Davis Studies Effects of Excess Fructose for the Long Term

In Davis, California, UC Davis is studying for the long term the effects of excess fructose on the human body. And so are Sacramentans who are wondering whether lowering uric acid levels also can lower your blood pressure? See the Science Daily article, High Levels Of Uric Acid May Be Associated With High Blood Pressure, and the Web MD article, Cut Back on Sodas to Lower Blood Pressure.

Scientists at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center have discovered that a diet with high levels of fructose, sucrose, and of trans fats not only increases obesity, but also leads to significant fatty liver disease with scar tissue. In the Sacramento area, a decade ago, UC Davis, Department of Nutrition, studied the effects of a high-fructose diet on post-menopausal women in a 14-week nutrition study focused on the effects of diets high in the fruit-sugar fructose. The study also involved the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Western Human Nutrition Research Center, based at UC Davis.

Each of the 16 participants in the study lived for 14 weeks, rent free, in a Davis home with three other volunteers and ate specific foods provided by the study coordinators. Those who completed the 14-week study would each receive $4,900.

This study helped researchers compare diets high in the fruit-sugar fructose with diets high in the sugar glucose in terms of how they affect appetite, body weight, body fat and energy metabolism. Peter Havel was the UC Davis nutrition researcher who conducted the study that began recruiting women in 2000, according to the UC Davis March 28, 2000 news release, "Nutrition Study Needs Postmenopausal Participants."

He and colleagues examined how fructose and glucose affect blood pressure, blood triglycerides and cholesterol, and the body's sensitivity to the hormone insulin. The study required a high level of commitment from the volunteers.

Potential volunteers received a physical examination with blood tests to make sure their health is suitable for the study. Women with chronic illness, anemia, diabetes or who take thyroid medication were not eligible.

During the first two weeks of the study, volunteers were given a weight-maintaining diet of conventional foods to determine how many calories they need daily. During the following 12 weeks, they were given a diet of conventional foods plus beverages or other foods sweetened with fructose or glucose. Participants were required to eat all, and only, the food provided through the study.

Because of the importance of closely monitoring exactly what the participants are eating and how much they are exercising, volunteers were told to only leave their guest homes during supervised outings, such as going to the movies or shopping. Short walks could be taken, but moderate and strenuous exercise was not allowed.

That study was done ten years ago. UC Davis teams are continuing to conduct other long-term research to understand whether human bodies metabolize high fructose corn syrup differently than table sugar. Results are expected by the end of this summer, according to the site, "Sugar = corn syrup? UC Davis to weigh in."

What Foods Raise Uric Acid Levels?

Since a high-fructose diet supposedly raises uric acid levels, is lowering uric acid levels and purine levels the key to lowering the risk of getting a chronic illness such as heart disease, hypertension, diabetes type 2, arthritis, gout, and inflammation? It is, according to Richard J. Johnson, MD's 2008 book (with Timothy Gower), The Sugar Fix:The High Fructose Fallout That Is Making You Fat and Sick.

Did you ever ask why so much fructose is put into commercial foods under a variety of names? Is that the only way to make money on selling food items? It seems like a product is bought at a favorable price, and then dumped into food to entice you to come back for more because the food changes your hormones to make you hungrier.

Why is healthier food harder to find or too expensive? In the past, a lot of poor people ate healthier peasant food, like Mulligan stew with 12 vegetables, or Bouillabasse, full of vegetables and fish, and only the rich and famous had the gout from overeating meat and sweets, which created high levels of uric acid. See the Bouillabaisse Recipe | Simply Recipes.

It's not fructose alone that's the problem. It's eating an excess of it. Fruits and vegetables have various amounts of fructose. You don't want to eat so much that specific enzymes that try to deal with excess fructose get switched on in your body, causing havoc to break loose in your body's attempt to lower the fructose levels. It's excess that's the problem.

Science constantly changes. How much of a threat are fructose and high levels of uric acid? The low-fructose diet is a new concept in disease prevention and offers help to those who want to lose weight. Ask yourself this question: How come more than a century ago so few people in the USA were overweight? Only 1.5% of soldiers in the Civil War were obese.

The book, The Sugar Fix notes, "...we don't know for certain whether high fructose corn syrup is any more likely than refined sugar to make you gain weight or develop other health problems." Was it a lack of meat in the diet that raised the uric acid levels, since most of the few obese people in the USA a century ago, were wealthy? They ate red meat almost daily followed by heavy desserts such as peaches and raw cream, and frequently suffered from gout or arthritis. But they didn't dine on excess fructose.

The book not only advises you to lay off the high fructose corn syrup but also advises you not to any eat fruit and/or fruit juice or any foods high in fructose for 14 days. That includes not eating any foods containing high fructose corn syrup during the initial phase of the Low-Fructose Diet. The purpose of the two-week anti-fructose fast is to rein in your fructose enzymes. Fruit juice contains more fructose than whole fruit, for example.

The demon here is uric acid that may cause hypertension and contribute to heart disease, diabetes type 2, and other chronic diseases. And what causes a rise in uric acid? According to The Sugar Fix book, the culprits are a high level of uric acid and runaway fructose enzymes in your body.

Basically, you have to repair your unhealthy relationship with sugar. Does fructose cause hypertension when no other cause can be found? A compound called uric acid has an important influence on blood pressure. Too much raises blood pressure. Eating fructose stimulates the production of uric acid.

Fructose, then is in the middle of an important health crisis. But uric acid levels also also are raised by eating red meat. And eating cherries (which are not high in fructose) helps to reduce the pain of arthritis and gout. So it's fine to eat a few cherries. But diets rich in fructose, which causes higher levels of uric acid (according to the book, The Sugar Fix) contribute to the growing obesity problem as well as to the rising rates of heart disease and various other conditions.

