it's interesting when we design our studies we provide diets that are high
in starch and then we take away that starch and replaced it with sugar why do
we even see such unfavorable effects when we replace pasta or bread with a fructose sweetened beverage
or let's even say high fructose corn syrup sweetened
beverage well to answer that question we're gonna start first with the glucose
the grains that we eat and we call carbs are pretty much pure glucose and it goes
into our bloodstream slowly cause it takes a while for those enzymes in the
intestine to break it all down the glucose leads the intestine in what we
call the portal vein and that veins first stop is the liver if the liver
needs energy that liver is going to pull the glucose in if the liver has enough
energy most of the glucose bypasses the liver and is delivered to the rest
of the body it gets to be used by any other place in the body that needs
glucose now with fructose its different we're talking about fructose in the fructose
sweetened beverages are subjects consumed but we're also talking about
the fructose in sodas because high fructose corn syrup contains fructose
so fructose is in the intestine and it too is delivered directly to the liver however
there's an enzyme there that's always turned on so it takes any fructose it
can get its hands on even if the liver has enough energy
very little fructose gets delivered to the rest of the body so what we end up
is this fructose overload in the liver it needs to start storing it as fat when
you increase your levels of liver fat you're gonna have more fat heading out
into the blood with more fat heading out in the blood
you end up with higher levels of triglycerides and cholesterol both of them
risk factors for cardiovascular disease there's another problem we believe liver
fat decreases insulin's ability to do its job thats increases your risk of
diabetes
there's another problem when your insulin isn't working well it also
causes more fructose to be turned into fat and it is also going to
increase the amount of fat that liver sends into the blood there's another
problem this group that consumed fructose tended to gain that weight within
the abdominal cavity this is what we call visceral fat that makes us apple
shaped
so what we have is this vicious cycle going on that's really why
metabolic syndrome tends to be a group of problems they make this little
vicious cycle where one makes the other worse and they just go around in this
circle what we all need to do is get to the point where sugar is a special
occasion food it's not a staple and that's where we need to think about our
foods and what they can be doing to our health are you wondering how much sugar
you're eating click on this video to find out and be sure to subscribe to figure 1