Explaining to others. As increasing numbers of people claim a food intolerance, you may find it easier to say you are 'fructose intolerant' (rather than cutting out sugar) and able only to eat fructose as whole fruit, as otherwise you suffer from fatigue, weight gain, bloating, poor sleep, high blood pressure and excessive appetite.
There is some evidence that men find it easy to go 'cold turkey' while women (especially if still menstruating) get on better with a slow withdrawal from sugar. If you go slow, keep a food dairy and set out weekly targets. [Eg. if you have 4 cups of tea a day with 2 teaspoons of sugar, first cut to 1 teaspoon per cup, then half teaspoon per cup, then zero. Next tackle another area of sugar consumption.]
The simple sugars are glucose, galactose and fructose. Glucose is the primary fuel for our bodies and once ingested will be used by the body as fuel. Galactose is primarily found in dairy foods, in the form of lactose. Fructose is relatively rare in nature, and found primarily in ripe fruits. Table sugar is half glocose and half fructose, and seems to be addictive in that it affects the dopamine centres in the brain.
Fructose now appears in many manufactured foods; it is not just the cakes and biscuits, honey, lemon curd and jams, but also dried fruits, flavourings, the flavoured breakfast cereals, most sauces (e.g. sweet chilli, Worcester, cranberry, brown sauces, chutneys), ice creams. Any fat-reduced foods and sauces will have added sugar to make them palatable. Balsamic vinegar is not vinegar but a reduction of syrup of sweet wine grapes, containing 12% to 15% sugar. [In 1945, 25% of sugar eaten was already in food we ate; in 2010 this had risen to 75% of sugar eaten was already in food. Low fat foods typically include extra sugar to replicate preferred texture.]
Fruit is more widely available in our diets but we should limit our daily intake to two pieces as they can be high in fructose. The equivalent teaspoons of sugar are: 4 tsp: grapes and apples. 3 tsp: banana, pineapple, cherry and apricot. 2 1/2 tsp: orange, pear (with peel on). 2 tsp: melon slice, strawberry, peach, grapefruit, kiwi fruit. 1 1/2 tsp: plum, blueberry, gooseberry. 1 tsp: raspberry. 1/2 tsp: cranberry, lemon. Fruit juice and dried fruit are high in fructose.
Other foods are ok: vegetables, nuts, meat, eggs, natural yoghurt, plain milk and cream, butter and plain bread (except for bagels which are sweetened). Plain peanut butter, cream cheese and meat pastes are also ok as are most varieties of soy and taco sauces. Best salad dressing is oil plus vinegar or lemon juice and herbs.
Takeaways: Indian food is usually ok, as is most Chinese (but beware the sweet and sour sauces which can be 30% sugar). Burgers are ok but ask for no sauce, pickles, salad dressings or mayo. A slice of pizza will contain 1/2 to 1 tsp sugar.
Baking at home: sugar can be replaced by dextrose or glucose. Dextrose can be bought from home brew outlets (but 'brewing sugar' is likely to be ordinary sugar not dextrose). Baked goods are best eaten fresh as they keep less well, though will last longer in the fridge.
# It weighs half as much as sugar but takes up more fluid than the equivalent amount of sugar, so use large eggs or add an extra egg and or add extra liquid ingredients
# It seems to burn at a lower temperature (so for fan ovens try dropping the temperature by 20C).
Drinks: Most wines in moderation (prefer dry to sweet varieties) and avoid dessert wines, port, sweet sherry, liqueurs and mixers (except diet mixers). Avoid soft drinks; for occasional treat can have Lucazade Original (only contains glucose) but not flavoured Lucazade varieties.
Health issues from Fructose
- Fructose seems to interfere with the body's copper metabolism, affecting collagen and elastin formation (vein and artery wall formation (e.g. varicose veins and possibly aneurisms), premature ageing of the skin) and inhibiting the absorption of iodine (potential thyroid problems).
- Fructose raises blood triglyceride (fatty acids) levels, which makes us resistant to insulin and leptin (appetite control) hormones - so we keep eating. Risks: diabetes, cancer growth, depression, anxiety, dementia and polycystic ovary syndrome.
- Fructose causes sustained increases in LDL cholesterol levels, with increased risk of heart disease and stroke.
- Fructose raises cortisol levels. This stress hormone usually only spikes for 'fight or flight' situations and depresses all non-essential functions - including the immune system/
- Fructose increases circulating uric acid, which leads to raised blood pressure, gout and kidney disease.
- Fructose reduces nitric acid production in the inner walls of blood vessels; nitric acid is needed for erectile function in men.
- Fructose increases the amount of abdominal fat, especially around the liver. Can lead to fatty liver disease, and ultimately cirrhosis of the liver and liver failure.
- Tooth decay is caused by the bacteria Streptococcus mutans (S.m), which eats only one thing - sugar (50% glucose and 50% fructose) - which then produces plaque and lactic acid. The plaque keeps the lactic acid on the tooth surface, causing damage. Eating glucose alone, the bacteria can only produce lactic acid, no plaque so no decay.
Dr Ancel Keys made a study of eating habits in 22 countries in the decade after WW2 (i.e. the 1950s). He plotted fat in diet to incidence of death from heart disease, initially in 22 countries, but then focused on seven ranging from Japan (low fat intake and low heart death rate) to the US (high fat intake and high heart death rate. But if the date from the other 15 countries are included, there is no straightforward correlation. Greece had high fat intake, but low heart death rate, while Finland had low fat intake but high heart death rate. Dr Keys later modified his theory to saturated fat is bad and unsaturated is good; he and his wife subsequently created the Mediterranean diet. No-one has been able to replicate the Fat Theory results.
What we do know now is that fat will make you fat if you still have fructose in your diet. If your appetite control system is stuck at 'eat as much as you can', fat is the most efficient way to pile on the pounds (gram for gram it contains twice as many calories as carbohydrates or proteins).
Sources: Sweet Poison and Sweet Poison Quit Plan books.
See also blog entries Sugar Facts (1) and Sugar Facts (2), Fructose Facts and More Fructose Facts, Beat Sugar Cravings and Sugar By Any Other Name.
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