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Fructose

News & Research:

• How sugar promotes inflammation - Science Daily, 3/22/22 - "People who consume sugar and other carbohydrates in excess over a long period of time have an increased risk of developing an autoimmune disease. In affected patients, the immune system attacks the body's own tissue and the consequences are, for example, chronic inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, type 1 diabetes and chronic inflammation of the thyroid gland ... excessive consumption of glucose directly promotes the pathogenic functions of certain cells of the immune system and that, conversely, that a calorie-reduced diet can have a beneficial effect on immune diseases. Based on these findings, they also identified new targets for therapeutic interventions: A specific blockade of glucose-depended metabolic processes in these immune cells can suppress excessive immune reactions ... Immune cells need large amounts of sugar in the form of glucose to perform their tasks. With the help of specialized transporters at their cell membrane, they can take up glucose from the environment ... blocking GLUT3-dependent synthesis of acetyl-CoA by the dietary supplement hydroxycitrate, which is used to treat obesity, can mitigate the pathogenic functions of Th17 cells and reduce inflammatory-pathological processes" - See hydroxycitrate at Amazon.com. It would seem like my three sugar sweetener method might work also. In recipes requiring glucose, substitute a third inulin (glycemic index 14), an third trehalose (glycemic index 32) and maybe 3/8th xylitol (glycemic index 7). You're still getting more sweetness with less calories and a much lower glycemic index.
• Excess sugar consumption costs Canada’s health-care system $5 billion each year, study finds - Science Daily, 3/16/22 - "They peg the economic burden of excessive sugar consumption in Canada at $5 billion a year, thanks to the direct and indirect costs related to 16 chronic disease ... They then established risk estimates for 16 diet-related chronic conditions, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, kidney disease and low back pain. They calculated avoidable direct health-care costs such as doctors, hospitals and drugs, along with indirect costs like productivity losses due to illness and disability" - Note: For the sugar part of my recipes, I replace it with a third inulin, a third trehalose and a third and little of a third with xylitol. See inulin at Amazon.com, trehalose at Amazon.com and xylitol at Amazon.com. Inulin has a glycemic index of 14, trehalose is 32 and xylitol is 7.
• High Fructose Intake May Trigger Fatty Liver Disease - Medscape, 3/7/22 - "A high intake of fructose may increase the risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, in which too much fat is stored in liver cells ... Researchers found that consuming a high-fructose diet for long periods can lead to a deterioration of the layer of cells that creates the intestinal barrier that prevents bacteria and toxins from leaking into the bloodstream and affecting the liver ... Fatty liver disease can lead to liver inflammation and liver damage, resulting in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, a more aggressive disease that in turn can progress to scarring of the liver (cirrhosis), liver cancer, and liver failure ... Severe fatty liver disease and liver tumors from the gut barrier deterioration created by excessive fructose intake can be prevented with medications"
• High-Fructose Corn Syrup Ups CRC Risk, More Data Suggest - Medscape, 7/27/21 - "Compared with consumption of less than one serving/week of SSB in adulthood, a higher intake was associated with a 2.2 times increased risk. Each serving/day increment of SSB intake in adolescents (13-18 years) was associated with a 32% increased risk of early-onset CRC. Furthermore, replacing each serving/day of SSB with other beverages (eg, coffee, milk, artificially sweetened beverages) in adulthood was associated with a risk reduction for early-onset CRC of 17%-36%"
• Sugar-sweetened drinks linked to increased risk of colorectal cancer in women under 50, study finds - Science Daily, 5/6/21 - "Compared with women who drank less than one 8-ounce serving per week of sugar-sweetened beverages, those who drank two or more servings per day had just over twice the risk of developing early-onset colorectal cancer, meaning it was diagnosed before age 50. The researchers calculated a 16% increase in risk for each 8-ounce serving per day. And from ages 13 to 18, an important time for growth and development, each daily serving was linked to a 32% increased risk of eventually developing colorectal cancer before age 50"
• Consumption of added sugar doubles fat production - Science Daily, 3/16/21 - "Eighty grams of sugar daily, which is equivalent to about 0,8 liters of a normal soft drink, boosts fat production in the liver. And the overactive fat production continues for a longer period of time, even if no more sugar is consumed ... Ninety-four healthy young men took part in the study. Every day for a period of seven weeks, they consumed a drink sweetened with different types of sugar, while the control group did not. The drinks contained either fructose, glucose or sucrose (table sugar which is a combination of fructose and glucose) ... Overall, the participants did not consume more calories than before the study, as the sugary drink increased satiety and they therefore reduced their calorie intake from other sources. Nevertheless, the researchers observed that fructose has a negative effect: "The body's own fat production in the liver was twice as high in the fructose group as in the glucose group or the control group -- and this was still the case more than twelve hours after the last meal or sugar consumption," says Gerber. Particularly surprising was that the sugar we most commonly consume, sucrose, boosted fat synthesis slightly more than the same amount of fructose. Until now, it was thought that fructose was most likely to cause such changes ... the World Health Organization recommends limiting daily sugar consumption to around 50 grams or, even better, 25 grams" - Note: a 12-ounce can of coke has 39 grams of sugar.
• High-fructose and high-fat diet damages liver mitochondria - Science Daily, 10/1/19 - "high levels of fructose in the diet inhibit the liver's ability to properly metabolize fat. This effect is specific to fructose. Indeed, equally high levels of glucose in the diet actually improve the fat-burning function of the liver. This explains why high dietary fructose has more negative health impacts than glucose does, even though they have the same caloric content ... Fructose makes the liver accumulate fat. It acts almost like adding more fat to the diet. This contrasts the effect of adding more glucose to the diet, which promotes the liver's ability to burn fat, and therefore actually makes for a healthier metabolism ... In the high-fat plus fructose group, these mitochondria are fragmented and they're not able to burn fat as well as the healthy mitochondria. But looking at the high-fat diet plus glucose group, those mitochondria become more normal looking because they are burning fat normally"
• How diabetes can increase cancer risk: DNA damaged by high blood sugar - Science Daily, 8/25/19 - "Exposure to high glucose levels leads to both DNA adducts and the suppression of their repair, which in combination could cause genome instability and cancer" - Note:  I suspected that a long time ago which is why I take diabetes medications (metformin and generic Actos) even though I'm not diabetic.  It's been said for a long time that sugar fuels cancer.
• Sugary Sodas, Juices Tied to Higher Cancer Risk - WebMD, 7/10/19 - "drinking as little as 3 to 4 ounces of sugary drinks each day was tied to an 18% rise in overall risk for cancer ... Among women, a similar consumption level was tied to a 22% rise in breast cancer risk "
• High-fructose corn syrup boosts intestinal tumor growth in mice - Science Daily, 3/12/19 - "consuming a daily modest amount of high-fructose corn syrup -- the equivalent of people drinking about 12 ounces of a sugar-sweetened beverage daily -- accelerates the growth of intestinal tumors in mouse models of the disease, independently of obesity"
• Sugary Drinks Tied to Shorter Life Span - NYT, 3/21/19 - "Over about 30 years, there were 36,436 deaths. The more sugar-sweetened drinks people consumed, the higher their risk for death. After controlling for many health, behavioral and dietary characteristics, the researchers found that each additional daily 12-ounce serving of sugary drinks was associated with a 7 percent increased risk for death from any cause, a 5 percent increased risk for cancer death, and a 10 percent increased risk for death from cardiovascular disease ... The optimal intake of these drinks is zero"
• Sugar improves memory in over-60s, helping them work smarter - Science Daily, 7/18/18 - "They found that increasing energy through a glucose drink can help both young and older adults to try harder compared to those who had the artificial sweetener. For young adults, that's where it ended, though: glucose did not improve either their mood or their memory performance ... However, older adults who had a glucose drink showed significantly better memory and more positive mood compared to older adults who consumed the artificial sweetener."
