How Healthy Is Fruit? The Dangers Of Fructose For The Gym Weeb
Remember: no matter how phallic it may look fruits are probably good for you
I get asked surprisingly often if fruits are healthy, & yes they're very good for you. I assume I get asked this so much because fruits contain a somewhat even mix of glucose & fructose, and when people hear fructose they think of all the processed shit in their food (high fructose corn-syrup for example).
So lets talk about glucose & fructose. If I were to simplify it, within a calorically controlled diet glucose is converted into glycogen & stored into the muscles/as fat/or burned off as heat energy. No problems there right?
With fructose it has to be metabolised by the liver first & too much in too short a period of time put's strain on the liver. In high quantities it causes liver fat production to overproduce which helps contribute to various diseases (fatty liver disease, insulin resistance etc).
So...fruits are half bad then? Naw.
You need a ton of processed shit for fructose to play a negative role & fruit doesn't have the same issue because the fibre content & bulk drastically changes the rate of absorption. Remember, fructose is only bad for you if it's in a high enough quantity in too short a time-frame.
So, how much processed Fructose could have an effect?
In a new clinical trial with 187 participants they were given drinks sweetened with aspartame, glucose, fructose, or high fructose corn syrup 3 times a day for two weeks. The two fructose groups saw decreased health markers with the high fructose corn syrup group having 17% higher LDL-Cholesterol, 15% apoB, and 11% high triglycerides outside of any change in bodyweight. All bad shit that we wanna avoid, in layman's terms.
Aspartame and Glucose didn't see see an effect, however it's important to note that high fructose corn syrup is half glucose half fructose (like table sugar) and was worse than fructose alone. Meaning that although fruit is very good for us, processed fructose like table-sugar and coca-cola can be harmful for us.
....if 25% of your calories comes from it.
That's right. All groups in the study outside of Aspartame (which was the control group) was having 17.5-25% of their calories come from these sweetened drinks. Anybody who is seeking to live an active healthy lifestyle is probably not doing this, so how much of this really applies in the context of a total healthy diet? Like saturated fat (which has similar effects) it's probably negligible if these processed foods are only consumed on occasion.
It's the high quantity and chronic use of fructose such as drinking high amounts of cola & consuming other high sugar junk that can make it detrimental to your health. If you count your calories & macros, eat mostly nutritious foods (with plenty of fruits ;D) & keep your junk in moderation I honestly don't think you'll ever have to worry about it. But as always, best to exercise caution and keep this in mind.
Source to that study
So in short, fruits are good for you! Grab a banana, run to the gym, & if the squat rack is busy look that guy straight in the eyes & chow down on that banana until he's finished. The rack will be free soon enough 😂
Be More Shonen
I get asked surprisingly often if fruits are healthy, & yes they're very good for you. I assume I get asked this so much because fruits contain a somewhat even mix of glucose & fructose, and when people hear fructose they think of all the processed shit in their food (high fructose corn-syrup for example).
So lets talk about glucose & fructose. If I were to simplify it, within a calorically controlled diet glucose is converted into glycogen & stored into the muscles/as fat/or burned off as heat energy. No problems there right?
With fructose it has to be metabolised by the liver first & too much in too short a period of time put's strain on the liver. In high quantities it causes liver fat production to overproduce which helps contribute to various diseases (fatty liver disease, insulin resistance etc).
So...fruits are half bad then? Naw.
You need a ton of processed shit for fructose to play a negative role & fruit doesn't have the same issue because the fibre content & bulk drastically changes the rate of absorption. Remember, fructose is only bad for you if it's in a high enough quantity in too short a time-frame.
So, how much processed Fructose could have an effect?
In a new clinical trial with 187 participants they were given drinks sweetened with aspartame, glucose, fructose, or high fructose corn syrup 3 times a day for two weeks. The two fructose groups saw decreased health markers with the high fructose corn syrup group having 17% higher LDL-Cholesterol, 15% apoB, and 11% high triglycerides outside of any change in bodyweight. All bad shit that we wanna avoid, in layman's terms.
Aspartame and Glucose didn't see see an effect, however it's important to note that high fructose corn syrup is half glucose half fructose (like table sugar) and was worse than fructose alone. Meaning that although fruit is very good for us, processed fructose like table-sugar and coca-cola can be harmful for us.
....if 25% of your calories comes from it.
That's right. All groups in the study outside of Aspartame (which was the control group) was having 17.5-25% of their calories come from these sweetened drinks. Anybody who is seeking to live an active healthy lifestyle is probably not doing this, so how much of this really applies in the context of a total healthy diet? Like saturated fat (which has similar effects) it's probably negligible if these processed foods are only consumed on occasion.
It's the high quantity and chronic use of fructose such as drinking high amounts of cola & consuming other high sugar junk that can make it detrimental to your health. If you count your calories & macros, eat mostly nutritious foods (with plenty of fruits ;D) & keep your junk in moderation I honestly don't think you'll ever have to worry about it. But as always, best to exercise caution and keep this in mind.
Source to that study
So in short, fruits are good for you! Grab a banana, run to the gym, & if the squat rack is busy look that guy straight in the eyes & chow down on that banana until he's finished. The rack will be free soon enough 😂
Be More Shonen
You're on the squat rack and this guy won't stop staring, WDYD? Cosplay: Goku (DragonBall Super)