Many people believe that they are making a healthier choice if they forgo a can of soda and instead drink fruit juice. But are they?
In fact, fruit drinks are not only less than healthy, they are in many cases actually worse for you than soft drinks. They can be higher in sugar, and much higher in calories. They are responsible for a good deal more obesity than most people are aware of.
According to Discovery.com:
“Considering an 8-ounce serving of Snapple Apple has more sugar than 2 and a half Krispy Kreme glazed donuts, you were probably [better] off reaching for the box rather than the bottle.”
To read more disturbing facts about fruit juice you might not have known, you can click on the link below.
Fructose consumption rates continue to rise across the
U.S.This has been linked to rising
rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. Since obesity has
been equated with addiction, a recent study looked at the similarities between
fructose and its fermentation byproduct ethanol.
The research determined that there are definite
similarities.Fructose metabolism in the
liver is similar to that of ethanol — both serve as substrates for fat
production, and in the process both
promote insulin resistance. Both can result in liver inflammation.And both stimulate the “hedonic
pathway” of the brain both directly and indirectly, creating habituation
and possibly dependence.
According to the study, as reprinted on the website Green
Med Info:
“Thus,
fructose induces alterations in both hepatic metabolism and central nervous
system energy signaling, leading to a ‘vicious cycle’ of excessive consumption
and disease consistent with metabolic syndrome. On a societal level, the
treatment of fructose as a commodity exhibits market similarities to ethanol.
Analogous to ethanol, societal efforts to reduce fructose consumption will
likely be necessary to combat the obesity epidemic.”
Fructose, a form of sugar that is added to many processed foods, is likely linked to serious modern epidemics such as cancers, heart disease, hypertension, kidney damage and even dementia. Most recently, research has determined that people who consume large amounts of fructose by drinking fruit juice have an increased risk of rectal cancer.
The study suggests that the high content of fructose in processed fruit juice may be the trigger. Even freshly-squeezed juice contains up to five teaspoons of fructose per glass, which can also lead to weight gain or even diabetes.
According to the Daily Mail:
“Nowadays, fructose is cropping up not just in fruit juice, where it occurs naturally, but in all sorts of foods and drinks — from biscuits to ice cream … Scientists are now growing increasingly worried about fructose syrup’s health effects, because although it contains around the same number of calories as cane sugar, the body does not metabolize fructose syrup in the same way.”
One feature of cancer cells is aberrant glycosylation, which can be affected by the availability and composition of sugars in your body. Recent studies of human breast tumor cells have indicated that they tend to take up and utilize fructose.
A recent study tested the hypothesis that fructose can induce changes in human breast tumor cells that are associated with metastatic disease. The researchers observed changes in such features as migration, adhesion and invasion.
According to the study, as reprinted on the website Green Med Info:
“Fructose accelerated cellular migration and increased invasion … These data could be of fundamental importance due to the markedly increased consumption of sweeteners containing free fructose in recent years, as they suggest that the presence of fructose in nutritional microenvironment of tumor cells may negatively affect the outcome for some breast cancer patients.”
If you use sweeteners for any reason, you probably know that some are better than others. MSN Health has assembled a list of the best and the worst for your health.
The Worst:
Aspartame — Some people report headaches or generally feeling unwell after ingesting anything containing the chemical. One harmful breakdown product of aspartame is formaldehyde.
Agave — Many agave nectars consist of 70 to 80 percent fructose — more than what’s found in high-fructose corn syrup!
Sucralose — Splenda, may originate with sugar, the end product is anything but natural. It’s processed using chlorine.
The Best:
Stevia — People tend to overuse powders, in which the sweetness is really concentrated, so if you’ve tried powders in the past and didn’t like them, try liquid forms.
Sugar alcohols — These contain fewer calories than sweeteners like pure sugar and honey, but more than stevia.
Organic, raw local honey — Honey does boast higher fructose levels, but it also contains cancer-fighting antioxidants.
Blackstrap molasses — Although heavy on calorie content, blackstrap is rich in iron, potassium, and calcium.
