How Sweet It Is

Our love affair with anything sweet is undeniable.  We indulge in soft drinks, fruit drinks, energy drinks, and a host of snacks that are loaded with sweeteners.  Our justification is the label across the face of the product package that says, “FAT FREE.”  As it turns out, that may not be true after all.  New research released by Dr. Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of California in San Francisco, reveals that fully one third of the calories consumed as the sugar fructose are converted to cholesterol.  And not just any cholesterol, but the worst kind: VLDL, the lipid that easily attaches to blood vessel walls to begin plaque formation.

Truth be told, that may not be the worst part of eating fructose.  Your body processes fructose in much the same way as alcohol, but only the liver metabolizes fructose.  In addition to VLDL, the liver makes uric acid and substances that cause liver inflammation (hepatitis).  Risk increases for gout, hypertension, insulin resistance, and interference with the feedback mechanism that controls appetite (leptin resistance).  If this looks like metabolic syndrome, that is because it is.

Even if you do not consume sweetened drinks, you probably eat fructose.  All you have to do is buy processed or fast food.  As food companies have reduced the fat content in foods, they have added sugar to improve the taste, usually in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).  It is in almost every processed food on the grocery shelf, from bread to catsup.

The next time you go grocery shopping, check the labels that go into your shopping cart.  Eliminating or even reducing your consumption of fructose can go a long way to improving your health.

Kristi B. Weber is the LMG Laboratory Director and a Free-Lance Medical Writer