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I read somewhere that fructose can't even be used for energy and in large amounts it is a toxin.
I eat a LOT of fruit to get enough nutrients and calories, in the summer I could eat a pint of strawberries, a pint of blueberries and a whole melon in the same day. Is it true that fructose should be mostly avoided?
As I understand it, the brain can utilize fructose for operation. However, fructose will NOT replenish muscle glycogen, that is, the muscles will not utilize fructose for energy, so for a carb reefed after a really intense workout, fructose would not be useful.
[QUOTE=Drumroll;861267]As I understand it, the brain can utilize fructose for operation. However, fructose will NOT replenish muscle glycogen, that is, the muscles will not utilize fructose for energy, so for a carb reefed after a really intense workout, fructose would not be useful.[/QUOTE]
Really? Ive never heard that. Does anyone have any other insight on this? Not that I don't believe you, just want to educate myself. I often use fruit (bananas, berries, etc) as my carbs.
Even assuming pigging out on fruit is bad, which one could easily dispute, it's still miles better than pigging out on nuts, fried food, transfats/veg. oils, concentrated sugars, gluten/grains, etc. It's the least calorically dense and most nutrient dense of the classic trigger foods.
Don't let chimpanzees know any of this. They will suddenly fall over dead. Isn't it the liver's job to break up all sugars, be it fructose or sucrose or glucose, into usable glycogen?
Fructose on its own, I've read, can be hard on the liver. Fortunately, we don't eat fructose on its own. We eat it in fruit where it's bound up with fiber and appropriate nutrients. If you want fruit, eat it.
The brain can't utilise fructose. Only liver and kidneys (to a limited capacity) can.
Fructose can not at all be converted to glucose. All fructose is converted to fatty acids by the liver.
[QUOTE=Drumroll;861267]As I understand it, the brain can utilize fructose for operation. However, fructose will NOT replenish muscle glycogen, that is, the muscles will not utilize fructose for energy, so for a carb reefed after a really intense workout, fructose would not be useful.[/QUOTE]
We're not chimpanzees so in a word yes....don't overdo it. That said the cofactors accompanying most fruits will dilute/reduce the toxic load of the fructose. The real issues arise with HFCS and concentrated fruit juice that don't come in their natural toxic reducing packaging.
Fruit is candy bar from a tree.
That said... *Kung Fu Panda* I LOVE FRUUUUUIT!
raspberries & heavy cream is, like, my favorite meal right now.
sorry that wasn't helpful.
[QUOTE=Primalwombat;861318]Fructose can not at all be converted to glucose. All fructose is converted to fatty acids by the liver.[/QUOTE]
Check again, the liver converts fructrose to both Glycogen of Fatty acids depending on what it feels the best option is, the preffered direction is Glycogen, but if we overload with fructose it goes to the fats, just because the liver is desperate to clear the fructose, just like it does with the glucose. The other issue with fructose is it blocks the leptin receptors so we don't get that full feeling and just keep gorging, this may be related to hibernation and coming winter so we can gorge on fruits in late summer and build up our fat stores.
Overall fructose as whole fruit is not an issue as long as that is not all we eat, eat your main meals as savory & have whole fruits in between as top up snacks, I avoid juicers all together because they remove essential fibre and allow rapid uptake of carbohydrate which effectively makes everything high GI.
I like the taste & texture of eating whole foods.