High Fructose Levels Can Be Unhealthy For Heart

It is believed that eating lots of fresh fruits is harmless and healthy. At that, fruits have quite high content of fructose, or fruit sugar, known as considerably less harmful to our health than white sugar and other artificial sweeteners. However, as the findings of a new study suggest, consuming too much of fruit sugar is closely linked to increased risks of such serious diseases as diabetes, heart disease, and some others. The study was carried out by a group of experts at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University, and its findings were published in the latest issue of The Journal of Nutrition.

Fructose is one of the sweeteners which is used commercially to sweeten quite a lot of foods and products we use on a daily basis. For example, well know corn syrup is very rich in natural fruit sugar. As the study has shown, there is a tendency which is very common to the people who are in the phase of gaining body weight. It turned out that the sweet taste of fructose can evoke and increase cravings for sweet foods, this way making us consume more food and receive more calories, therefore, gaining more weight and increasing our risks of the diseases like type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular diseases.

During the study, a thorough analysis of daily diet and cardiovascular health of 559 American teenagers aged between 14 and 18 was carried out. It was found out that a high fructose consumption is associated with higher blood pressure, lower HDL ‘good’ cholesterol levels (protecting our heart and vessels from fat deposit formation), more occurrence of inflammation, poorer insulin resistance and other factors that contribute in developing various cardiovascular problems.

The experts explain that fructose has different structure and is metabolized in our body in a different way than other natural or artificial sweeteners. The products of this metabolism can be bad for our system and play a role for worsening our cardiovascular health. Dr. Vanessa Bundy, one of the study leaders and an expert at MCG, commented on the significance of the findings as the following: “It is so very important to provide a healthy balance of high-quality food to our children and to really pay close attention to the fructose and sucrose they are consuming at their home or anyone else’s.”

Author Info: Hi! My name is Carla and I am a 5th year medical student at HYMS. I am interested in alternative medicine and I have done months researching the topic of herbal medicine. Besides, I like interviewing people and learning more about their experiences with one or another type of herbal treatments. I am willing to contribute to this site with my knowledge, and I would be happy to help you out to the best of my ability with any specific questions or problems related to alternative medicine.

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