Let's Drop Acid & Smoke Fructose
Nov 14, 2011 | 2 Comments 
HAIR LIKE A FOX: An Unconventional Guide To Reversing Hair Loss is finished! It will be released the 28th of this month! Thank you for your patience. On to this weeks post!
In last weeks reader mail I covered some unsung aspects of fructose that are often not talked about; its ability to increase metabolic rate, protect the liver, enhance glucose utilization, and restrain stress hormones.
Fructose hysteria began a few years ago after Dr. Robert Lustig's famous Sugar: The Bitter Truth video went viral on YouTube.
Since then, Dr. Robert Lustig, Dr. Richard Johnson, and numerous others have been parroting the idea that fructose is a "dose-dependent poison," is obesongenic (causes one to gain weight), and is evil (morally bankrupt).
If I were taking queues from Dr. Lustig or Dr. Johnson, I would be struggling with major cognitive dissonance. While both advocates state that fructose is the largest factor in obesity, both Dr. Robert Lustig and Dr. Richard Johnson, the anti-fructose crusaders, are overweight.
Since Dr. Lustig gained notoriety, he seems to have gained a considerable amount of weight. Here he is July 2009 and here's when I saw him in person at AHS 11. I have never seen Johnson in person, but here is a recent video of him speaking.
HFCS & Sucrose
It's important to separate refined white sugar and orange juice from high-fructose corn syrup. It's not the glucose to fructose ratio that differentiates them significantly, but rather that HFCS has been shown to contain 4-5 times the amount of calories as regular ol' sucrose.
"With inclusion of mild acid hydrolysis, all samples showed significantly higher fructose and glucose content than the listed values of carbohydrates on the nutrition labels. The underestimation of carbohydrate content in beverages may be a contributing factor in the development of obesity in children."
This evidence could explain the mixed body of evidence surrounding fructose.
White Sugar Is A Supplement
I was able to overcome my own sugar-phobia by first acknowledging that what I was doing wasn't working and then viewing white sugar a nutritional supplement.
Sugar will exert its anti-stress, pro-thyroid, pro-hair properties as long as the diet is fortified with nutrient-dense foods (liver, oysters, milk, cheese). One can monitor the effectiveness of increased sugar intake by noting pulse rate, body temperature, mood, and the ability to withstand stress.
My Experience
I understand that many who avoid fructose are lean, but overweight doctors preaching the genesis of obesity is still an idea I have yet to grasp.
My personal experimentation revealed that I was able to reduce my weight ~20 lbs. by drinking 64 oz. of orange juice every day (when I wasn't trying to lose weight). That's right. I cured my "broken metabolism" with a "Naeolithic agent of disease."
When the people that eat the most fructose are emaciated and the least are overweight, something is seriously wrong.
Reader Comments (2)
Hi Danny,
I'm reading your stuff with great interest and beginning to put your dietary suggestions into place.
One thing I haven't heard you address is Exercise: where are you on that?
I gather Peat is not much interested in it.
Do you think it is important?
-David
@David,
Probably important, not very interested in the subject, I've always been pretty lean, but was 170 lb. on zero carb and have since then reduced down to ~145 lb. on Peat.
I do body weight exercises occasionally. Rob Turner is a good source on this.