• Sugary Drinks Tied to Accelerated Brain Aging - NYT, 4/24/17 - "Compared with those who drank no sugary drinks, those who drank one or two a day had a reduced brain volume equivalent to 1.6 years of normal aging, and lower memory scores equivalent to 5.8 years of aging. Those who drank more than two had decreased brain volume equivalent to two years of normal aging and lower memory scores by the equivalent of 11 years"
• Sugar's 'tipping point' link to Alzheimer's disease revealed - Science Daily, 2/23/17 - "Excess sugar is well known to be bad for us when it comes to diabetes and obesity, but this potential link with Alzheimer's disease is yet another reason that we should be controlling our sugar intake in our diets"
• High-sugar diet programs a short lifespan in flies - Science Daily, 1/11/17 - "Flies with a history of eating a high sugar diet live shorter lives, even after their diet improves. This is because the unhealthy diet drives long-term reprogramming of gene expression ... The FOXO gene is important for longevity in a wide variety of species, including yeast, flies, worms and humans, so the team say the findings may have broad implications"
• Natural sugar may treat fatty liver disease - Science Daily, 2/23/16 - "a natural sugar called trehalose prevents the sugar fructose -- thought to be a major contributor to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease -- from entering the liver and triggers a cellular housekeeping process that cleans up excess fat buildup inside liver cells ... In general, if you feed a mouse a high-sugar diet, it gets a fatty liver ... We found that if you feed a mouse a diet high in fructose plus provide drinking water that contains three percent trehalose, you completely block the development of a fatty liver. Those mice also had lower body weights at the end of the study and lower levels of circulating cholesterol, fatty acids and triglycerides ... Trehalose is a natural sugar found in plants and insects ... We know the mice that received drinking water with three percent trehalose lost weight, and we suspect that weight loss was due to loss of fat, but we can't be certain that's the only effect" - See trehalose at Amazon.com.
• Here's How Sugar Might Fuel the Growth of Cancer - NBC News, 12/31/15 - "Sucrose or table sugar is actually composed of two sugars: glucose and fructose ... Fructose is processed more by the liver, glucose by the pancreas ... When the mice got more fructose, they grew larger tumors and faster ... This supports other findings that have shown pancreatic tumors also thrive on fructose ... It seems that fructose is driving this inflammatory process more than glucose ... It seems from these series of experiments that it really fructose that within the sucrose that is the driver of the tumorigenic process ... Any sugar helped make the tumors grow faster, but fructose did it significantly more"
• Fatty Liver Risk Increases With Daily Intake of Sugary Drinks - Medscape, 6/11/15 - "Compared with nonconsumers and individuals who consumed less than 1 serving of SSBs per month, those who consumed less than 1 serving of SSBs per week (but more than 1 serving per month) had a 16% increase in risk (95% CI, 0.88 - 1.54). Those who consumed from 1 serving per week to less than 1 serving per day had a 32% increased risk (95% CI, 0.93 - 1.86), and those who consumed more than 1 serving daily had a 61% increase in risk"
• Fructose more toxic than table sugar, mouse study suggests - Science Daily, 1/5/15 - "The new study compared two groups of mice that were fed a healthy diet with 25 percent calories from processed sugars. One group ate a mix of fructose-glucose monosaccharides like those in high-fructose corn syrup. The other group ate sucrose ... Female mice on the fructose-glucose diet had death rates 1.87 times higher than females on the sucrose diet. They also produced 26.4 percent fewer offspring ... The new study found no differences in males on the two diets in terms of survival, reproduction or ability to compete for territory. But Potts said the 2013 study showed male mice were a quarter less likely to hold territory and reproduce on the fructose-glucose mix compared with starch. That, combined with the new findings, "suggests sucrose is as bad for males as high-fructose corn syrup,""
• Exercise Offsets the Effects of a High-Fructose Diet - Medscape, 11/26/14 - "physical activity (PA) ... Low PA during a period of high fructose intake augments fructose-induced postprandial lipidemia and inflammation, whereas high PA minimizes these fructose-induced metabolic disturbances. Even within a young healthy population, maintenance of high PA (>12,500 steps per day) decreases susceptibility to cardiovascular risk factors associated with elevated fructose consumption"
• Sugared soda consumption, cell aging associated in new study - Science Daily, 10/16/14 - "Regular consumption of sugar-sweetened sodas might influence disease development, not only by straining the body's metabolic control of sugars, but also through accelerated cellular aging of tissues ... Based on the way telomere length shortens on average with chronological age, the UCSF researchers calculated that daily consumption of a 20-ounce soda was associated with 4.6 years of additional biological aging. This effect on telomere length is comparable to the effect of smoking, or to the effect of regular exercise in the opposite, anti-aging direction"
• A Soda a Day Ups CVD Risk by 30%: NHANES Study - Medscape, 2/4/14 - "Yang et al inform this debate by showing that the risk of CVD mortality becomes elevated once added sugar intake surpasses 15% of daily calories—equivalent to drinking one 20-ounce Mountain Dew soda in a 2000-calorie daily diet ... The risk rises exponentially as sugar intake increases, peaking with a fourfold increased risk of CVD death for individuals who consume one-third or more of their daily calories in added sugar ... it is safest to consume less than 15% of their daily calories as added sugar"
• New study finds no reason to replace fructose with glucose - Science Daily, 1/31/14 - "consuming fructose may increase total cholesterol and postprandial triglycerides, a type of fat found in blood. However, fructose did not appear to affect insulin production, other fat levels in the blood stream or markers of fatty liver disease any more than glucose did ... In calorie-matched conditions, we found that fructose may actually be better at promoting healthy body weight, blood pressure and glycemic control than glucose ... Dr. Sievenpiper said he feels that overconsumption, rather than a type of sugar, is one of the leading causes of obesity"
• Fructose does not impact emerging indicator for cardiovascular disease, research suggests - Science Daily, 12/30/13 - "Fructose, the sugar often blamed for the obesity epidemic, does not itself have any impact on an emerging marker for the risk of cardiovascular disease known as postprandial triglycerides ... This is more evidence that fructose has adverse effects only insofar as it contributes to excess calories"
• Step away from that soda: Sugary drinks raise cancer risk for women, study finds - NBC News.com, 11/22/13 - "endometrial cancer ... Women who drank the most sweet soft drinks had a 78 percent increased risk of the cancer, researchers found. But other sweet treats, such as baked goods, didn’t have an effect. Nor did natural fruit juice, even though it’s full of naturally occurring sugars ... It has to do with how insulin, which controls how the body uses sugar, affects other hormones such as estrogen"
• Fructose-Containing Caloric Sweeteners and Energy Efficiency - Medscape, 11/7/13 - "Epidemiological studies indicate that the consumption of fructose-containing caloric sweeteners (FCCS: mainly sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup) is associated with obesity ... We therefore reviewed the literature comparing a) diet-induced thermogenesis (DIT) after ingestion of isocaloric FCCS vs glucose meals, and b) basal metabolic rate (BMR) or c) post-prandial energy expenditure after consuming a high FCCS diet for > 3 days vs basal,weight-maintenance low FCCS diet ... The higher DIT with fructose than glucose can be explained by the low energy efficiency associated with fructose metabolism ... We conclude that fructose has lower energy efficiency than glucose. Based on available studies, there is presently no hint that dietary FCCS may decrease EE"
• Sugar, Uric Acid, and the Etiology of Diabetes and Obesity - Medscape, 10/21/13 - "fructose-induced uric acid generation causes mitochondrial oxidative stress that stimulates fat accumulation independent of excessive caloric intake. These studies challenge the long-standing dogma that "a calorie is just a calorie" and suggest that the metabolic effects of food may matter as much as its energy content. The discovery that fructose-mediated generation of uric acid may have a causal role in diabetes and obesity provides new insights into pathogenesis and therapies for this important disease"
• Dietary fructose causes liver damage in animal model - Science Daily, 6/19/13 - "The big question for the researchers was what caused the liver damage. Was it because the animals got fat from eating too much, or was it something else? ... To answer that question, this study was designed to prevent weight gain. Ten middle-aged, normal weight monkeys who had never eaten fructose were divided into two groups based on comparable body shapes and waist circumference. Over six weeks, one group was fed a calorie-controlled diet consisting of 24 percent fructose, while the control group was fed a calorie-controlled diet with only a negligible amount of fructose, approximately 0.5 percent ... Both diets had the same amount of fat, carbohydrate and protein, but the sources were different ... high-fructose group's diet was made from flour, butter, pork fat, eggs and fructose (the main ingredient in corn syrup), similar to what many people eat, while the control group's diet was made from healthy complex carbohydrates and soy protein ... What surprised us the most was how quickly the liver was affected and how extensive the damage was, especially without weight gain as a factor"
• Excess sugar linked to cancer - Science Daily, 2/1/13 - "Dr Garcia Jimenez's laboratory was studying how cells in the intestine respond to sugars and signal to the pancreas to release insulin, the key hormone that controls blood sugar levels. Sugars in the intestine trigger cells to release a hormone called GIP that enhances insulin release by the pancreas ... the ability of the intestinal cells to secrete GIP is controlled by a protein called β-catenin, and that the activity of β-catenin is strictly dependent on sugar levels ... high (but not normal) sugar levels induce nuclear accumulation of β-catenin and leads to cell proliferation"
• Fructose has different effect than glucose on brain regions that regulate appetite - Science Daily, 1/1/13 - "ingestion of glucose but not fructose reduced cerebral blood flow and activity in brain regions that regulate appetite, and ingestion of glucose but not fructose produced increased ratings of satiety and fullness"
• Weekly soft drink consumption bubbles up knee osteoarthritis; especially in men - Science Daily, 11/11/12 - "men who consumed more soft drinks per week had worse knee OA progression. The joint space became narrower by an average of 0.29 millimeters in men who drank no soft drinks to 0.59 millimeters in men who drank more than five soft drinks a week. Interestingly, men with lower BMI, less than 27.5 kg/m2, showed more knee OA progression with increased soft-drink consumption than men who had higher BMI scores. By contrast, only women in the lowest BMI segment of the study, less than 27.3kg/m2, showed an association between more soft-drink consumption and knee OA progression"
• Eating lots of carbs, sugar may raise risk of cognitive impairment - Science Daily, 10/16/12 - "People 70 and older who eat food high in carbohydrates have nearly four times the risk of developing mild cognitive impairment, and the danger also rises with a diet heavy in sugar, Mayo Clinic researchers have found. Those who consume a lot of protein and fat relative to carbohydrates are less likely to become cognitively impaired ... Researchers tracked 1,230 people ages 70 to 89 who provided information on what they ate during the previous year ... A high carbohydrate intake could be bad for you because carbohydrates impact your glucose and insulin metabolism"
• Increased dietary fructose linked to elevated uric acid levels and lower liver energy stores - Science Daily, 9/13/12 - "increased dietary fructose can alter the body's metabolism and energy balance. Energy depletion in the liver may be associated with liver injury in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and in those at risk for developing this metabolic condition ... For the present study, 244 obese and diabetic adults from the Look AHEAD Study were evaluated, with dietary fructose consumption estimated by the food frequency questionnaire ... "High fructose consumption and elevated levels of uric acid are associated with more severe depletion of liver ATP. Our findings suggest that increased dietary fructose intake may impair liver "energy balance." Further research to define the clinical implications of these findings on metabolism and NAFLD is necessary.""
