- Fructose: fruit sugar found in tree and vine fruits, flowers (and so in honey), berries and most root vegetables. Commercially it is derived from sugar cane, sugar beet and corn (maize). Our bodies don't produce it and in the past we only consumed it seasonally when fruit was ripe.
- Glucose: comes from starches like potatoes. Our bodies produce it from the food we eat, and every cell in every living organism on earth has glucose in it. It is vital to life.
- Lactose: a sugar derived from galactose and glucose that is found in milk (2% to 8% by weight).
- Sucrose (table sugar or sugar): a compound of glucose and fructose. Produced from sugar cane and sugar beet.
- High fructose corn syrup (glucose-fructose, fructose-glucose): This has double the sweetness of glucose. It is made from corn syrup - the glucose is processed to convert some of it to fructose.
Our bodies do not use fructose straight away as energy but in the liver (side-stepping the liver's fat-creation control mechanism) it is converted directly to fatty acids and then to body fat. When we drink fructose (e.g. in soft drinks and juices), the process is even more direct and faster. Glucose, on the other hand, is normally 'burned up' immediately after consumption as nearly every cell in our body uses glucose; the liver only breaks down around 20% of glucose.Recent research now shows that:
- Fructose inhibits our immune system.
- Fructose upsets the mineral balance in our bodies and interferes with mineral absorption.
- Fructose messes with fertility.
- Fructose speeds up the ageing process.
- Fructose has been connected with the development of various cancers.
- Fructose is linked to dementia.
- Fructose causes an acidic digestive tract, indigestion and malabsorption of nutrients.
- Fructose can cause a rapid rise in adrenaline, as well as hyper-activity, anxiety and a loss of concentration.
