Fructose - Is it Atherogenic?

Robert W. Griffith, MD

Fructose, the sweetest of all naturally occurring sugars, is found in honey, tree fruits, berries, melons, and some root vegetables, such as beets, parsnips, and onions. It's also derived from the digestion of sucrose, a disaccharide consisting of glucose and fructose. Fructose is used to sweeten most soft drinks in the USA - read the label - often in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, a mixture of fructose and glucose. Fructose has a low glycemic index, which is useful in formulating foods with a low glycemic load.

A speaker at the recent American Diabetes Association meeting described a study in which 23 overweight or obese subjects underwent an 8-week trial in which they consumed drinks to make up 25% of their daily calorie needs. The drinks were sweetened with either fructose or glucose.

Compared to baseline, the plasma triglyceride levels increased 212% in the fructose-drinkers, compared with a decrease of 30% in the glucose drinkers. Fasting levels of plasma LDL-cholesterol and apolipoprotein-B were significantly increased in the fructose group, along with other biochemical indicators of atherogenesis (intracellular adhesion molecule and oxidized LDL-C).

The findings suggest that fructose may be a contributing factor to the increased prevalence of the metabolic syndrome occurring nowadays. However, there is considerable controversy here - fructose has its fierce defenders. As far as I'm concerned, diet sodas are the best answer . . . Artificial sweeteners are perfectly safe, in my book.

Source
HealthandAge Blog

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