• New evidence in fructose debate: Could it be healthy for us? - Science Daily, 6/21/12 - "fructose may not be as bad for us as previously thought and that it may even provide some benefit ... this research suggests that the problem is likely one of overconsumption, not fructose ... The study reviewed 18 trials with 209 participants who had Type 1 and 2 diabetes and found fructose significantly improved their blood sugar control. The improvement was equivalent to what can be achieved with an oral antidiabetic drug ... We're seeing that there may be benefit if fructose wasn't being consumed in such large amounts ... All negative attention on fructose-related harm draws further away from the issue of eating too many calories" - [Abstract]
• This is your brain on sugar: Study in rats shows high-fructose diet sabotages learning, memory - Science Daily, 5/15/12 - "Binging on soda and sweets for as little as six weeks may make you stupid ... Eating a high-fructose diet over the long term alters your brain's ability to learn and remember information. But adding omega-3 fatty acids to your meals can help minimize the damage ... studied two groups of rats that each consumed a fructose solution as drinking water for six weeks. The second group also received omega-3 fatty acids in the form of flaxseed oil and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which protects against damage to the synapses -- the chemical connections between brain cells that enable memory and learning ... DHA is essential for synaptic function -- brain cells' ability to transmit signals to one another ... Our findings suggest that consuming DHA regularly protects the brain against fructose's harmful effects" - See Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Soda consumption increases overall stroke risk - Science Daily, 4/20/12 - "The research analyzed soda consumption among 43,371 men who participated in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study between 1986 and 2008, and 84,085 women who participated in the Nurses' Health Study between 1980 and 2008 ... In sugar-sweetened sodas, the sugar load may lead to rapid increases in blood glucose and insulin which, over time, may lead to glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, and inflammation. These physiologic changes influence atherosclerosis, plaque stability and thrombosis -- all of which are risk factors of ischemic stroke ... In comparison, coffee contains chlorogenic acids, lignans and magnesium, all of which act as antioxidants and may reduce stroke risk. When compared with one serving of sugar-sweetened soda, one serving of decaffeinated coffee was associated with a 10 percent lower risk of stroke"
• Sugar-sweetened drinks linked to increased risk of heart disease in men - Science Daily, 3/1/12 - "Men who drank a 12-ounce sugar-sweetened beverage a day had a 20 percent higher risk of heart disease compared to men who didn't drink any sugar-sweetened drinks"
• Research offers insight to how fructose causes obesity and other illness - Science Daily, 2/27/12
• High fizzy soft drink consumption linked to violence among teens - Science Daily, 10/25/11 - "heavy use of carbonated non-diet soft drinks was significantly associated with carrying a gun or knife, and violence towards peers, family members and partners ... When the findings were divided into four categories of consumption, the results showed a clear dose-response relationship across all four measures ... There may be a direct cause-and-effect-relationship, perhaps due to the sugar or caffeine content of soft drinks, or there may be other factors, unaccounted for in our analyses, that cause both high soft drink consumption and aggression"
• Dietary Fructose and Risk of Metabolic Syndrome in Adults - Medscape, 9/28/11 - "in our study the association between dietary fructose and metabolic syndrome and its components was observed only in the third and fourth quartiles of fructose intakes, approximately over 8 and 12% of energy intake (> 50 g/d); while dietary intake of fructose from natural sources including fruits and vegetables, even in the fourth quartile of fructose intakes was only 5% of energy, approximately 30 g/d. Thus, the increased risk of metabolic syndrome and its components may be attributed to increase fructose intake from industrialized foods"
• Sugar-sweetened drinks associated with higher blood pressure - Science Daily, 3/1/11 - "for every extra sugar-sweetened beverage drunk per day participants on average had significantly higher systolic blood pressure by 1.6 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) and diastolic blood pressure higher by 0.8 mm Hg ... They found no consistent association between diet soda intake and blood pressure levels. Those who drank diet soda had higher mean BMI than those who did not and lower levels of physical activity ... One possible mechanism for sugar-sweetened beverages and fructose increasing blood pressure levels is a resultant increase in the level of uric acid in the blood that may in turn lower the nitric oxide required to keep the blood vessels dilated. Sugar consumption also has been linked to enhanced sympathetic nervous system activity and sodium retention"
• Highest Mortality Risk Seen With High-Fat Dairy and High Sugar Intake - Medscape, 12/23/10 - "Compared to people who ate healthy foods, men and women in their 70s had a 40% higher risk of death if they got most of their calories from high-fat dairy foods or from sweets and desserts" - I'd take that one study with a grain of salt.  In regard to dairy, it contradicts this analysis of many studies.
  • Milk and dairy consumption and incidence of cardiovascular diseases and all-cause mortality: dose-response meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies - Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Jan;93(1):158-71 - "PubMed, EMBASE, and SCOPUS were searched for articles published up to February 2010. Of >5000 titles evaluated, 17 met the inclusion criteria, all of which were original prospective cohort studies ... A modest inverse association was found between milk intake and risk of overall CVD [4 studies; relative risk (RR): 0.94 per 200 mL/d; 95% CI: 0.89, 0.99]. Milk intake was not associated with risk of CHD (6 studies; RR: 1.00; 95% CI: 0.96, 1.04), stroke (6 studies; RR: 0.87; 95% CI: 0.72, 1.05), or total mortality (8 studies; RR per 200 mL/d: 0.99; 95% CI: 0.95, 1.03). Limited studies of the association of total dairy products and of total high-fat and total low-fat dairy products (per 200 g/d) with CHD showed no significant associations"
• Excess fructose may play role in diabetes, obesity and other health conditions - Science Daily, 11/22/10 - "The link between excessive intake of fructose and metabolic syndrome is becoming increasingly established. However, in this review of the literature, the authors conclude that there is also increasing evidence that fructose may play a role in hypertension and renal disease. "Science shows us there is a potentially negative impact of excessive amounts of sugar and high fructose corn syrup on cardiovascular and kidney health," explains Dr. Johnson. He continues that "excessive fructose intake could be viewed as an increasingly risky food and beverage additive.""
• Fructose-rich beverages associated with increased risk of gout in women - Science Daily, 11/10/10 - "Compared with consumption of less than 1 serving per month, women who consumed one serving per day had a 74 percent increased risk of gout; and those with 2 or more servings per day had a 2.4 times higher risk ... Orange juice intake was also associated with risk of gout. Compared with women who consumed less than a glass (6 oz.) of orange juice per month, women who consumed 1 serving per day had a 41 percent higher risk of gout, and there was a 2.4 times higher risk with 2 or more servings per day"
• Pancreatic cancers use fructose, common in the Western diet, to fuel their growth - Science Daily, 8/2/10 - "The bottom line is the modern diet contains a lot of refined sugar including fructose and it's a hidden danger implicated in a lot of modern diseases, such as obesity, diabetes and fatty liver ... the pancreatic cancer cells could easily distinguish between glucose and fructose even though they are very similar structurally, and contrary to conventional wisdom, the cancer cells metabolized the sugars in very different ways. In the case of fructose, the pancreatic cancer cells used the sugar in the transketolase-driven non-oxidative pentose phosphate pathway to generate nucleic acids, the building blocks of RNA and DNA, which the cancer cells need to divide and proliferate"
• High fructose diet may contribute to high blood pressure, study finds - Science Daily, 7/1/10 - "people who consumed a diet of 74 grams or more per day of fructose (corresponding to 2.5 sugary soft drinks per day) had a 26%, 30%, and 77% higher risk for blood pressure levels of 135/85, 140/90, and 160/100 mmHg, respectively. (A normal blood pressure reading is below 120/80 mmHg.)"
