Between official dietary guidelines, industry-sponsored advertising, click-bait dietitian science writing, twitter influencers and the myriad sources of (dis)information on the internet, the topic of fruit and its role in health can get murky.
Tweets like these naturally confuse Jane + Joe Sixpack who may have been told to avoid eating fructose and carbs in order to lose weight and reverse their metabolic disease.
Fructose is jet fuel for Metabolic syndrome
It so happens that fructose is one of the most potent factors in exacerbating metabolic syndrome and diabetes. For someone metabolically unwell, eating fruit is like chucking jet fuel on the fire. And then blowing it with a leaf blower.
Biochemically, fructose (half of the sucrose molecule) is a potent metabolic signal of fat storage that is extremely effective at inducing insulin resistance. Unlike glucose, which can be taken out of the bloodstream and directly utilized by tissues such as the brain and muscles, fructose must be processed in the liver, where it often turns that organ into a fatty mess.
Fructose metabolism is a potent driver of glycation and oxidative stress. Adding a heavy fructose load onto the pro-inflammatory melieu created by a diet rich in highly refined, omega-6 plant oils and processed carbs is not a good strategy.
Refined sources of fructose such as high fructose corn syrup (found in sodas) and fruit juices are the major culprits and are likely more harmful than consuming whole fruit containing fiber, which may somewhat dull the glycemic effect. Nevertheless, modern fruit are themselves refined agricultural crops that have been highly selected for size and sweetness. That are currently being eaten by everyone, all the time, regardless of the natural growing season in that location.
Fruit is ok, if you’re healthy
Here’s the nuance – whole-food fructose isn't likely to be a problem in someone who is physically active, sun exposed and metabolically healthy. Someone whose liver isn’t the human version of foie gras. Someone cycling intermittently in and out of nutritional ketosis. Who doesn’t eat refined foods of any sort. But that isn't the case for the vast majority of people, who are in a state of energy overload.
Metabolically unwell? You’ve forefeited your fruit
Over 88% of people in the USA have some sort of metabolic dysfunction – insulin resistance, pre-diabetes or diabetes. In fact, COVID was simply a referendum on the metabolic health of the nation with the metabolically damaged being disproportionately affected.
Should you care? Its not only boomers. Many, many young people have un-diagnosed metabolic disease and are on the path to full blown diabetes. Docs on the ground are seeing the consequences of unrestrained metabolic disease diseases in younger and younger patients – illnesses that were formerly seen in people much older. Pancreatic cancer, bowel cancer. End stage cirrhosis from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease needing transplant. And the #RootCause is insulin resistance caused by processed carbs, refined fructose, refined sucrose and seed oils.
I’m not here to tell you what to do. But if you are overweight, struggling to lose weight or diagnosed diabetic or pre-diabetic (ie in the 88% of Americans), then steering clear of regular fruit consumption until you’ve addressed and reversed your underlying disease process is probably a good idea. Otherwise, you are simply adding more energy into a system that overflowing with energy. A state of energy toxicity.
Diagnose your metabolic dysfunction
How do I know if I have metabolic dysfunction? Good question. There are many clues that a good physician is able to piece together. Most physicians don’t — they aren’t in the business of diagnosing a condition that they have no ability to medicate. And since they have no appreciation for the power of carb restriction as a therapeutic tool, will continue to ignore.
The most outward indicator of metabolic dysfunction is an increased waist circumference, which is highly predictive of visceral fat and therefore hepatic insulin resistance. Other blood tests include raised triglycerides, fasting insulin, Hba1c, ALT and uric acid. Depending on your local lab, cutoffs are usually (much) lower than the specified reference ranges, which have been designated based on a metabolically sick population.
For most people who aren’t medicated, successful efforts to lose weight by cutting industrial foods and excess fructose will resolve these derranged metabolic markers without testing or other intervention. If medicated or requiring supervision, seek out the services of a metabolic physician who can diagnose and supervise your healing.
Long term, widespread use of continuous glucose monitors will be useful tools in helping people identify their place on the spectrum of metabolic dysfunction and reversing it.
The Rest Is Up To You….
— RootCause MD
January 12, 2021
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