The raison d'etre of this website is to provide you with hard scientific information which may help you make informed decisions in your quest for health (so far I have blogged concise summaries of over 1,500 scientific studies and have had three books published).

My research is mainly focused on the effects of cholesterol, saturated fat and statin drugs on health. If you know anyone who is worried about their cholesterol levels and heart disease, or has been told to take statin drugs you could send them a link to this website, and to my statin or cholesterol or heart disease books.

David Evans

Independent Health Researcher

Thursday 6 May 2010

High dietary intake of fructose leads to diabetes

This paper was published in Nutrition and Metabolism 2005; 2: 5.

Study title and authors:
Fructose, insulin resistance, and metabolic dyslipidemia
Heather Basciano,1 Lisa Federico,1 and Khosrow Adeli1
1Clinical Biochemistry Division, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

This paper can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC552336/?tool=pmcentrez

Basciano reviewed the scientific literature concerning the effects of fructose consumption on the rates of metabolic syndrome and diabetes.

Obesity and diabetes are occurring at epidemic rates in Western countries like the US and developing countries such as China and India. From 1935 t0 1996 type 2 diabetes rose by 765%.

Diabetes (and heart disease) is the progression of metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is the collection of certain health conditions such as, high triglycerides, high blood sugar, insulin resistance, high blood pressure and low levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. Metabolic syndrome is present in about 25-50% of the population in the US.

One of the aspects of metabolic syndrome is insulin resistance (this is where insulin becomes less effective at lowering blood sugar). The main driving force of insulin resistance are diets high in refined carbohydrates and high in fructose.

The current prevailing wisdom dictates that dietary fat is associated with body fat. However over the last 30-40 years with the advent of the "eat low fat campaign" we are now eating less fat and more carbohydrate. This has coincided with a massive rise in obesity and diabetes.

The scientific literature reveals that high fructose corn syrup is associated with the rise in type 2 diabetes, whereas protein and fat do not.

High fructose corn syrup is found in soft drinks, fruit juice, breakfast cereals and baked goods. The consumption of high fructose corn syrup has increased by 1000% since 1970. Corn syrup is now over 20% of the total daily carbohydrate intake, an increase of 2100% since 1909.

Fructose is converted into triglycerides by the liver, which contributed towards insulin resistance.

Fructose raises levels of homocysteine. High homocysteine levels are linked to increased rates of diabetes.

Fructose increases very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) cholesterol levels and apolipoprotein B levels which are associated with increased diabetes incidence.

This review reveals that emerging evidence from studies clearly suggests that the high dietary intake of fructose is one of the driving forces of the development of metabolic syndrome, which almost inevitably leads on to heart disease or diabetes.

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