• High fructose, trans fats lead to significant liver disease, says study - Science Daily, 6/22/10 - "mice fed the normal calorie chow diet remained lean and did not have fatty liver disease. Mice fed high calorie diets (trans-fat alone or a combination of trans-fat and high fructose) became obese and had fatty liver disease ... it was only the group fed the combination of trans-fat and high fructose which developed the advanced fatty liver disease which had fibrosis ... This same group also had increased oxidative stress in the liver, increased inflammatory cells, and increased levels of plasma oxidative stress markers"
• Fructose sugar makes maturing human fat cells fatter, less insulin-sensitive, study finds - Science Daily, 6/21/10 - "high levels of fructose, which may result from eating a diet high in fructose, throughout childhood may lead to an increase in visceral [abdominal] obesity, which is associated with increased cardiometabolic risk ... For both types of fat cells, maturation in fructose decreased the cells' insulin sensitivity, which is the ability to successfully take up glucose from the bloodstream into fat and muscles. Decreased insulin sensitivity is a characteristic of Type 2 diabetes"
• Drinking fewer sugar-sweetened beverages may lower blood pressure - Science Daily, 5/24/10 - ""Our findings suggest that reducing sugar-sweetened beverages and sugar consumption may be an important dietary strategy to lower blood pressure and further reduce other blood pressure-related diseases," Chen said. "It has been estimated that a 3-millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) reduction in systolic blood pressure should reduce stroke mortality by 8 percent and coronary heart disease mortality by 5 percent. Such reductions in systolic blood pressure would be anticipated by reducing sugar-sweetened beverages consumption by an average of 2 servings per day ... a reduction of one serving/day of SSB was associated with a 1.8 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) drop in systolic pressure and a 1.1 mm Hg decline in diastolic pressure over 18 months"
• Study: Too Much Sugar Increases Heart Risks - Time Magazine, 4/21/10 - "Compared with people consuming less than 5% of their daily calories in added sugar, those in the highest consumption group — who got 25% or more of their daily calories in added sugar — were twice as likely to have low levels of HDL cholesterol, the beneficial lipid that mops up artery-clogging LDL cholesterol. According to government health guidelines, HDL levels below 50 mg/dL for women and 40 mg/dL for men are considered low; 43% of the highest sugar consumers recorded low HDL, while only 22% of the lowest sugar consumers did ... People eating the most added sugar also recorded the highest triglyceride levels ... Low HDL and high triglyceride levels are two of the primary risk factors for heart disease"
• High fructose corn syrup linked to liver scarring, research suggests - Science Daily, 3/22/10 - "The researchers found only 19 percent of adults with NAFLD reported no intake of fructose-containing beverages, while 52 percent consumed between one and six servings a week and 29 percent consumed fructose-containing beverages on a daily basis"
• High-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain, researchers find - Science Daily, 3/22/10
• Drinking sugar-sweetened beverages daily linked to diabetes - Science Daily, 3/6/10 - "Using the Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) Policy Model, a well-established computer simulation model of the national population age 35 and older, researchers estimate that the increased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages between 1990 and 2000 contributed to 130,000 new cases of diabetes, 14,000 new cases of coronary heart disease (CHD), and 50,000 additional life-years burdened by coronary heart disease over the past decade"
• Soft drink consumption may markedly increase risk of pancreatic cancer - Science Daily, 2/8/10 - "Consuming two or more soft drinks per week increased the risk of developing pancreatic cancer by nearly twofold compared to individuals who did not consume soft drinks" - [Abstract]
• High Fructose Intake Linked to Metabolic Syndrome, Kidney Disease - Science Daily, 1/14/10 - "men who were randomized to receive 200 g fructose daily for 2 weeks without or without allopurinol ... Fructose intake was associated with an average increase in systolic and diastolic blood pressure of 7 and 5 mm Hg, respectively ... Mean fasting triglyceride levels rose by 0.62 mmol/L (p < 0.002), while high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels fell by 0.06 mmol/L ... the prevalence of metabolic syndrome increased by 25% to 33%"
• Sugary cola drinks linked to higher risk of gestational diabetes - Science Daily, 11/30/09
• High Fructose Corn Syrup: A Recipe For Hypertension, Study Finds - Science Daily, 11/10/09 - "people who ate or drank more than 74 grams per day of fructose (2.5 sugary soft drinks per day) increased their risk of developing hypertension. Specifically, a diet of more than 74 grams per day of fructose led to a 28%, 36%, and 87% higher risk for blood pressure levels of 135/85, 140/90, and 160/100 mmHg, respectively. (A normal blood pressure reading is below 120/80 mmHg.)"
• High Fructose Intake May Raise Blood Pressure - WebMD, 11/2/09 - "About 2.5 sugary soft drinks a day is enough to elevate the pressure ... Overall, intakes of 74 grams or more daily was associated with a 36% higher risk of having blood pressure of 140/90 or higher, she found. Ideally, blood pressure should be below 120/80 ... ''We know that fructose has the potential to reduce nitric oxide production within the blood vessels,'' she says. "Nitric oxide relaxes the vessel and is supposed to lower blood pressure. Fructose reduces the production of nitric oxide and makes it difficult for the vessels to relax and dilate." ... Fructose also raises uric acid in the blood, she says, and that could raise blood pressure. "Fructose can tell the kidneys to 'hold onto' more salt, and that can contribute to high blood pressure,""
• Health Buzz: Fructose-Heavy Diet Linked to Hypertension and Other Health News - US News and World Report, 9/24/09 - "A small study is among the first to show that regular consumption of fructose-heavy foods and drinks might raise blood pressure—at least in men"
• Heat Forms Potentially Harmful Substance In High-fructose Corn Syrup - Science Daily, 8/26/09
• Eating High Levels Of Fructose Impairs Memory In Rats - Science Daily, 7/16/09 - "What we discovered is that the fructose diet doesn't affect their ability to learn ... But they can't seem to remember as well where the platform was when you take it away. They swam more randomly than rats fed a control diet"
• Fructose-Sweetened Beverages Linked to Heart Risks - NYTimes.com, 4/23/09 - "a controlled and randomized study has found that drinks sweetened with fructose led to higher blood levels of L.D.L, or "bad" cholesterol, and triglycerides in overweight test subjects, while drinks sweetened with another sugar, glucose, did not. Both L.D.L. and triglycerides have been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease"
• Fresh Take on Fructose vs. Glucose - WebMD, 4/21/09 - "Both the groups gained weight during the trial, but imaging studies revealed that most of the added fat in the fructose group occurred in the belly, while most of the fat gained by the glucose group was subcutaneous (under the skin) ... Belly fat, but not subcutaneous fat, has been linked to an increased risk for heart disease and diabetes ... The fructose group had higher total cholesterol and LDL "bad" cholesterol, plus greater insulin resistance, which are consistent with metabolic syndrome, while the glucose group did not"
• High fructose corn syrup: How dangerous is it? - MSNBC, 4/17/09
• Fructose Metabolism By The Brain Increases Food Intake And Obesity, Review Suggests - Science Daily, 3/25/09
• Not So Sweet: Over-consumption Of Sugar Linked To Aging - Science Daily, 3/9/09 - "We know that lifespan can be extended in animals by restricting calories such as sugar intake ...it's not sugar itself that is important in this process but the ability of cells to sense its presence ... the lifespan of yeast cells increased when glucose was decreased from their diet. They then asked whether the increase in lifespan was due to cells decreasing their ability to produce energy or to the decrease in signal to the cells by the glucose sensor ... cells unable to consume glucose as energy source are still sensitive to the pro-aging effects of glucose. Conversely, obliterating the sensor that measures the levels of glucose significantly increased lifespan"
