Fructose: Friend or Foe?

Many people have heard that fructose is a “real” sugar and therefore much more beneficial to your body than glucose or “regular sugar.” Table sugar (sucrose) is broken down in your body to glucose, as are many other more complex sugars and carbohydrates. But is fructose better for your body than the others?

I always thought that fructose was better for you, based on the lesser effect it has on insulin/blood sugar. (That is why fruit sugar is acceptable to people with impaired insulin response.) I’ve also always been a big fan of whole foods, so sugar that is contained naturally in a food has always been preferable in my mind. While these premises remains true, the incredible amount of high fructose corn syrup that people are ingesting is making researchers scrutinize fructose more closely.

New research may link fructose to the current increased rates of obesity. The research doesn’t say that eating fruit leads to obesity. Rather, high fructose corn syrup is the culprit. In recent years, the average American’s consumption of added sugars has increased to almost 2.5 times the recommended daily limit, and almost half of that increase comes from high fructose corn syrup. Most of this intake is in the form of sweetened beverages.

But why is the fructose a problem, you ask, when fructose is supposed to be “better” than “regular” sugar. The recent research suggests that the problem might be related to fructose’s effect on ghrelin, a body chemical which is associated with increased hunger. Glucose and mixed carbohydrate meals suppress ghrelin, which may account for the short-term satiating effect of carbohydrates, whereas fructose suppresses hunger to a much lesser degree. Fructose ingestion also favors lipogenesis (creation of fat stores). In addition, fructose cannot enter brain cells as glucose can, so your body still needs to take in glucose to fuel your brain.

Beverages sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup could be making you eat more because they aren’t making you feel full! Furthermore they are loaded with empty calories themselves and the additional calories are probably being turned into fat. The “take home lesson:” stay away from pre-sweetened beverages. Instead, opt for water or other unsweetened beverages. My personal favorite is fresh brewed tea!