Why I Avoid Fructose

It’s not just about gaining weight

I’m not a doctor, and a personal anecdote doesn’t make for robust scientific proof, but, I feel like I’ve seen for myself the possible downside of an excess of fructose. So, I think it is actually worse than other sugars. Maybe.

You’ve probably heard of “high fructose corn syrup,” and probably in the context of people saying it’s bad for you. However, you may have also heard people, reputable scientists, saying that fructose is no worse for you than any other kind of sugar.

The debate essentially emerges from different assessments of one feature of fructose that no one disagrees about. Fructose is only processed in the liver. Unlike glucose, which can be used by any and every cell in your body. When the liver is handed too much fructose, it basically converts the excess into fat.

People who think fructose is bad will say that this means fructose is more likely to make you fat than other sugars. It’s like the liver is a bottleneck for the fructose going into your body, creating more fat than if you had consumed an equal amount of a different sugar.

The people who think fructose isn’t any worse will say that your body converts all unused sugars into fats, what happens with fructose in your liver is just one specific process out of many in your body…