• Why Diets High In High-fructose Corn Syrup (found In Soda And Processed Foods) Can Lead To Insulin Resistance - Science Daily, 3/3/09 - "mice on a high-fructose diet were protected from insulin resistance when a gene known as transcriptional coactivator PPARg coactivator-1b (PGC-1b) was "knocked down" in the animals' liver and fat tissue ... Fructose is much more readily metabolized to fat in the liver than glucose is and in the process can lead to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease ... NAFLD in turn leads to hepatic insulin resistance and type II diabetes"
• Fructose-sweetened Drinks Increase Nonfasting Triglycerides In Obese Adults - Science Daily, 2/12/09 - "Obese people who drink fructose-sweetened beverages with their meals have an increased rise of triglycerides following the meal ... Increased triglycerides after a meal are known predictors of cardiovascular disease"
• Mercury in Some High Fructose Corn Syrup? - WebMD, 1/27/09 - "we found detectable mercury in 17 of 55 samples, or around 31%"
• High-Fructose Corn Syrup’s Bad Rap Unfair? - WebMD, 12/11/08
• Fructose Metabolism More Complicated Than Was Thought - Science Daily, 12/9/08
• New data: High-fructose corn syrup no worse than sugar - USATODAY.com, 12/8/08 - "Now, the tide of research, if not public opinion, has shifted. This week, five papers published in a supplement to Clinical Nutrition find no special link between consumption of high-fructose corn syrup and obesity ... It doesn't appear that when you consume high-fructose corn syrup, you have any different total effect on appetite than if you consume any other sugar"
• Fructose -- Found In High-fructose Corn Syrup, Sugar -- Sets Table For Weight Gain Without Warning - Science Daily, 10/16/08 - "Eating too much fructose can induce leptin resistance, a condition that can easily lead to becoming overweight when combined with a high-fat, high-calorie diet"
• High Fructose Corn Syrup: Too Sweet to Eat? - Dr. Weil, 9/1/08
• Fructose May Make You Fatter - WebMD, 7/31/08 - "Fructose gets made into fat more quickly, and when that process is turned on there seems to be a signal that goes to the liver that says store all the other fats you are seeing"
• Limiting Fructose May Boost Weight Loss, Researcher Reports - Science Daily, 7/24/08 - "One of the reasons people on low-carbohydrate diets may lose weight is that they reduce their intake of fructose, a type of sugar that can be made into body fat quick ... Fructose, on the other hand, enters this metabolic pathway downstream, bypassing the traffic cop and flooding the metabolic pathway"
• High Fructose Corn Syrup Gets Unlikely Ally - WebMD, 6/18/08 - "At a meeting in Chicago, AMA delegates backed a resolution that argues that there's no scientific proof that high fructose corn syrup deserves the blame for obesity more than sugar or other caloric sweeteners. The resolution also nixes putting warning labels on products containing high fructose corn syrup"
• Sweet Soft Drinks, Fructose Linked to Increased Risk for Gout - Medscape, 2/4/08
• Blame Sweet Soda for Gout? - WebMD, 1/31/08 - "Compared with men who almost never drank sugar-sweetened soft drinks -- fewer than one per month -- frequent soft-drink drinkers were significantly more likely to suffer gout: ... Two or more soft drinks each day upped gout risk by 85% ... One soft drink each day upped gout risk by 45% ... Five or six soft drinks each week upped gout risk by 29%"
• Too Much Fructose Could Leave Dieters Sugar Shocked - Science Daily, 12/13/07 - "Eating too much fructose causes uric acid levels to spike, which can block the ability of insulin to regulate how body cells use and store sugar and other nutrients for energy, leading to obesity, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes"
• Too Much Sugar Turns Off Gene That Controls Effects Of Sex Steroids - Science Daily, 11/21/07 - "This discovery reinforces public health advice to eat complex carbohydrates and avoid sugar ... Glucose and fructose are metabolized in the liver. When there’s too much sugar in the diet, the liver converts it to lipid. Using a mouse model and human liver cell cultures, the scientists discovered that the increased production of lipid shut down a gene called SHBG (sex hormone binding globulin), reducing the amount of SHBG protein in the blood. SHBG protein plays a key role in controlling the amount of testosterone and estrogen that’s available throughout the body"
• Sugary Drinks, Not Fruit Juice, May Be Linked To Insulin - Science Daily, 9/5/07 - "Study participants who consumed two or more sugar-sweetened beverages per day had significantly higher fasting blood levels of insulin as compared to participants who did not report consuming any such beverages, regardless of age, sex, weight, smoking status, or other dietary habits ... Higher fasting levels of insulin mean these study participants are more at risk for developing Type 2 diabetes ... consumption of 100 percent fruit juice was not significantly related to any of our measures of insulin resistance"
• Soda Warning? High-fructose Corn Syrup Linked To Diabetes, New Study Suggests - Science Daily, 8/23/07 - "high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) ... Chi-Tang Ho, Ph.D., conducted chemical tests among 11 different carbonated soft drinks containing HFCS. He found 'astonishingly high' levels of reactive carbonyls in those beverages. These undesirable and highly-reactive compounds associated with "unbound" fructose and glucose molecules are believed to cause tissue damage ... Ho estimates that a single can of soda contains about five times the concentration of reactive carbonyls than the concentration found in the blood of an adult person with diabetes ... adding epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), a compound in tea, significantly reduced the levels of reactive carbonyl species in a dose-dependent manner when added to the carbonated soft drinks studied. In some cases, the levels of reactive carbonyls were reduced by half"
• Not Enough Evidence To Indict High Fructose Corn Syrup In Obesity - Science Daily, 7/27/07
• Fructose: Sugar's Dark Side? - WebMD, 6/25/07
• Fructose-Sweetened Drinks Tougher on Arteries - washingtonpost.com, 6/23/07 - "Fructose-sweetened drinks are more likely to provoke the development of fatty artery deposits in overweight adults than glucose-sweetened beverages ... Those who drank fructose-sweetened drinks also had a boost in fasting blood concentrations of LDL ("bad") cholesterol and other measures. Those levels were unaltered in those consuming glucose-sweetened drinks, however"
• Fructose-sweetened Beverages Increases Risk Of Obesity In Rats - Science Daily, 3/16/07
• Fructose-sweetened Beverages Increases Risk Of Diabetes In Rats - Science Daily, 3/15/07
• Sugar intake may hurt liver - Reuters, 10/31/06 - "fatty liver disease was more common in the group given sugar water, especially when exposed to a type of sugar called fructose ... These data support the hypothesis that high fructose consumption may not only (damage) the liver through over-feeding, but may be directly" toxic"
  • Obesity and Fatty Liver disease - MedicineNet.com - "Doctors also are using medications to treat non alcoholic fatty liver disease. For example, insulin-sensitizing agents, such as the thiazolidinediones, pioglitazone (Actos) and rosiglitazone (Avandia), and metformin (Glucophage) not only help to control blood glucose in patients with diabetes, but they also improve enzyme levels in patients with non alcoholic fatty liver disease" - See pioglitazone or rosiglitazone at OffshoreRx1.com, XlPharmacy or SuperSaverMeds.com.
  • Avandia Positively Impacts On Factors Linked With Insulin Resistance - Doctor's Guide, 9/18/00 - "Increased deposits of fat around the internal organs and in the liver are commonly associated with insulin resistance and are found in many type 2 diabetes patients ... Avandia helps prevent accumulation of fat around the internal organs and significantly reduces hepatic fat"
• Is Fructose Dangerous? - thenutritionreporter.com

Abstracts:

• Dietary sugar intake and risk of Alzheimer's disease in older women - Nutr Neurosci 2021 Jul 30;1-12 - "An estimated increase of 10 g/day in total sugar intake (about 2.4 teaspoons) was associated with an increased AD risk by 1.3-1.4%. Of six subtypes of sugar intake, lactose was significantly associated with AD risk."
• Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and bone health: a systematic review and meta-analysis - Nutr J 2021 May 5 - "The meta-analysis showed that SSBs consumption such as carbonated beverages were inversely related to BMD in adults"
• Sugar-Sweetened Soda Consumption and Total and Breast Cancer Mortality: The Western New York Exposures and Breast Cancer (WEB) Study - Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2021 Mar 2 - "We assessed the relationship between sugar-sweetened soda and both all-cause and breast cancer mortality among women with incident, invasive breast cancer from the Western New York Exposures and Breast Cancer (WEB) Study. Breast cancer cases were followed for a median of 18.7 years, with ascertainment of vital status via the National Death Index (NDI). Frequency of sugar-sweetened soda consumption was determined via a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Cox proportional hazards, adjusting for relevant variables, were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) ... Of the 927 breast cancer cases, 386 (54.7%) had died by the end of follow-up. Compared to never/rarely sugar-sweetened soda drinkers, consumption at {greater than or equal to} 5 times per week was associated with increased risk of both total (HR=1.62, 95% CI: 1.16, 2.26, p-trend<0.01) and breast cancer mortality (HR=1.85, 95% CI: 1.16, 2.94; p-trend<0.01). Risk of mortality was similarly increased among ER-positive, but not ER-negative patients, among women with BMI above the median, but not below the median; and among pre-, but not post-menopausal women for total mortality only"
• Fructose replacement of glucose or sucrose in food or beverages lowers postprandial glucose and insulin without raising triglycerides: a systematic review and meta-analysis - Am J Clin Nutr. 2017 Jun 7 - "Strong evidence exists that substituting fructose for glucose or sucrose in food or beverages lowers peak postprandial blood glucose and insulin concentrations. Isoenergetic replacement does not result in a substantial increase in blood triglyceride concentrations"
• Soft drink consumption, mainly diet ones, is associated with increased blood pressure in adolescents - J Hypertens. 2015 Dec 16 - "SBP was 5.4 mmHg higher in the diet soft drink consumers group compared with the nonconsumers group and 3.3 mmHg higher compared with the sugar-sweetened consumers group (P value of trend = 0.01). Moreover, DBP was also higher among diet soft drink consumers compared with nonconsumers, with a difference of 3.3 mmHg, and compared with sugar-sweetened consumers, with a difference of 2.3 mmHg"
• Dietary patterns and colorectal cancer: results from a Canadian population-based study - Nutr J. 2015 Jan 15;14(1):8 - "Three major dietary patterns were derived using factor analysis, namely a Meat-diet pattern, a Plant-based diet pattern and a Sugary-diet pattern. In combination the three dietary patterns explained 74% of the total variance in food intake. Results suggest that the Meat-diet and the Sugary-diet increased the risk of CRC with corresponding odds ratios (ORs) of 1.84 (95% CI: 1.19-2.86) and 2.26 (95% CI: 1.39-3.66) for people in the highest intake quintile compared to those in the lowest. Whereas plant-based diet pattern decreases the risk of CRC with a corresponding OR of 0.55 (95% CI: 0.35-0.87)"
• Fructose Containing Sugars Do Not Raise Blood Pressure or Uric Acid at Normal Levels of Human Consumption - J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2014 Dec 15 - " total of 267 weight-stable participants drank sugar-sweetened milk every day for 10 weeks as part of their usual, mixed-nutrient diet. Groups 1 and 2 had 9% estimated caloric intake from fructose or glucose, respectively, added to milk. Groups 3 and 4 had 18% of estimated caloric intake from high fructose corn syrup or sucrose, respectively, added to the milk ... There was no effect of sugar type on either blood pressure or uric acid (interaction P>.05), and a significant time effect for blood pressure was noted (P<.05). The authors conclude that 10 weeks of consumption of fructose at the 50th percentile level, whether consumed as pure fructose or with fructose-glucose-containing sugars, does not promote hyperuricemia or increase blood pressure"
• Baseline consumption and changes in sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and the incidence of hypertension: The SUN project - Clin Nutr. 2014 Nov 22 - "the hazard ratio for developing hypertension among participants in the highest category (≥7 servings/week) of SSB consumption was 1.33 (95% CI:1.08-1.68) compared to those in the lowest category (non-drinkers) (p for trend: 0.007). This association seems to be stronger among women [1.55 (95% CI:1.11-2.15) p for trend: 0.007]. As a secondary analysis, after 6-y of follow-up an increase in SSB consumption was associated with 26% higher odds of developing hypertension [OR = 1.26 (95% CI:1.02-1.55)]"
• Sugar-sweetened soda consumption and risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis in women - Am J Clin Nutr. 2014 Jul 16 - "followed 79,570 women from the Nurses' Health Study (NHS; 1980-2008) and 107,330 women from the NHS II (1991-2009) ... women who consumed ≥1 servings of sugar-sweetened soda/d had a 63% (HR: 1.63; 95% CI: 1.15, 2.30; P-trend = 0.004) increased risk of developing seropositive RA compared with those who consumed no sugar-sweetened soda or who consumed <1 serving/mo. When we restricted analyses to those with later RA onset (after age 55 y) in the NHS, the association appeared to be stronger (HR: 2.64; 95% CI: 1.56, 4.46; P-trend < 0.0001)"
• Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption Is Associated with Abdominal Fat Partitioning in Healthy Adults - J Nutr. 2014 Jun 18 - "visceral adipose tissue (VAT) ... We conducted a cross-sectional analysis using previously collected data in 2596 middle-aged adults (1306 men and 1290 women) from the Framingham Heart Study Offspring and Third Generation cohorts ... abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) ... Daily consumers of SSBs had a 10% higher absolute VAT volume and a 15% greater VAT-to-SAT ratio compared with nonconsumers, whereas consumption of diet soda was not associated with either volume or distribution of VAT"
• Consumption of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Is Positively Related to Insulin Resistance and Higher Plasma Leptin Concentrations in Men and Nonoverweight Women - J Nutr. 2014 May 14 - "the consumption of SSBs was associated with higher concentrations of insulin and leptin and a higher HOMA-IR in men and in nonoverweight women. Insulin resistance and higher leptin may be early markers of metabolic dysfunction associated with SSBs"
• Impact of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages on Blood Pressure - Am J Cardiol. 2014 Feb 12 - "All 12 studies showed positive relation between increased SSB intake and hypertension; however, statistical significance was reported in 10 of these studies. Of the 12 studies, 5 reported an increase in mean BP whereas 7 reported an increase in the incidence of high BP"
• Sugars and risk of mortality in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study - Am J Clin Nutr. 2014 Feb 19 - "In this large prospective study, total fructose intake was weakly positively associated with all-cause mortality in both women and men, whereas added sugars, sucrose, and added sucrose intakes were inversely associated with other-cause mortality in men. In our analyses, intake of added sugars was not associated with an increased risk of mortality"
• Fructose Stimulates Na/H Exchange Activity and Sensitizes the Proximal Tubule to Angiotensin II - Hypertension. 2013 Dec 30 - "Our findings show that a fructose-enriched diet causes salt sensitivity ... We conclude that fructose stimulates Na/H exchange activity and sensitizes the proximal tubule to angiotensin II. This mechanism is likely dependent on protein kinase C. These results may partially explain the mechanism by which a fructose diet induces hypertension"
• Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Intake and the Risk of Type I and Type II Endometrial Cancer among Postmenopausal Women - Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2013 Nov 22 - "We evaluated dietary intake of SSB, fruit juice, sugar-free beverages, sweets/baked goods, starch, and sugars among 23,039 postmenopausal women in the Iowa Women's Health Study ... Compared with nondrinkers of SSB, the risk was 78% higher [95% confidence intervals (CI), 1.32-2.40] among women in the highest quintile of SSB intake"
• Very High Fructose Intake Increases Serum LDL-Cholesterol and Total Cholesterol: a Meta-Analysis of Controlled Feeding Trials - J Nutr. 2013 Jul 3 - "Twenty-four trials (with a total of 474 participants) were included in the meta-analysis. In an overall pooled estimate, it was shown that fructose exerted no effect on HDL-C. Meta-regression analysis indicated that fructose dose was positively correlated with the effect sizes of TC and LDL-C. Subgroup analyses showed that isocaloric fructose exchange for carbohydrates increased TC by 13.0 mg/dL [(95% CI: 4.7, 21.3); P = 0.002] and LDL-C by 11.6 mg/dL [(95% CI: 4.4, 18.9); P = 0.002] at >100 g fructose/d. However, no effect was shown on TC or LDL-C when the fructose intake was ≤100 g/d"
• Carbohydrate intake and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease - Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2013 May 7 - "Epidemiological studies, clinical trials, and animal studies continue to point to excess dietary carbohydrate, and especially fructose, in contributing to the risk factors for NAFLD"
