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Too much fructose can damage your liver, just like too much alcohol

sugarscience.ucsf.edu

31–40 of 166 posts

Re: Too much fructose can damage your liver, just like too much alcohol

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your wife is one of the few pedigreed nutrionists who “knows” that! Sadly most nutritionists are overweight themselves and continue to advocate people consume whole grains, low-fat dairy, and fruit to lose weight/be healthier. Kudos to your wife for ignoring the massive amount of BS most doctors and nutritionists are inculcated with!

What is wrong with whole grains or fruit? I have never heard of that before.

Nothing, I think the parent is wrong or misspoke. The advice is usually "substitute bad processed sugar with fruit", which is what Dr Lustig has advocated for the last decade. Of course too much fruit is itself bad, since the fiber can only do so much.

Re: Too much fructose can damage your liver, just like too much alcohol

#33
post #3

Just wanna say that my wife has a PhD in nutrition and this isn't news to us. We've "known" that unbound fructose is hard on the liver for years.

What isn't hard on your liver these days? Most drugs undergo metabolism and activation through the CYP450 system. Meaning that those drugs which clear hepatically are most likely hard on your liver in the long run.

Just because a CYP is involved, doesn't mean the target substance is hard on your liver in any way. Liver toxicity is highly non-linear with dosage, and damage typically starts abruptly when substrates are depleted. The classic example is paracetamol, which is quite safe at reasonable dosages (and without alcohol) where the liver is well within its limits, but causes damage rapidly at higher dosages when you run out of glutathione.

Re: Too much fructose can damage your liver, just like too much alcohol

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your wife is one of the few pedigreed nutrionists who “knows” that! Sadly most nutritionists are overweight themselves and continue to advocate people consume whole grains, low-fat dairy, and fruit to lose weight/be healthier. Kudos to your wife for ignoring the massive amount of BS most doctors and nutritionists are inculcated with!

What is wrong with whole grains or fruit? I have never heard of that before.

Whole grains are one of the biggest sources of dietary inflammation. There isn’t something inherently wrong with grains, it’s that they’re not even close to the grains we evolved to eat anymore (at least, not in the U.S. — grains in mainland Europe are generally fine, unless you have an issue with gluten/grains such as celiacs, Crohns, or IBS).

Source: Tons but the book Wheat Belly is one of the most succinct. Also, every trainer who is even half-way decent at transforming clients tells them to avoid grains, don’t discount what people are ACTUALLY doing to get results, even if a definitive study hasn’t been done on it (although many studies have been done, see Wheat Belly).

Fruit falls under the category of “healthy, if you’re healthy.” If you’re overweight and inactive, and you want to lose weight, then you should not be eating fruit, or any high-sugar, high-carb food for that matter. Once you’re lean and physically active, it’s fine.

Re: Too much fructose can damage your liver, just like too much alcohol

#35
post #6

It is really, really surprising that this is discovered so lately. We should be knowing this for 30 or so years. I have a strong guess that this article is overpresenting how new this is. Otherwise something really weird is going on.

It was either this or having a large part of humanity living without western comforts. Fructose is cheap to get and produce.

In addition a fat liver sounds more curable in a thirld-world-country then diabetes. So the worser of two it is.

Re: Too much fructose can damage your liver, just like too much alcohol

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is wrong with whole grains or fruit? I have never heard of that before.

Whole grains are one of the biggest sources of dietary inflammation. There isn’t something inherently wrong with grains, it’s that they’re not even close to the grains we evolved to eat anymore (at least, not in the U.S. — grains in mainland Europe are generally fine, unless you have an issue with gluten/grains such as celiacs, Crohns, or IBS). Source: Tons but the book Wheat Belly is one of the most succinct. Also,…

Citations for this crap?

Re: Too much fructose can damage your liver, just like too much alcohol

#37
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whole grains are one of the biggest sources of dietary inflammation. There isn’t something inherently wrong with grains, it’s that they’re not even close to the grains we evolved to eat anymore (at least, not in the U.S. — grains in mainland Europe are generally fine, unless you have an issue with gluten/grains such as celiacs, Crohns, or IBS). Source: Tons but the book Wheat Belly is one of the most succinct. Also,…

Citations for this crap?

Hm, did you read my comment?

I said source: Wheat Belly (book by Dr William Davis), but also my experience working with clients and with trainers who are experts at transforming clients from fat to fit.

Re: Too much fructose can damage your liver, just like too much alcohol

#38
post #13

Too much of everything is always bad.

>Too much of everything is always bad. That's folk-wisdom, which is sort of a good heuristic but is not useful when we can actually test and demonstrate. Some things are bad even in small quantities, say poison. Somethings we can't get enough of, say fresh air. I've mostly cut out fructose (and most other forms of sugar) altogether from my diet and it's probably the single-most impactful change that I've made in my l…

So you don't eat fruit?

Re: Too much fructose can damage your liver, just like too much alcohol

#39
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citations for this crap?

Hm, did you read my comment? I said source: Wheat Belly (book by Dr William Davis), but also my experience working with clients and with trainers who are experts at transforming clients from fat to fit.

Citations, not a diet books and anecdotes.

Edit: hate my tone all you like, but keep in mind if this weren’t fringe bullshit I’d be met with more than downvotes and attitude.

Re: Too much fructose can damage your liver, just like too much alcohol

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is wrong with whole grains or fruit? I have never heard of that before.

Whole grains are one of the biggest sources of dietary inflammation. There isn’t something inherently wrong with grains, it’s that they’re not even close to the grains we evolved to eat anymore (at least, not in the U.S. — grains in mainland Europe are generally fine, unless you have an issue with gluten/grains such as celiacs, Crohns, or IBS). Source: Tons but the book Wheat Belly is one of the most succinct. Also,…

> every trainer who is even half-way decent at transforming clients tells them to avoid grains, don’t discount what people are ACTUALLY doing to get results

Isn't it more likely that trainers tell people to avoid wheat and corn because they tend to be high-calorie, low-satiety foods? I've lost 70+ lbs over the past year on IIFYM-style caloric restriction. I still enjoy corn and wheat products, but somewhat sparingly because I'd rather have an extra half pound of chicken than a piece of bread.

Cutting out grains is a quick and easy way to help people hack their caloric intake more than anything else, IMO.

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