by Silvia Casabianca

Created on: January 16, 2009

While being refined, sugar loses enzymes, vitamins and minerals and becomes almost pure sucrose. In the metabolic process, sucrose steals these lost micronutrients from the body and therefore, it causes health problems. But is fructose the alternative?
There seems to be an agreement between nutrition specialists, that among the products that need to be sooner than later removed from the market if we want to prevent obesity and other ills are both refined sugar and fructose.The food industry is currently subsituting sugar with High Fructose Syrup (HFS) because it's cheaper, highly soluble, easy to transport and thus, renders higher profits. Four companies control 85 percent of the $2.6 billion business: Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Staley Manufacturing and CPC International.

Since the early 1970's, fructose has become a sugar substitute in almost everything we eat: sodas and juices, jellies, pastries, bread, ketchup and even foods labeled as healthy. Just look for "high fructose corn syrup" in the label of your favorite drink.
Research has indicated that fructose blocks the heart's use of such minerals as copper, magnesium and chromium. Deficiencies in these minerals have been associated with heart disease. Fructose is normally present in fruit, but here we are talking about thoroughly modified high fructose sweeteners derived from cornstarch (High Fructose Corn Syrup -HFCS). For those of you wary of genetically modified foods, take into account that some of the enzymes used in the production of HFCS are genetically modified, and so is most the corn used.
But even before the 70s, fructose was prescribed to diabetics, and it was preferred to normal table sugar because it's absorbed only 40 percent as fast as glucose and causes a modest rise in blood sugar (low glycemic index). However, research with animals has shown that large amounts of fructose damage the liver (where fructose is broken down) and there are serious concerns about other fructose adverse effects on blood lipids and cell proteins. Fructose seems to interfere with copper metabolism to such an extent that collagen and elastin cannot form in growing animals. So it might contribute to the sagging of the skin.
The use of processed sucrose and fructose has also been associated with metabolic syndrome, the main precursor to type II diabetes. Abdominal obesity, high triglycerides, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, tendency to create blood clots and a proinflammatory state characterize the syndrome.
Research

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