For more information, you can click on the link below.
A study investigating the prolonged consumption of sugar has reinforced the evidence of the harmful effects associated with excessive consumption of sugary beverages and soft drinks, investigators report. Rats in the study that were given sucrose or fructose solution for four weeks showed a 40 percent reduction in certain immunoreactive brain cells. This reduction was accompanied by increased apoptosis (death) of the hippocampus, according to the journal Regulatory Peptides.
“Our results suggest that chronic ingestion of fructose is detrimental to the survival of newborn hippocampal neurones. The results presented in the present study add to the list of harmful effects associated with prolonged and excessive consumption of sugary beverages and soft drinks,” the study’s authors said.
A new study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition questions historic assumptions on how excess calories cause weight gain through overeating and lack of exercise. Suggesting that fructose and fructose-derived sweeteners such as sucrose and high fructose corn syrup may also play a part in how the body metabolizes calories, the authors speculate that the cause of obesity is more than just a “calories in-calories out” explanation.
Their theory could lead to a new understanding of the obesity epidemic, and to discovering new strategies for prevention or treatment, the authors say.
A recent study investigated the potential of Chlorella as a potential new agent for handling insulin resistance. But what may be just as interesting is the fact that the study tested the effects of Chlorella by first inducing insulin resistance in rats by means of fructose-rich food.
The website Green Med Info has assembled a list of more than 60 articles detailing the toxicity and health effects of fructose, which include:
Insulin sensitivity
Fatty liver disease
Obesity
Metabolic syndrome
Hypertension
According to just one of the many studies linked on the site:
“These data suggest that dietary fructose specifically … promotes dyslipidemia, decreases insulin sensitivity, and increases visceral adiposity in overweight/obese adults.”
Soda consumption has been linked to everything from obesity to high blood pressure. But if you’re worried about gout, it may be especially important to steer clear of it.
Gout is on the rise. In the 1970’s, the number of people with gout was 20 per 100,000. By the mid-1990’s, that number had more than doubled — to 45.9 per 100,000. Soda consumption among adults rose by 61 percent over the same period.
According to Everyday Health:
“Gout occurs when uric acid builds up in the blood … There are a number of factors that can cause elevated uric acid levels, including heavy fructose consumption … [R]esearch has shown that study participants who consumed two or more servings of sugar- or fructose-sweetened soda each day had an 85 percent increased risk of developing gout”.
A video on YouTube on the biochemistry of fructose and posted in July 2009 has gone viral, with more than 800,000 views so far. People are going to the site at the rate of 50,000 a month, even though it’s 90 minutes long, The New York Times reports. Calling sugar a “toxin” or a “poison” 13 times, and referring to it as “evil” five times, the video’s author, Robert Lustig explains that sugar is sugar, whether it’s the white granulated stuff – commonly known as sucrose – or high fructose corn syrup. And his stance has nothing to do with calories, according to the NYT: “It’s a poison by itself,” he says.
“If Lustig is right, then our excessive consumption of sugar is the primary reason that the numbers of obese and diabetic Americans have skyrocketed in the past 30 years,” the NYT says. “But his argument implies more than that. If Lustig is right, it would mean that sugar is also the likely dietary cause of several other chronic ailments widely considered to be diseases of Western lifestyles — heart disease, hypertension and many common cancers among them.”
The NYT added that Lustig has “a mass” of evidence to back up his claims.
Glucose and fructose are both simple sugars, but scientists have long suspected there are differences in the way your body processes them.
In a new study, researchers scanned the brains of nine subjects after they got an infusion of equal volumes of glucose, fructose or saline. The brain scans were looking at activity in the hypothalamus, a part of the brain which plays a key role in setting appetite levels and controlling production of metabolic hormones.
According to the Chicago Tribune:
“The researchers … found that ‘cortical control areas’ — broad swaths of gray matter that surrounded the hypothalamus — responded quite differently to the infusion of fructose than they did to glucose. Across the limited regions of the brain they scanned … glucose significantly raised the level of neural activity for about 20 minutes following the infusion. Fructose had the opposite effect, causing activity in the same areas to drop and stay low for 20 minutes after the infusion.”
