Why all-natural Fruit Juices are NOT Healthy
The Problem with All Fruit Juices is...
Fructose is Sugar!
According to an increasing number of experts and researchers, like Dr. Robert Lustig (see here), consuming too much fructose overwhelms the body's capacity to process it. Excess fructose consumption, like excess sucrose consumption (or alcohol consumption) causes insulin resistance --- leading to metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and maybe some cancers. The Robert Lustig lecture is enlightening and does a great job of clearing up the dangerously widespread misconception that views table sugar as bad, but "fruit sugar", or fructose as good. Be sure and watch the video. It is truly an eye-opener, especially for those among us who could never quite get an understanding of the differences between the various confusing "...oses"... sucrose, fructose, glucose, lactose and so on.
The sugar in fruit juice (fructose) is touted a healthy alternative to sucrose... but it is NOT.
Additional interesting research on these medical ideas that turn the conventional thinking about the foods we eat upside down comes from Gary Taubes, a well-regarded science writer whose books include "Good calories, Bad Calories" and the more recent "Why We Get Fat." Taubes has also authored two notable cover stories for the New York Times Sunday Magazine as follows:
"Is Sugar Toxic?"
New York Times
April 13, 2011
View Article »
"What If It's All Been A Big Fat Lie"
New York Times
July 7, 2001
View Article »
The thrust of the Taubes writings is that the old concept that fat is the culprit in heart disease is wrong and that the available data has been misinterpreted. Taubes writes that carbohydrates that are killing us, not the fats. He says fast digesting carbohydrates such as sugars and flour products, like bread and pasta, are especially bad. His conclusions are in line with many of the ideas in the Atkins Diet. Sugars, by the way, are also fast digesting carbohydrates.
In Taubes recent New York Times cover story titled "Is Sugar Toxic" he states that the evidence pointing sugar as the major factor in heart disease is equally compelling as the theory that points to fat, but mainstream medicine has ignored this or has misinterpreted the data.
In addition, Taubes points out that the fructose in fruit juice is more problematic than the fructose in actual fruit, because the fruit in liquefied form hits your liver faster. He says if fructose hits the liver in sufficient quantity and with sufficient speed, the liver converts the fructose to fat... and this induces a condition called "insulin resistance" which is a big factor in obesity, heart disease, and Type 2 diabetes.
Taubes explains that fructose gets metabolized in the liver while glucose is metabolized by every cell in the body. He further explains that people secret insulin in response to eating foods, particularly the carbohydrates, to keep blood sugar in control. And, he says, when your cells are resistant to insulin the body (the pancreas) pumps out more and more insulin. And when the pancreas can't keep up with the demand, it gives into "pancreatic exhaustion." The blood sugar then rises out-of-control and results in diabetes.
Watch Dr. Lustig interviewed on ABC News
At the 5 minute 18 second mark, Lustiq explains that...
"The juice is the BAD part of the fruit..."