• Consumption of artificially and sugar-sweetened beverages and incident type 2 diabetes in the Etude Epidemiologique aupres des femmes de la Mutuelle Generale de l'Education Nationale-European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort - Am J Clin Nutr. 2013 Jan 30 - "It has been extensively shown, mainly in US populations, that sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) are associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D), but less is known about the effects of artificially sweetened beverages (ASBs) ... A total of 66,118 women were followed from 1993, and 1369 incident cases of T2D were diagnosed during the follow-up ... Compared with nonconsumers, women in the highest quartiles of SSB and ASB consumers were at increased risk of T2D with HRs (95% CIs) of 1.34 (1.05, 1.71) and 2.21 (1.56, 3.14) for women who consumed >359 and >603 mL/wk of SSBs and ASBs, respectively. Strong positive trends in T2D risk were also observed across quartiles of consumption for both types of beverage (P = 0.0088 and P < 0.0001, respectively) ... No association was observed for 100% fruit juice consumption"
• Caffeinated and caffeine-free beverages and risk of type 2 diabetes - Am J Clin Nutr. 2012 Nov 14 - "observed 74,749 women from the Nurses' Health Study (NHS, 1984-2008) and 39,059 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS, 1986-2008) ... sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), and carbonated artificially sweetened beverages (ASBs) ... caffeinated and caffeine-free SSB intake was significantly associated with a higher risk of T2D in the NHS (RR per serving: 13% for caffeinated SSB, 11% for caffeine-free SSB; P < 0.05) and in the HPFS (RR per serving: 16% for caffeinated SSB, 23% for caffeine-free SSB; P < 0.01). Only caffeine-free ASB intake in NHS participants was associated with a higher risk of T2D (RR: 6% per serving; P < 0.001). Conversely, the consumption of caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee was associated with a lower risk of T2D [RR per serving: 8% for both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee in the NHS (P < 0.0001) and 4% for caffeinated and 7% for decaffeinated coffee in the HPFS (P < 0.01)]. Only caffeinated tea was associated with a lower T2D risk among NHS participants"
• Soft drink, 100% fruit juice, and vegetable juice intakes and risk of diabetes mellitus - Clin Nutr. 2012 Aug 13 - "A total of 484 men and 340 women reported newly diagnosed diabetes during10 years. High soft drink intake was associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes in women but not men; odds ratio (95% CI) for women with almost daily consumption versus non-consumers was 2.10 (1.23-3.59; P-trend = 0.004) and 1.79 (1.11-2.89; P-trend = 0.01) at 5 and 10 years, respectively. The association was evident in overweight, highly educated and premenopausal women, and women with blue collar job. Intakes of 100% fruit juice and vegetable juice were not associated with risk of type 2 diabetes for either gender (P-trend >0.05)"
• Fructose consumption leads to reduced aerobic capacity and to liver injury in rats - Lipids Health Dis. 2012 Jun 19;11(1):78 - "We separated twenty-eight rats into two groups according to diet: a control group (C) (balanced diet) and a fructose group (F) (fed a diet containing fructose as 60% of the total caloric intake) ... The animals fed a fructose-rich diet exhibited a reduction in aerobic capacity, glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity and increased concentrations of triglycerides and TBARS in the liver. Catalase and SOD activities were reduced in the livers of the fructose-fed animals. In addition, the serum AST/ALT ratio was higher than that of the C group, which indicates hepatic damage, and the damage was confirmed by histology. In conclusion, the fructose-rich diet caused significant liver damage and a reduction in insulin sensitivity in the animals, which could lead to deleterious metabolic effects"
• Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages in relation to stroke: a case-control study - Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2012 Jun 14 - "No statistically significant association was found between habitual intakes of SSBs and stroke"
• "Metabolic syndrome" in the brain: Deficiency in omega-3-fatty acid exacerbates dysfunctions in insulin receptor signaling and cognition - J Physiol. 2012 Apr 2 - "high-dietary fructose consumption leads to increase in insulin resistance index, insulin and triglyceride levels, which characterize MetS. Rats fed on an n-3 deficient diet showed memory deficits in Barnes Maze, which were further exacerbated by fructose intake. In turn, n-3 deficient diet and fructose interventions disrupted insulin receptor signaling in hippocampus as evidenced by a decrease in phosphorylation of insulin receptor and its downstream effector Akt. We found that high fructose consumption with n-3 deficient diet disrupts membrane homeostasis as evidenced by an increase in the ratio of n-6/n-3 fatty acids and levels of 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE), a marker of lipid peroxidation. Disturbances in brain energy metabolism due to n-3 deficiency and fructose treatments were evidenced by a significant decrease in AMPK phosphorylation and its upstream modulator LKB1 as well as a decrease in Sir2 levels. The decrease in phosphorylation of CREB, synapsin I and synaptophysin (SYP) levels by n-3 deficiency and fructose shows the impact of metabolic dysfunction on synaptic plasticity. All parameters of metabolic dysfunction related to the fructose treatment were ameliorated by the presence of dietary n-3 fatty acid. Results showed that dietary n-3 fatty acid deficiency elevates the vulnerability to metabolic dysfunction and impaired cognitive functions by modulating insulin receptor signaling and synaptic plasticity" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• COFFEE, TEA AND SUGAR-SWEETENED CARBONATED SOFT DRINK INTAKE AND PANCREATIC CANCER RISK: A POOLED ANALYSIS OF 14 COHORT STUDIES - Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2011 Dec 22 - "Sugar-sweetened carbonated soft drink (abbreviated as SSB) intake has been associated with higher circulating levels of insulin, which may promote carcinogenesis. Few prospective studies have examined SSB intake and pancreatic cancer risk; results have been heterogeneous ... pooled analysis from 14 prospective cohort studies ... No statistically significant associations were observed between pancreatic cancer risk and intake of coffee (MVRR=1.10, 95% CI=0.81-1.48 comparing >900 to <0g/day; 237g≈8oz), tea (MVRR=0.96, 95% CI=0.78-1.16 comparing >400 to 0g/day; 237g≈8oz) or SSB (MVRR=1.19, 95% CI=0.98-1.46 comparing >250 to 0g/day; 355g≈12oz) (p-value, test for between-studies heterogeneity >0.05). These associations were consistent across levels of sex, smoking status and body mass index. When modeled as a continuous variable, a positive association was evident for SSB (MVRR=1.06, 95% CI=1.02-1.12)"
• Consumption of Fructose and High Fructose Corn Syrup Increase Postprandial Triglycerides, LDL-Cholesterol, and Apolipoprotein-B in Young Men and Women - J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2011 Aug 17 - "The American Heart Association Nutrition Committee recommends women and men consume no more than 100 and 150 kcal of added sugar per day, respectively, whereas the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010, suggests a maximal added sugar intake of 25% or less of total energy ... To address this discrepancy, we compared the effects of consuming glucose, fructose, or high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) at 25% of energy requirements (E) on risk factors for cardiovascular disease ... Twenty-four-hour triglyceride area under the curve was increased compared with baseline during consumption of fructose (+4.7 +/- 1.2 mmol/liter × 24 h, P = 0.0032) and HFCS (+1.8 +/- 1.4 mmol/liter × 24 h, P = 0.035) but not glucose (-1.9 +/- 0.9 mmol/liter × 24 h, P = 0.14). Fasting LDL and apoB concentrations were increased during consumption of fructose (LDL: +0.29 +/- 0.082 mmol/liter, P = 0.0023; apoB: +0.093 +/- 0.022 g/liter, P = 0.0005) and HFCS (LDL: +0.42 +/- 0.11 mmol/liter, P < 0.0001; apoB: +0.12 +/- 0.031 g/liter, P < 0.0001) but not glucose (LDL: +0.012 +/- 0.071 mmol/liter, P = 0.86; apoB: +0.0097 +/- 0.019 g/liter, P = 0.90). Conclusions: Consumption of HFCS-sweetened beverages for 2 wk at 25% E increased risk factors for cardiovascular disease comparably with fructose and more than glucose in young adults"
• Sucrose, high-sugar foods and risk of endometrial cancer - a population-based cohort study - Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2011 Jul 15 - "During 18.4 years of follow-up, 729 participants were diagnosed with incident endometrial cancer. Total sucrose intake and consumption of sweet buns and cookies was associated with increased risk of endometrial cancer. RRs (with 95% CIs) for consuming more than 35 grams of sucrose/day and consuming sweet buns and cookies more than 3 times/week were 1.36 (1.04-1.77) and 1.42 (1.15-1.75) as compared to less than 15 grams of sucrose/day and consuming sweet buns and cookies less than 0.5 times/week, respectively. RRs for consuming more than 15 grams of sucrose/day as compared to 15 grams or less were 1.97 (1.27-3.04) among obese women and 1.56 (1.20-2.04) among women with low fat intake"
• Habitual sugar intake and cognitive function among middle-aged and older Puerto Ricans without diabetes - Br J Nutr. 2011 Jun 1:1-10 - "Intake of added sugars, mainly fructose and sucrose, has been associated with risk factors for cognitive impairment, such as obesity, the metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. The objective of this analysis was to examine whether habitual intakes of total sugars, added sugars, sugar-sweetened beverages or sweetened solid foods are associated with cognitive function. The present study included 737 participants without diabetes, aged 45-75 years, from the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study, 2004-9. Cognitive function was measured with a battery of seven tests: Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), word list learning, digit span, clock drawing, figure copying, and Stroop and verbal fluency tests. Usual dietary intake was assessed with a validated FFQ. Greater intakes of total sugars, added sugars and sugar-sweetened beverages, but not of sugar-sweetened solid foods, were significantly associated with lower MMSE score, after adjusting for covariates. Adjusted OR for cognitive impairment (MMSE score < 24) were 2.23 (95 % CI 1.24, 3.99) for total sugars and 2.28 (95 % CI 1.26, 4.14) for added sugars, comparing the highest with lowest intake quintiles. Greater intake of total sugars was also significantly associated with lower word list learning score. In conclusion, higher sugar intake appears to be associated with lower cognitive function, but longitudinal studies are needed to clarify the direction of causality"