If you think as food is “all natural” just because the label says it is, think again. So which foods really aren’t as natural as they claim they are? When it comes to ice cream, as reported by Change.org, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has outed Ben & Jerry’s, Edy/Dreyers, Breyers, and Turkey Hill as having ingredients that hardly natural.
“And it’s not just ice-cream makers who mislead consumers with an ‘all natural’ label,” Change.org said. “Food products from cookies to yogurts to sauces to cereals come with glowing, ‘all natural’ labels, but actually contain ingredients that are decidedly man-made in a weird science-type of way.”
While CSPI has asked offending manufacturers to remove the “all natural” from their labels, Change.org has gone one step further, with an online petition that it’s asking visitors to sign.
What’s in a name? Everything, if you’re trying to sell a product. But what happens if that product has a name that turns people off – or a name that’s gotten a not-so-good reputation lately? Answer: rebrand it with a new name and pocket the profits.
Corn sugar, canola oil, AminoSweet, kiwi, prunes, and baby carrots are just six examples of how DivineCaroline.com has found how rebranding can line the bottom line of food marketers.
The only thing is, a rose is still a rose, no matter what you call it.
This article, taken from Eating Well Magazine and reported by Shine on Yahoo, assures you that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is no different than regular sugar, and that microwaved food is perfectly fine and unchanged, with no unwanted biproducts.
But the truth is, nothing could be further from the truth, and there is plenty of science-based evidence to back up my claim. In fact, Eating Well Magazine was taken to task in April by the authors of a study on high fructose corn syrup, who said that Eating Well had distorted information from a study they had done on HFCS. With a rebuttal that included four detailed points, Princeton University professor Bart Hoebel, who specializes in the neuroscience of appetite, weight and sugar addiction, took Eating Well to task for trying to say his study was flawed:
“Our study in laboratory rats complements the growing body of literature suggesting that HFCS affects body weight and some obesogenic parameters. We cite in our paper additional evidence reported by other groups that supports our findings, and also acknowledge studies that suggest that HFCS does not affect body weight in ways different than that of sucrose. We acknowledge in the paper that at higher concentrations (e.g., 32%) sucrose has been shown to increase body weight.
“We are claiming, however, that at the concentrations we compared in this study, HFCS causes characteristics of obesity. The data show that both male and female rats are (1) overweight, (2) have heavier fat pads, particularly in the abdominal area, and (3) have elevated circulating triglyceride levels,” Hoebel said.
Eating Well printed his rebuttal – but completely ignored the science by putting HFCS as No. 2 on its September list of food myths and “lies.”
The U.S. government claims that it is trying to address the problem of foodborne illnesses. So why is it recommending drugs which may actually put its citizens at greater risk from food poisoning?
Cholesterol drugs make you more vulnerable to bacterial infections such as e. coli and salmonella — a recent study shows that the statin drug simvastatin (sold under the names Zocor and Simvacor), which the government advocates as a means of lowering cholesterol levels, actually weakens your immune system.
According to the Alliance for Natural Health:
“… [T]he drug … hinders the ability of the body’s immune cells to kill pathogens, and increases the production of cytokines, which trigger and sustain inflammation.”
The Corn Refiners Association (CRA) has petitioned the U.S. FDA to allow manufacturers the option of using the term “corn sugar” instead of “high fructose corn syrup”.
In their press release on the subject, they claim that “independent research demonstrates that the current labeling is confusing to American consumers.” They blame “inexact scientific reports and inaccurate media accounts” for the current stigma associated with high fructose corn syrup.
In reality, as opposed to the CRA’s dream world, if you need to lose weight, or if you want to avoid diabetes and heart disease, high-fructose corn syrup is one type of sugar you’ll want to avoid. Part of what makes HFCS such an unhealthy product is that it is metabolized to fat in your body far more rapidly than any other sugar.