Sugar, fructose and weight gain

David Gillespie is convinced sugar and fructose is making us fat. I tend to agree with him.


Sugar, fructose and weight gain - Today Tonight

His science is not very good.

A mountain of scientific research convinced him it's not fat that makes us fat, but the fructose in sugar. Once in the bloodstream, it instantly converts into fat.

Um, no. Once in the liver, fructose is turned into glucose, which in the bloodstream with ATP is then turned into pyruvate by way of the glycolitic cycle. This gives us energy to do stuff. If we don't spend the energy, then we poo some of it out, and store some as fat.

"It doesn't matter if it's plain white sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar or castor sugar, they are all exactly the same - all fructose."

Um, no. They are sucrose, which is a dissaccharide, glucose and fructose bonded together.

The one sensible thing he said was,

"When we eat fat protein and carbohydrates we feel full. There is no such control for fructose, you can eat as much sugar as you can get into your mouth and it will never fill you up,"

And that's one of the two real issues with junk food. If you have a Big Mac and fries and sundae or packet of chocolate biscuits or bottle of lemonade or whatever, you can knock back 1,500 calories easily. For most people, that's around their base metabolic rate, the energy needed to keep them going if they do nothing. So anything else they eat has to be balanced with some exercise of they'll become fat.

A calorie is a calorie, whether it comes from a burger or a bag of carrots. But the burger makes it much easier to consume a lot of calories - a lot more than we expend.

The second issue is that with our processed foods, we don't get much nutrition with our calories. He touches on this,

"It is much better to have the whole fruit rather than the juice of the fruit. When you juice a fruit, you throw away the fibre and keep the sugar so you are keeping the worst aspect of the thing and throwing away the best."

but he neglects to mention vitamins and minerals. Quite simply, 1,000 calories of lemonade is not going to nourish you as well as 1,000 calories of apples, nuts, beans, steak or whatever.

So with our processed food we have heaps of calories but not much nutrition. And so we have people who are overweight but malnourished.

Sugars themselves are not evil. But no food is good for you if you eat that and not much else. We're humans, not machines, we need variety.

i might give up sugars for a while,or atleast try to cut down.i have been putting on weight latley but not eating to badly maybe it could be hidden sugars.i dont need to put on any as these day i just workout to stay in shape.

Without sugar fruitloops are just cheerios.

Fructose is a big reason why so many healthy eaters struggle to lose weight. Just like all forms of sugar, it causes your blood glucose levels to spike and you crash, desperate for more sugar to perk you back up. Juice is especially bad. A heap of calories for very little satisfaction. I have seen it in a lot of my female friends. Instead of enjoying the piece of chocolate they are hanging for, they try and kill of sweet cravings with fruit. So they will eat fruit all day and wonder why they even though they aren't eating 'bad' foods, they can't shift the fat.

Do your female friends do any weights or cardio, though, bree?

No, they all sit on their butts and expect the weight to magically fall off. In other words, yes they do. They exercise, they don't eat junk, but can't shift weight. They snack on healthy dried fruit. They have a fruit juice instead of soft drink, not realising that they are consuming just as much sugar. Or sit and eat a massive bunch of grapes only do be hungry again shortly afterwards and still wanting a sweet hit. Most people who eat a heap of fruit don't realise how sugar loaded and calorie dense fruit can be. And generally the fruits that people really like are the sweeter ones.

There is a reason why when people go and see dieticians they often get people to reconsider the amount of fruit they are eating. Diabetics also have to monitor their consumption of certain fruits. Like all sugars, foods that contain a high level of fructose will cause a spike in blood sugar, leading to the usual problems associated with it.

I am not saying that fruit is the devil. It absolutely forms part of a healthy diet and provides plenty of important vitamins and minerals. But like all sweet foods it has to be controlled consumption.

i know a woman my parents used to know. She follow what she called the chocolate diet. Basically she would eat breakfast (1 piece of toast and jam, 1 cup of tea or coffee no sugar), then not eat all day, about 4 in after noon, she would eat a row of chocolate from a block she kept in the fridge at her work. Then nothing til dinner at about 8 at night which was usually anything. She was anorexic thin, and she moved around at work alot, never did exercise though, and virtually starved herself. she still eats like this now and is convinced she is a healthy person because of this, but i see stressed, run down, tired and lethargic.

breebreerocks said:

No, they all sit on their butts and expect the weight to magically fall off. In other words, yes they do.

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Hey come on, it was a fair question. Lots of women do just change their diets to something "cleansing" and expect the weight to fall off their bums while they sit on them.

cherrios taste better than fruitloops ,kids just like the colour

Kyle Aaron said:

Hey come on, it was a fair question. Lots of women do just change their diets to something "cleansing" and expect the weight to fall off their bums while they sit on them.

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But I hope I come across as sensible enough not to use those people as an example.

One females hit 25-28, exercise no longer becomes a choice like it once was for most of my female friends. Stupid ageing.

It's the same for blokes, bree. Like I said in my gym journal thread, last night we were watching Rove, and Peter Hellier mentioned playing football and injuring himself, "I've learned that a man of 34 shouldn't do sports." And my woman was saying, "he's only 34?!"

I said, "Well, look around at the guys in your office, some smoke and just sit at their desks, a few cycle to work or do some sports, you can see the difference, yeah?"

The average Aussie bloke is old long before his time. Too much telly, beer and barbies.