Over-Consumption of Fructose Linked to Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes

While there is no perfect diet, people are starting to realize that many of the health complications they currently face are actually a result of consuming way too much sugar. More health experts are voicing their concern regarding the over-consumption of fructose, which has been pinpointed as America’s number one source of calories. New research mirrors what has been found in the past, connecting fructose to cardiovascular disease and an increased diabetes risk.

High Fructose Consumption Leading to Cardiovascular Risk

The researchers at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University analyzed 559 adolescents ages 14 to 18. What they found is that a high-fructose diet helps to perpetuate higher blood pressure, insulin resistance, fasting glucose, and other inflammatory factors which lead to heart and vascular disease.

“Adolescents consume the most fructose so it’s really important to not only measure the levels of fructose but to look at what it might be doing to their bodies currently and, hopefully, to look at cardiovascular disease outcomes as they grow…A unique aspect of our study design is that we took into account the fructose released from sucrose during digestion along with the fructose found in foods and beverages…Because sucrose is broken down into fructose and glucose before it arrives at the liver for metabolism, it is important to consider the additional fructose from sucrose when determining the overall health effect of fructose.” said Norman Pollock, co-first author of the study published in the Journal of Nutrition.

Although fructose is found in fruits and vegetables, neither of these food groups make up even close to the amount of fructose being consumed on on a grand scale. Instead, health-wreaking and often mercury-tainted high-fructose corn syrup makes up the vast majority of fructose consumption, which is leading to even more illness and disease. Fructose in its cheap, refined form has been shown to be addictive as cocaine, while fueling cancer and obesity where ever it is consumed.

One study, published in the Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets, analyzed the link between refined sugar consumption and cancer. What the researchers found was that excess fructose consumption can actually damage the body in a number of ways beyond the development of cancer, including DNA damage, inflammation, altered cellular metabolism, and increased production of free radicals.

Research published in the journal Cancer Research reached similar conclusions, finding that the way in which sugar is metabolized stimulates cancer growth.