Aren’t You Sweet Enough?
Do you eat to live or live to eat?
I don’t know when this habit began but I have a tendency to shop on the perimeter of the grocery store, thus keeping me out of the processed foods aisles. That is not to say that I don’t enjoy a bag of Cape Cod 40% Fat Free Potato Chips every once in a while … someone has to support that local business that I stood in years ago! But one thing is for sure, I read the labels on the food that I buy. What is that old saying “always read the fine print” or “the proof is in the pudding”.
Functional Medicine determines how and why illness occurs and restores health by addressing the root causes of disease for each individual.
As I continue with my Functional Medicine studies, there is one subject that still gets me fired up and that is FRUCTOSE. Yes, that little word on our labels. If you are a human being and you EAT, then I can guarantee that you have consumed fructose in some way, shape or form whether created by Mother Nature or in a chemistry lab. For me there is nothing like a fresh North Carolina peach … so I’ve consumed a lot of natural fructose during my lifetime, along with the “one for the jam and one for me” black raspberry picking I used to do for my grandma when I was a little girl.
Now what is fructose but more importantly why do I get so fired up at its (by my definition) potentially deceptive use? Let me explain. Yes, fructose is considered a “sugar”, it is something that occurs NATURALLY in fruit. Other foods that are NATURALLY rich in fructose are honey, molasses, and agave, along with dried fruit, and fruit juices.
Each year American’s consume 57 POUNDS OF SUGAR!
Now being a simple sugar means that it is not processed and when it’s not processed, it is absorbed by the body easily. That translates into simple sugar being absorbed into the bloodstream through the small intestine without having to be processed by the body aka the liver before giving us energy. When it comes to something like fructose, while it’s absorbed in the small intestine, your body has to convert the fructose into glucose before your body can use it. Excessive fructose intake may also raise the risk of metabolic syndrome and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease! Now to add more into the mix, if you see the word SUCROSE on your label, know this … once it is eaten, your body splits the sucrose into fructose AND glucose. Then the glucose literally feeds the fructose, thus affecting your insulin. Now that the sucrose has been split, it ends up doing more damage over the long run because the fructose that is stored will be stored as fat. Hence the problem of childhood obesity that has been on the rise. In addition, excess fructose places a tremendous burden on your liver, as it’s metabolized like alcohol.
Did you know that while we have a tendency to think of sugar being added to desserts like ice cream & cake, 74% of processed/manufactured foods have sugar ADDED to them … to make them taste better?
Now if you check out Wikipedia as a tongue in cheek trusted source, here is what they have to say about Fructose: “Fructose, or fruit sugar, is a simple ketonic monosaccharide found in many plants, where it is often bonded to glucose to form the disaccharide sucrose. It is one of the three dietary monosaccharides, along with glucose and galactose, that are absorbed directly into blood during digestion.”
As I stated earlier “yes, fructose is considered a “sugar”, it is something that occurs NATURALLY in fruit. But it’s when a manufacturer is listing it as an ingredient, then buyer beware! What this means to us as consumers is … it’s “added processed sugar”. The FDA now requires that manufacturer list their ingredients based upon the QUANTITY of each in their recipes, starting at the highest and then down to the lowest. So let’s use apple juice as an example. When you look at the side of the can or the back of the bottle and the list of ingredients are “water, fructose, apples”. What’s the number one ingredient? Water. Let me ask you this … apples are pretty sweet, right? So then why would a manufacturer have ADD fructose to a drink that already has a natural sweetener in it? Because fructose is cheap and it enhances the flavor, that’s why. And what do you think that the majority of American’s are addicted to? SUGAR! But in all reality, I would say some form of “FRUCTOSE”.
Check out the list of 61 names for sugar. Click the link below.
When you head to the grocery store, here’s a heads up. There are 61 different names for sugar, and some that manufacturers have created to lead you down the rabbit hole and hide sugar in plain site on our food labels! Yes, I just said SIXTY ONE! We will start with the one that has gotten some of the worst press high-fructose corn syrup and of course sucrose as well as barley malt, dextrose, maltose and rice syrup, among others. Click here for the list of all 61: Sugar Science
For the labels that contain words like beets (natural sugar), carrots (natural sugar), or maple syrup (natural sugar), and then add the ingredient of fructose, then you can rest assured that fructose has been added as an ingredient. That ingredient will have been PROCESSED and carry the code of: C6H12O6. When you have a label that gives you a total amount of sugar, let’s say 16g but it then breaks it down to be 10g of sugar and 6g of added sugar, then 9 times out of 10, the manufacturer has ADDED fructose as a separate ingredient. Much like they do with gluten but I’ll save that for another blog.
The fact of the matter is this … the “Consumption of excessive quantities of foods that contain fructose and other sugars is a well-known cause of type 2 diabetes, elevated levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and triglycerides, and of course, obesity.” In addition, our brains are the computer that we rely on and in a study done on lab rats who were fed diets high in fructose, over time 1000 genes in their brains were adversely affected. Now I don’t know about you, but I need my brain and am not in a position to kill off any of my brain cells.
So buyer beware. Fructose may have the most negative health effects, but all experts that I have followed and studied agree that you should limit your intake of ADDED sugar. However, there is no need to limit the sugars found naturally in fruits and vegetables. Look, I’m not perfect but I know enough to ask questions. When there is fructose listed as an ingredient, that item goes back on the shelf. When I go to a restaurant or over to a friends house for dinner, do I ask if fructose is in the food I? No! I am way to polite for that but I can pretty much guess when it will be used … and I accept that I eat it some of the time. My goal is to continue to be a conscious eater and do my due diligence whenever possible … and help my friends along the way and feed my family good, wholesome, well-balanced healthy meals.
Eat The Rainbow
The bottom line is this … for a healthy and well-balanced lifestyle, eat the rainbow of food colors. Stick to the perimeter of the grocery store, read your labels and eat whole foods whenever possible. The fewer the ingredients on the label, the healthier the food. Save the added sugars for the occasional special treat and when you are ready to change your habits, I am available to help you.
No judgment, just help provided.