out for yourself and take a step toward a leaner, more energetic life.
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