Back in college, I took a took a nutrition class in a stadium-style room with about 199 other students… who would all quickly come to despise me.
Because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. Especially when the professor prattled on about how cholesterol and saturated fat are bad for you.
One fond memory of mine was when she compared two major sports drinks and said their nutritional profiles were essentially the same.
I raised my hand. “Not so. One contains sucrose, and the other contains high fructose corn syrup.”
She shrugged her shoulders and replied, “So?”
Good times in higher education. Believe me, she wasn’t genuinely perplexed. The professor knew exactly what I was getting at. Which meant she was either a high fructose corn syrup apologist or a shill. Either way, I’m betting virtually none of her students ever heard about this little-known study on high fructose corn syrup’s effects on insulin resistance:
Healthy, young men were given an extra 1,000 calories per day of either glucose or fructose to eat (fun experiment to volunteer for), and the effects on their bodies were measured after seven days of this new diet.
The glucose eaters did not experience any change in insulin sensitivity.
The fructose eaters, on the other hand, did. Their insulin resistance shot up, which can lead to Type 2 diabetes.
Some scientists believe fructose does this by raising your uric acid levels, which inhibits your muscles from absorbing glucose.
Now here’s the scary part: The human study was published in 1980. Eight years later, a sports drink filled with high fructose corn syrup became one of the official drinks of the Olympics.
I guess it could help you win the race to needing insulin injections every day…
Take-home point: Check your labels. If high fructose corn syrup is listed, toss the drink or food and find a substitute. Ideally, a natural drink or food without any added sugar. But if you simply must partake, at least stick to sucrose, which is only half fructose and half glucose. However, in future issues of Living Well Daily, you’ll discover a sugar alternative that could actually improve your health. Keep an eye on your inbox for that.
Until then,
Nate Rifkin
Underground Health Researcher
