The more we study health and nutrition, the more we discover that there's no such thing as a definite fat, carbohydrate, protein, and sugar. In other words, not all types of sugar are the same. Take, for example, fructose and glucose.
For many years, fructose has been receiving a lot of bad rep from health experts, and many don't understand why. Why is it considered bad? How different is it from glucose? Does that mean that fructose in fruit is bad too?
Fructose and glucose, while similar since they are considered simple sugar, they are not the same. They have a different structure and most of all they are metabolized or used by the body in a completely different manner.
Glucose is something that your body recognizes because it's needed by the cells in order to function properly. It is the main source of energy and therefore vital to life. In fact, all types of living things including plants metabolize glucose.
Fructose, on the other hand, has a calorie count than glucose. It has also has a much lower glycemic index, but it has also a very high glycemic load. This means that it increases your blood sugar significantly faster than glucose. Moreover, only the liver is capable of metabolizing fructose.
The problem begins when you're taking in too much fructose, which normally happens these days because almost all products in the market contain it. In fact, Americans consume more than 70 pounds of corn syrup high in fructose every year. It puts too much pressure or load onto the liver, forcing it to convert a huge amount of fructose into fat. It also causes the body to be more intolerant to glucose, and that may lead to insulin resistance and a host of metabolic-related diseases. Moreover, because of the fast blood sugar spike, you are more likely to feel hungry quicker and thus eat more. It then only increases your risk of obesity.
