Hello. Today I got a couple of friends with me just for this intro. Here is
Ellie and Kelly. Quite a rhyme there. Well today I just want to talk about a
nutrient that has the potential to cause us a lot of health problems and we seem
to be consuming too much of this nutrient. What am I talking about? See you in
a couple of seconds. Welcome back. I'm Dr Joe of TheDrJoe.com Now if this
is your first time on this channel, can I extend a warm welcome to you. This is
your home or 20/20 ideas to better health so if you haven't subscribed yet please
do subscribe and also please do not forget to click on the notification bell
because that is how you get notified of future videos that I make. So today I
want to talk about a nutrient that has a potential to cause us a lot of harm. It's got
a potential to actually damage your liver. It's got a potential to actually
damage your heart. It's got a potential to actually damage your arteries. So what
is this nutrient? Well let's get stuck in. So, what is this evil nutrient and is it
really that bad? Well without prejudicing what I'm about to say, I will say that
yes it is that bad and what's evil nutrient? Well, I am referring to
fructose. By the way I actually say fructose you may say fructose. It's a bit like
tomatoes and tomatoes. It really doesn't matter how you pronounce it. So, fructose
is that bad. Now where does it come from? Well, it comes from sugar and something
you need to know is that sugar is actually a commercial name because sugar
is actually called sucrose. Because sugar is made up of glucose and fructose.
That's the sugar we all know and love and our sugar intake has actually
skyrocketed in the last 60 years. 200 years ago we weren't consuming the same
amount of sugar as we do today. 100 years ago, we weren't even consuming half
the amount that we eating today. The problem too is that little of the sugar
would consume natural sources like fruits and
vegetables. The main source is actually refined sugar and that is the problem
Now let's do the legwork on why fructose is actually bad for metabolic
health. We may need to go back to the basics and the basic is that our bodies
can actually handle both glucose and fructose. Now let's look at the formula
for both glucose and fructose. They both have 6 carbon atoms but the essential
difference is the first carbon atom with fructose there as you can see there. Now
that essential difference between the two molecules i.e the glucose and
fructose means the fate of both molecules is different and that has a
bearing on metabolic diseases that actually killing us today. The truth is
that glucose is universally used by all the cells in our body and it can also
laze around in the bloodstream. So it's good that all cells will accept glucose
when it comes knocking so long as you are insulin sensitive. But even if the cells
don't accept it, the glucose can still laze around in our bloodstream which
usually results in high blood sugar levels. The problem is that fructose has
only one destination unlike glucose which is acceptable to all cells
fructose can only be accepted by the liver. That is the only organ that can
actually utilize fructose. Are you beginning to see the problem there? The
fact that the liver is the only organ that can actually utilize fructose
means it can easily become overwhelmed with the supply if we consume more than
we need. 1 organ 1 nutrient is a recipe for problems and that is why we
are actually sick today. Now the bowel knows that fructose is
trouble with a capital T, so it tries to help and what does it do? The bowel tries
to convert some of the fructose to glucose before it gets absorbed but the
bowel can only do so much. That means the liver will have to deal
with the excess load of fructose that gets absorbed.
And therein lies the problem. So, this is what happens what we consume sugar. Don't
forget the sugar is actually sucrose. It gets to the stomach and over there in the stomach
it moves over to the intestines where it is broken down to glucose and fructose
now the fructose gets only accepted by the
liver and in the liver the fructose gets converted to fat and then the glucose
gets absorbed into the bloodstream where it is redistributed to every other cell
in the body. All cells accept glucose. Let's talk about the metabolic damage that is
actually caused by fructose. I've mentioned one or two things already but
I'm just gonna tie it all up now in the later part of this presentation. The
first thing is that when you consume lots of fructose, the liver converts a lot of
the fructose into fat. Fat droplets. So you have increased lipogenesis
Lipogenesis simply means fat formation. So, the net effect of that is that you
end up with fatty liver. Now along those lines there's also you know LDL
cholesterol generation. So a lot of the fructose gets converted to LDL
cholesterol. This is a bad cholesterol that you don't want and it doesn't stop there you
also end up with increased VLDL cholesterol. This is the lipoprotein that
actually carries the triglycerides. Now this one along with the bad cholesterol
they are really really bad for your health. So, if you want to actually reduce
your triglycerides, if you want to reduce your bad cholesterol, the LDL cholesterol
then you have to reduce your fructose consumption because if you eat a lot of
fructose then the liver is going to generate lots more LDL cholesterol and
VLDL cholesterol. This is the one that carries the triglycerides. Next is that; the fructose
overload actually reduces the livers insulin sensitivity. This is really
really bad news for your health as well because there are two cells that take up
a lot of glucose from the circulation. The liver cells as well as the muscle
cells, So, if you block one of these, then you're gonna have a backflow into the
circulation. So, high fructose consumption reduces
liver insulin sensitivity. This isn't good. Next is;
that just to make things worse, the fructose actually increases the livers
glucose production. So, not only is the fructose blocking glucose uptake by the
liver cells, its actually encouraging the liver to make more glucose. Now this is
really bad because what happens is, you end up with impaired glucose tolerance
This is gonna reflect as increased fasting blood glucose. So, when you
consume lots of fructose a cascade of events is set up and one of the things
that happens is you end up with increase in fasting blood glucose. And what else?
Well, insulin resistance which ultimately leads to pre-diabetes and type 2
diabetes. So, high fructose consumption leads to insulin resistance which
ultimately results in pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes and if you check your
fasting insulin levels, they're gonna be high. So, this is another bad outcome from
consuming too much fructose in your diet. What else? Well then of course you're
gonna have hyperinsulinemia which simply means increased insulin levels. So, what else
happens? Then with the high insulin levels, you're gonna end up with high
blood pressure. Now do you remember when I said this? So, today's topic is about
insulin resistance and high blood pressure and I cannot believe I've not
spoken to you about this before because this is so important. In fact, what we
call it essential hypertension, some people feel we should stop calling it
essential hypertension because essential hypertension means hypertension of
unknown cause and some people now believe that actually what you call
essential hypertension is actually due to insulin resistance because of the
close relationship between insulin resistance and high blood pressure and
this? Because if you've got insulin resistance what's gonna happen is you
also gonna have high levels of blood sugar. So, if you've got high blood sugar then
there's a very good chance we've got insulin resistance especially when
you've got high blood pressure. So, it's time for us to actually connect all the
dots okay and I actually love this because it's very important that you
know this. So, when you consume too much fructose in your diet, this will result
in insulin resistance. When you have insulin resistance, you're going
to have high circulating insulin levels in your blood and when you have high
circulating insulin levels, then you're going to end up with high blood pressure
and all of that is resulting from the fact that you have generated for
yourself fatty liver from consuming too much
fructose. Can you now see the close relationship between high blood pressure
and insulin resistance and can you also now see why we say that if you really
want to manage your high blood pressure you should also reduce your sugar
consumption. Does this all make sense to you now? I'm hoping that I've connected
the dots in this video for you. So, just to make a point of clarification. The
fatty liver that is caused by fructose that I've referred to in this video, that
fatty liver is called non-alcoholic fatty liver. This is to distinguish it
from the fatty liver that is caused by alcohol abuse. They are two different
things. Now if you enjoyed this video as usual
give it a 'Thumbs up'. Please share this video with your friends, your family and
colleagues. If you haven't subscribed yet please do subscribe. If you've got any
questions, please leave your comments down below as usual I think that's about
it. Until next time, well, this is Dr Joe signing out