• Exercise counteracts fatty liver disease in rats fed on fructose-rich diet - Lipids Health Dis. 2010 Oct 14;9(1):116 - "The fructose-fed rats showed decreased insulin sensitivity, and the late-exercise training protocol counteracted this alteration. There was no difference between the groups in levels of serum ALT, whereas AST and liver lipids increased in the fructose-fed sedentary group when compared with the other groups. Serum triglycerides concentrations were higher in the fructose-fed trained groups when compared with the corresponding control group"
• Sugar Sweetened Beverages and Risk of Metabolic Syndrome and Type 2 Diabetes: A Meta-analysis - Diabetes Care. 2010 Aug - "sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), which include soft drinks, fruit drinks, iced tea, energy and vitamin water drinks ... Based on data from these studies, including 310,819 participants and 15,043 cases of T2DM, individuals in the highest quantile of SSB intake (most often 1-2 servings/day) had a 26% greater risk of developing T2DM than those in the lowest quantile (none or < 1 serving/month) (RR:1.26 (95% CI: 1.12, 1.41)). Among studies evaluating MetSyn, including 19,431 participants and 5,803 cases, the pooled RR was 1.20 (95% CI: 1.02, 1.42)"
• Nutrition and aging skin: sugar and glycation - Clin Dermatol. 2010 Jul-Aug;28(4):409-11 - "The effect of sugars on aging skin is governed by the simple act of covalently cross-linking two collagen fibers, which renders both of them incapable of easy repair. Glucose and fructose link the amino acids present in the collagen and elastin that support the dermis, producing advanced glycation end products or "AGEs." This process is accelerated in all body tissues when sugar is elevated and is further stimulated by ultraviolet light in the skin. The effect on vascular, renal, retinal, coronary, and cutaneous tissues is being defined, as are methods of reducing the glycation load through careful diet and use of supplements"
• Sweetened beverage consumption and risk of coronary heart disease in women - Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Feb 11 - "sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) ... After standard and dietary risk factors were adjusted for, the RRs (and 95% CIs) of CHD according to categories of cumulative average of SSB consumption (<1/mo, 1-4/mo, 2-6/wk, 1/d, and >/=2 servings/d) were 1.0, 0.96 (0.87, 1.06), 1.04 (0.95, 1.14), 1.23 (1.06, 1.43), and 1.35 (1.07, 1.69)"
• Dietary Green Tea Extract Lowers Plasma and Hepatic Triglyceride and Decreases the Expression of Sterol Regulatory Element-Binding Protein-1c mRNA and Its Responsive Genes in Fructose-Fed Ovariectomized Rats - J Nutr. 2009 Feb 4 - "Fructose elevated plasma TG and cholesterol compared with the S group. GT at 0.5 and 1.0% markedly lowered plasma and liver TG. Fructose increased the expression of SREBP-1c, fatty acid synthase, and stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1 mRNAs in the liver, whereas GT decreased the expression of these lipogenic genes. Similarly, fructose increased the abundance of hepatic 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-CoA reductase mRNA, whereas GT significantly decreased its expression ... the lipid-lowering effect of GT is mediated partly by its inhibition of hepatic lipogenesis involving SREBP-1c and its responsive genes without affecting lipoprotein assembly" - See green tea extract at Amazon.com.
• Straight talk about high-fructose corn syrup: what it is and what it ain't - Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 Dec;88(6):1716S-1721S - "Although examples of pure fructose causing metabolic upset at high concentrations abound, especially when fed as the sole carbohydrate source, there is no evidence that the common fructose-glucose sweeteners do the same. Thus, studies using extreme carbohydrate diets may be useful for probing biochemical pathways, but they have no relevance to the human diet or to current consumption. I conclude that the HFCS-obesity hypothesis is supported neither in the United States nor worldwide"
• Fructose consumption and consequences for glycation, plasma triacylglycerol, and body weight: meta-analyses and meta-regression models of intervention studies - Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 Nov;88(5):1419-37 - "The meta-analysis shows that fructose intakes from 0 to >or=90 g/d have a beneficial effect on HbA(1c). Significant effects on postprandial triacylglycerols are not evident unless >50 g fructose/d is consumed, and no significant effects are seen for fasting triacylglycerol or body weight with intakes of <or=100 g fructose/d in adults" - I don't get it.  It would seem like fructose would make HbA(1c) worse.
• Dietary fructose and the metabolic syndrome - Curr Opin Gastroenterol. 2008 Mar;24(2):204-9 - "Recent animal studies have confirmed the link between fructose feeding and increased plasma uric acid, a potentially causative factor in metabolic syndrome. Advanced glycation end products are also implicated because of their direct protein modifications and indirect effects on inflammation and oxidative stress. Human studies have demonstrated fructose's ability to change metabolic hormonal response, possibly contributing to decreased satiety ... There is much evidence from both animal models and human studies supporting the notion that fructose is a highly lipogenic nutrient that, when consumed in high quantities, contributes to tissue insulin insensitivity, metabolic defects, and the development of a prediabetic state"
• Sugar-sweetened soft drinks, diet soft drinks, and serum uric acid level: The third national health and nutrition examination survey - Arthritis Rheum. 2007 Dec 28;59(1):109-116 - "sugar-sweetened soft drink consumption is associated with serum uric acid levels and frequency of hyperuricemia, but diet soft drink consumption is not"
• Dietary glycemic load, added sugars, and carbohydrates as risk factors for pancreatic cancer: the Multiethnic Cohort Study - Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Nov;86(5):1495-501 - "Glycemic load and added sugars were not significantly associated with pancreatic cancer risk. The risk increased with higher intakes of total sugars, fructose, and sucrose, and the association with fructose was significant when the highest and lowest quartiles were compared (relative risk: 1.35; 95% CI: 1.02, 1.80; P for trend = 0.046). A significant association was found with fruit and juices intake (1.37; 1.02, 1.84; P for trend = 0.04) but not with soda intake. Statistical evidence of a significant interaction with body mass index was present only for sucrose intake (P = 0.04). A comparison of the highest and lowest quartiles of sucrose intake in overweight or obese participants gave a relative risk of 1.46 (0.95-2.25; P for trend = 0.04), but the comparison was not significant in normal-weight participants"
• Fructose intake is a predictor of LDL particle size in overweight schoolchildren - Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Oct;86(4):1174-1178 - "After control for adiposity, the only dietary factor that was a significant predictor of LDL particle size was total fructose intake"
• Potential role of sugar (fructose) in the epidemic of hypertension, obesity and the metabolic syndrome, diabetes, kidney disease, and cardiovascular disease - Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Oct;86(4):899-906 - "We also present evidence that the unique ability of fructose to induce an increase in uric acid may be a major mechanism by which fructose can cause cardiorenal disease"
• Consumption of sweetened beverages and intakes of fructose and glucose predict type 2 diabetes occurrence - J Nutr. 2007 Jun;137(6):1447-54 - "Combined intake of fructose and glucose was associated with the risk of type 2 diabetes but no significant association was observed for intakes of sucrose, lactose, or maltose. The relative risk between the highest and lowest quartiles of combined fructose and glucose intake was 1.87"
• High fructose diet increases mortality in hypertensive rats compared to a complex carbohydrate or high fat diet - Am J Hypertens. 2007 Apr;20(4):403-9 - "a high fructose diet consumed during hypertension increases mortality and left ventricular (LV) wall thickness compared to either a high fat, high starch, or a "western" diet"
• A 4-wk high-fructose diet alters lipid metabolism without affecting insulin sensitivity or ectopic lipids in healthy humans - Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 Dec;84(6):1374-9 - "Moderate fructose supplementation over 4 wk increases plasma triacylglycerol and glucose concentrations without causing ectopic lipid deposition or insulin resistance in healthy humans"
• Catalytic amounts of fructose may improve glucose tolerance in subjects with uncontrolled non-insulin-dependent diabetes - Clin Nutr. 2006 Jan 3 - "were assigned to either fructose or maltodextrin supplementation (7.5g) tri-daily after each main meal ... After 1 month fructosamin levels decreased in the fructose-supplemented group but not in the maltodextrin-supplemented group (P<0.052). Hgb(A1C) levels decreased with time in both groups but were significantly lower at 2 months in the fructose group as compared to the maltodextrin group"