Sunday, November 30, 2008

The Fruit/Fruit Juice Weight Gain and Disease Connection

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The main concept to remember with the issue of fruit consumption is that these items were traditionally seasonal. If you were in the Britain 500 years ago there were indeed some fruits around but their availability was usually limited to a couple months per year.

Fruit worked great during the summer months and delivered what fruit is famous for.........large spikes of blood sugar and the massive weight gaining effect that brings. Fruit does carry with it some vitamins and minerals but along for the ride is also large quantities of fruit sugar.

Fruit sugar is no different than any other sugar. All sugars enter the blood stream as glucose so whether your sugar came from a Pepsi or a papaya, your body does not know the difference. Many people who have a hard time losing weight and staying healthy believe that fruit sugar is different because it is natural etc. Natural or not......large spikes of blood sugar facilitates disease and weight gain, regardless of source.

The primary advantage of nature's bounty for such short periods of time (during the summer months in areas farther from the equator) is that the extra fat gained dramatically improved one's chances of surviving the harsh winter. A healthy layer of fat and the extra energy it provided were always essential to survive the harsh winter months in primitive societies far from the equator.

Sugar also triggers the production of the over-eating hormone called Grehlin. This hormone spurs an appetite that never ends. The body was well aware of how rare and valuable sugar was in the natural environment so if you came across a strawberry patch in Norway 500 years ago your body simply rewired it's metabolism for you to eat as much as possible, as fast as possible.

The body is genetically designed to overeat sugar when it is found. Survival used to depend on it. Unfortunately it is this genetic adaptation that is now hurting our chances of survival. The body had no idea the humans would rearrange the natural world to a point where fruit was available all year around to vast portions of the population. Modern society is the titanic and the body's ancient metabolism to use sugar as a massive fat storage device is the iceberg. Obviously the collision has already occurred.

Cultures farthest away from the equator do very poorly when exposed to chronic spikes of blood sugar. Sugar alters brain function dramatically and cultures farthest away from the equator appear to be at greatest risk of experiencing these changes in brain function for the simple reason that their metabolisms just are not used to it.

As Dr. Blaylock discusses below, changes in brain function (more toward violence and away from logic, compassion, ambition etc) are highly associated with large spikes of blood sugar and the sugar crashes that quickly follow. (the sugar crash is called hypoglycemia)



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Other interesting observations show the overwhelming percentage of serial killers are from non-equatorial regions. The connection of violence and anti social behavior to sugar consumption is firm, as is shown in the clip above. Maybe cultures not conditioned to chronic sugar spikes do worse when the world changes to provide them with that daily sugar?

One can only guess and speculate but one thing is for sure......a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition proves what you can observe on the street everyday.........chronic fruit/fruit juice consumption has some very negative health consequences. Read below.......

CLICK HERE TO READ THE PUBLISHED REPORT AND COMMENTARY REGARDING THE UNHEALTHY EFFECTS OF FRUIT.

As a personal trainer, this became obvious to me over 10 years ago. If I consumed a large amount of fruit my muscularity always decreased and my fat content increased. This effect increased 5 fold if I consumed fruit on an empty stomach. My energy levels dropped dramatically during different times of the day, my temper was hard to control, other carb addictions started to form and I often got dizzy after consuming fruit. Almost exactly what Dr. Blaylock talks about in the video above. If I had a training client who had a hard time losing weight or reversing disease they always had fruit a couple times per day and if a client had a unruly child I often observed the child with a bottle of fruit juice in their hand.

The proper message on fruit went in the wrong direction thanks to our friends at the Canadian Food Guide and The USDA Food Pyramid when they started to join the words "fruit and vegetables" together in our cultural vocabulary. Those items are like night and day, even though they are both natural sugar products. Vegetable sugar is a very slow digesting sugar and fruit sugar is very fast. Vegetables are super healthy and fruit is not wise in many weight and disease based situations.

In the end if you are having a hard time getting healthy, eliminating disease or losing weight try taking all fruits out of your diet for 30 days. I am sure you will see some wonderful effects. Just do not replace fruit with other high sugar products.

1 comment:

Ken said...

You're right, sugar and fruit sugar are more or less the same. The reason why drinking a can of coke and eating an apple can't really be compared is because soda (like most foods high in sugar) contain only sugar. They're empty calories with no vitamins, minerals or fiber. These ingredients are abundantly found in fruits that can also be high in sugar. These nutrients make an apple or any fruit that is high in sugar a lot healthier than soda or doughnuts.