Is Frutose a Driver of NAFLD, Obesity, Metabolic Syndrome and Alzheimer's Disease?

[GreenEdge]

Fructose and its byproduct uric acid may play a role in the development of Alzheimer’s, thanks to an evolutionary adaptation hijacked by the modern diet. Fructose can be directly consumed, or the body can convert high-glycemic carbohydrates and other foods to fructose. Fructose suppresses some cognitive functions. Dr. Richard Johnson and Dr. Rob Lustig discuss a new study, of which Johnson was an author, on how fructose may be a potential driver in Alzheimer’s, and they hypothesize about fructose’s potential connection to the development of other conditions.

What Richard Johnson, MD, & Rob Lustig, MD, discuss:
00:00 — Intro
10:17 — Fructose is the driver of some diseases that are on the rise in kids
12:16 — Fructose is a driver of obesity and metabolic syndrome
15:56 — Pharmaceutical treatments for Alzheimer’s aren’t as effective as researchers had hoped
17:40 — The research focus of Alzheimer’s is slowly shifting to insulin resistance in the brain
21:45 — Is fructose a root cause of Alzheimer’s?
26:27 — New research suggests fructose induces a foraging response
28:20 — Fructose inhibits areas of the brain to encourage successful foraging
46:36 — We need more research on fructose
1:02:51 — Is fructose a factor in violence?

 

[linusbert]

yes, at this point i dont think its controversial anymore to take the stand that artificial fructose is very bad.
also its in most processed foods, but we know processed foods are bad anyways no matter if with or without fructose.

fun fact: american coke is made with HCFS (fructose) while european coke is made with normal sugar (50/50 glucose/fructose but much less evil than plain fructose). if they would use just glucose it wouldnt even be that bad anymore as glucose itself doesnt have much bad effects on health. it can make problems in the long run by providing too much empty calories and maybe by causing insulin spikes. but artificial fructose is disrupting metabolism, causing inflammation and is outright bad.

 

[xploit316]

Any thoughts on the polyol pathway, where even glucose gets converted to fructose? Does this mean we could be avoiding all exogenous fructose sources but will still suffer from endogenous fructose production.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyol_pathway

 

[linusbert]

interesting!
kinda true it seams, but more for sorbit as it seams to be stuck on excess sorbit and not in fructose. so in a burdened system, endo sorbit might block this pathway even more. that might explain why some foods especially from fastfood deliverys cause my diabetes to go pretty bad pretty fast. guess they use sorbit for keeping their food fresh.

 

[GreenEdge]

Any thoughts on the polyol pathway, where even glucose gets converted to fructose? Does this mean we could be avoiding all exogenous fructose sources but will still suffer from endogenous fructose production.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyol_pathway

It appears that polyol pathway only occurs with high blood glucose, see extract from your link:

Cells use glucose for energy. This normally occurs by phosphorylation from the enzyme hexokinase. However, if large amounts of glucose are present (as in diabetes mellitus), hexokinase becomes saturated and the excess glucose enters the polyol pathway when aldose reductase reduces it to sorbitol. This reaction oxidizes NADPH to NADP+. Sorbitol dehydrogenase can then oxidize sorbitol to fructose, which produces NADH from NAD+. Hexokinase can return the molecule to the glycolysis pathway by phosphorylating fructose to form fructose-6-phosphate. However, in uncontrolled diabetics that have high blood glucose - more than the glycolysis pathway can handle - the reactions mass balance ultimately favors the production of sorbitol.[6]

Something that would not occur on our ancestral human diet (animal based low carbohydrate diet).