So, if eating excess fructose makes you gain weight and feel sick, that leads to a new field to study: uric acid. The book asks, "Uric Acid: The New Cholesterol?" Fructose's effect on uric acid may explain why eating too much sugar can make you sick. But sugar and fructose act in different ways once inside the body. Scientists know that high levels of uric acid in the blood could be as dangerous as having elevated cholesterol, according to the book, The Sugar Fix.

Basically, the solution is to eat a low-fructose diet. It's about the evidence against fructose and uric acid and how to eat so you don't keep building up uric acid in your blood or turn on mechanisms called advanced glycation end products.

Beware of Advanced Glycation End Products (AGE)

Interestingly, the acronym for advanced glycation end products is AGE. That's also how your body actually ages more rapidly than it normally should age. AGE speeds the aging of cells.The book reports, "gram for gram, fructose produces up to 10 times more AGEs than other common sugars in the diet."

What's the solution to this problem? It's to stop eating fruit and high-fructose foods for two weeks. The levels of fructose enzymes then are supposed to come back down to normal. That, in turn, will help to turn off the mechanisms that inflict harm. After two weeks are over, you can enjoy fruit again as long as your total fructose intake doesn't exceed 25 to 35 grams daily.

Since fruit varies greatly in its fructose content, choose lower-fructose fruits such as cherries or a plum. Don't eat fruits high in fructose such as watermelon which contains 24 grams of fructose per cup. A plum has only 3 grams of fructose. That means fresh fruit rather than dried fruit.

Choose fruits higher in vitamin C to help control various conditions of metabolic syndrome, such as high blood pressure, which vitamin C helps to lower, in certain circumstances. Vitamin C may help lower blood levels of uric acid. The uric acid is excreted in the urine, and the vitamin C helps to get rid of uric acid when together with the vitamin C, it's excreted in the urine.

An excellent review of this book from the University of Florida News explains further details in the article, "Book: Fructose 'missing link' in obesity epidemic." In his book, "The Sugar Fix: The High-Fructose Fallout That Is Making You Fat And Sick," Dr. Richard Johnson reviews the increasing evidence that fructose may play a role in the obesity epidemic and proposes a low-fructose diet he believes could help people lose weight and potentially prevent diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

As an American, you may be eating nearly three times as much fructose as a century ago. The fructose is not in soft drinks. It's also in a lot of cereals, pastries, fruit juices, and other foods, even some types of bread.

Fructose may be tricking your hormonal systems to control appetite. You keep feeling hungry. Then you continue to eat. The question scientists are trying to answer is whether excess fructose may also be important in the development of diabetes, kidney disease and heart disease. The big problem with eating excess fructose is how sensitive you become to it quickly. The more fructose you eat, the more sensitive you become to it,

The book suggest that you stop eating foods containing fructose for two weeks. At that point you are no longer as sensitive and you can resume a low-fructose diet. Starches such as potatoes, rice, and pasta are allowed because, for example, brown rice is low in fructose. Choose whole-grain pasta or pasta from flours other than grain, if you can't have grains. Or eat potatoes. Sweet potatoes have some fructose, but are not high in it. Just don't slather sweet potatoes with brown sugar. Use cinnamon and/or cloves instead of sugar to season sweet potatoes. And boil your potatoes rather than frying them.

Johnson's book, which was published by Rodale, contains a diet he developed with nutritionist and dietitian Elizabeth Gollub, as well as tables listing the fructose contents of common foods. Fructose content is not found on most labels. On the diets mentioned in the book, The Sugar Fix, after two weeks, you can have moderate amounts of fruit.

Instead of buying ready-made cakes, make your own with lower levels of fructose and sugar by making high-fiber cookies. You could use bran or soaked, pureed whole oat groats, cherries, nuts, seeds, and flax meal, for example, to make brownies.

Try garbanzo-bean flour, for example in baking with sunflower seeds. Instead of apples, use fruits lower in fructose in your baking, such as raspberries. Limit the amount of fruit juice you drink during the day. Use filtered water for thirst on a hot day.

Did you know a hamburger has a moderate amount of fructose? Some restaurants also add sugar to ground beef to make burgers.

Some Burgers Contain More Fructose Than Some Ice Cream Servings

Did you ever wonder how much fructose is in fast-food eatery's foods? For example, one Burger King Whopper contains 7.5 grams of fructose. But Burger King Chicken Tenders (6-piece serving size) has 0 fructose.

Compare the fructose in some burgers to the fructose in some types of ice cream. For example, a half-cup serving size of Dairy Queen vanilla soft serve ice cream only contains 6.5 grams of fructose.

Are carbohydrates making up half of your daily diet? Some people have a diet of all carbs. But if you switch to a high-protein, low-carb, high-fat diet, you won't keep it for long because it's not necessarily that healthy for your body. How do you know which foods to tailor to your body's needs for health? Can you tailor your foods to your body shape, your metabolic response, or your genetic expression? You need to keep a normal carbohydrate-protein-fat balance to stay on any diet for the long term.

According to an article in ScienceDaily (June 23, 2010) High levels of fructose, trans fats lead to significant liver disease - Scientists at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center have discovered that a diet with high levels of fructose, sucrose, and of trans fats not only increases obesity, but also leads to significant fatty liver disease with scar tissue. So where can you find out how much fructose are in specific foods? Online there are websites such as the Nutrition Data site. See, Foods highest in Fructose. Also check out the following websites to find out which foods are highest or lowest in fructose:

Foods without High Fructose Corn Syrup

Low Fructose Diet

Dr. Richard Johnson And His Research on Food Ingredients

High levels of fructose, trans fats lead to significant liver disease

Palm Oil Not A Healthy Substitute For Trans Fats, Study Finds