Why it is important to avoid foods that contain SUGAR and high FRUCTOSE
Here some of the dangers of consuming sugar and high fructose:
- Feeds the non-beneficial microbiome (such as candida) in the gut, the more you feed them, the more they reproduce, and the more they demand you feed them sugar.
- Promotes ageing including wrinkling of the skin.
- Increases inflammation in the body and makes your blood more acidic.
- Can lead to osteoporosis.
- Depresses the immune system.
- Rots your teeth.
- Raises your blood sugar level, which can lead to insulin sensitivity and type 2 diabetes.
- Contributes to obesity by causing you to eat more (by altering "hunger" hormones)
- Can create the urge to binge
- Is a major cause of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
- Increases uric acid levels (think gout and inflammation)
- Is addictive (almost as much as drugs)
- Provides 'empty calories' with no nutritional value
- Can cause malabsorption of copper (which can affect your heart, cause anaemia and affect your thyroid)
- Robs your body of minerals.
- Robs you of energy
- Contributes to heart problems
- May increase cholesterol (particularly the bad guys LDL or VLDL)
- Can cause cancer
- Contributes to ulcers
- Can cause gallstones
- Contributes to adrenal fatigue
- Suppresses your immune syste
- Weakens eyesight
- Sugar can cause hypoglycemia (low blood sugar levels).
- Can contribute to eczema
- Can cause arthritis
Sugar and fructose are adding to the obesity epidemic for a number of reasons. Sugar is made up of 1 part glucose and 1 part fructose. Fructose has been scientifically proven to be a key player in this because it does not signal the hormone leptin to switch on (to tell the brain we’ve had enough to eat), so this means the hormone ghrelin (our hunger hormone) keeps telling our brains that we need to keep eating.
Fructose is being added to foods either in place of sugar, or as well as sugar and often other sweeteners including artificial sweeteners. Originally, fructose was devised by the farming industry in the States to make use of excess corn feed that was superfluous to the cattle feed industry.
Fructose is labelled as fructose, glucose-fructose, isoglucose and glucose-fructose syrup, corn sugar, HFCS-90 or fructose syrup. Occasionally you’ll see it as HFCS which is High Fructose Corn Syrup (which is made from corn). This product is particularly insidious. Fructose, particularly HFCS, is believed to be the main cause of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. There are suggestions that fructose (more so than glucose) is responsible for metabolic syndrome, also known as insulin resistance (pre-diabetes). It also increases inflammation (particularly on a cellular level), reduces metabolism, increases the risk of gout, may affect brain function (due to increasing uric acid levels) and joints. There is also some concern that fructose may affect the kidneys, the digestive system, eyesight (particularly cataract formation) and even a possible risk for developing certain cancers such as breast, colorectal and pancreatic cancers.
Sugar may appear on labels as;
- Agave,
- Aspartame (synthetic artificial sweetener),
- Barley malt syrup,
- Beet sugar,
- Brown sugar,
- Cane juice and cane syrup,
- Coconut palm,
- Coconut sugar,
- Date sugar,
- Demerara,
- Dextrose,
- Erythritol,
- Fruit concentrate (mostly fructose),
- Glucose syrup,
- Glucose,
- High maltose corn syrup,
- Hydrogenated starch hydrolysates
- Invert sugar,
- Isomalt,
- Jaggery,
- Lactitol
- Lactose,
- Maltitol
- Maltodextrin,
- Maltose,
- Mannitol
- Maple syrup,
- Molasses,
- Muscovado,
- Rice syrup (brown rice syrup),
- Saccharin (artificial sweetener),
- Sorbitol,
- Stevia rebaudiana,
- Sucanat,
- Sucralose,
- Sucrose,
- Sugar alcohols (products using these can be called “sugar free”!),
- Sugar,
- Tagatose
- Turbinado sugar
- Xylitol
FOODS HIGH IN SUGAR AND FRUCTOSE
Foods such as; fruit juices, flavoured fizzy drinks, breakfast cereals, biscuits, pastries, lollies, muesli bars, confectionary, flavoured yoghurts, mayonnaise and salad dressing all contain large amounts of HFCS and should be removed from the diet totally. Home-made treats that use minimal sugar, may be had as an occasional treat. Remember to follow the 80:20 rule!
FRUCTOSE CONTENT OF FRESH FOODS
Low fructose (less than 1%)
- Apricots (raw)
- Artichoke
- Asparagus
- Avocado
- Bean sprouts (such as alfalfa)
- Beetroot (fresh)
- Broad beans
- Broccoli
- Brussel sprouts
- Cauliflower
- Celeriac
- Celery
- Chinese cabbage
- Cranberries
- Cucumber
- Endive
- Ginger
- Grapefruit
- Green bean
- Green capsicum
- Green chilli
- Lemons
- Lettuce
- Limes
- Mushroom
- Parsley
- Parsnip
- Potato
- Pumpkin (butternut)
- Radish
- Rhubarb
- Silverbeet
- Snow pea
- Spinach
- Sweetcorn
- Tamarillo
- Watercress
- Zucchini
Moderate fructose (1-2.5%)
- Apricots (canned)
- Banana (just ripe)
- Beetroot (canned)
- Blackcurrants
- Cabbage (white/savoy)
- Carrot
- Chives
- Eggplant
- Fennel
- Grapefruit
- Guava (raw)
- Honeydew melon
- Marrow
- Mulberry
- Nectarine
- Orange
- Passionfruit
- Peaches (fresh)
- Pear (with skin)
- Pineapple (raw)
- Plum
- Pumpkin (Queensland blue & golden nugget)
- Raspberries
- Red capsicum
- Red chilli
- Shallot
- Squash
- Strawberries
- Swede
- Sweet potato
- Tangelos
- Tomato (raw)
- Turnip
- Turnip
- Watermelon
High fructose (2.5-5%)
- Banana (Very ripe)
- Blackberry (raw/frozen)
- Blueberries (frozen/fresh)
- Cherry (raw)
- Fig (raw)
- Jack fruit
- Kiwi fruit
- Loquat
- Mandarin
- Mandarin (canned in syrup)
- Paw paw
- Pineapple (canned in natural juice)
- Rambutan
- Rockmelon
- Star fruit
Very high fructose (greater than 5%)
- All dried fruit: figs, dates, apricots, prunes, sultanas, raisins, currants
- Apple
- Berries, tinned in syrup (cherries, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries)
- Custard apple
- Dark plum in tinned syrup drained
- Gherkin
- Grape
- Lychee
- Mango
- Nashi pear
- Persimmon
- Pickled onion
- Pomegranate
- Quince
- Tomato concentrate products (eg. Tomato paste)
Image courtesy of Tuomas_Lehtinen at FreeDigitalPhotos.net