Daily, Excess Fruit As Unhealthy As Other Sugars

When I wrote my book Fructose Exposed I received criticism from people who told me that fruit is different from other fructose-containing sources such as table sugar, high fructose corn syrup, honey and the like because it was “natural.” We have been told for years to eat five servings of fresh fruit per day as part of a well-balanced diet. I learned in writing Fructose Exposed that the source of fructose is irrelevant to the liver’s metabolism of this sugar. The daily, excess consumption of fructose leads to the development of the metabolic syndrome in most of us (see other articles on this website). A recent article caught my attention because it validates my concerns about excess consumption of fructose derived from fresh fruit. [more]

Marijuana Use is Linked to Testicular Cancer

How often do you come across some new piece of information that kind of rocks your thinking, especially when social media leads one to thinking in the opposite direction? Such is the case of a paper I read recently. This study quoted two additional studies and all three large investigations came to the same conclusion. Regular recreational use of marijuana was found to increase your risk of developing a specific type of testicular malignant tumors. The three studies were conducted by the National Institutes of Health, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA and University of Southern California. Each study looked at various parameters of exposure to marijuana including: history of marijuana use, age at onset of use, frequency of use, duration of [more]

Moderate Amounts of Fructose-Containing Beverages Quickly Change Metabolism

High fructose corn syrup and soda pop in general have taken a lot of heat over the past decade because of the rising weight of America. Some argue that the youth of America is consuming large quantities of this sugar and it is leading to the burgeoning obesity epidemic. But is obesity the primary concern or is there something much more sinister that occurs when we consume these sugar-sweetened beverages? The answer, as I pointed out in my book Fructose Exposed is that if sugar (specifically fructose) is consumed in excess daily for a long period of time then many people will develop the metabolic syndrome through altered fructose metabolism that occurs in the liver. I ran across a new study since my book was [more]

Smoking Marijuana Worsens Liver Damage of Individuals Infected with Hepatitis C

Hepatitis C (HCV) virus is the most common liver infection in America affecting nearly 4 million people. Many of these individuals have been treated for their infection but many more have progressive liver disease for a number of reasons. Some people do not respond to the known treatments, others do not know they have the infection and still others participate in a life style that continues to damage their liver. The most common scenario is continued exposure to the virus from intravenous drug use, regular tobacco smoking or from daily consumption of alcohol. Recently, it has been discovered that another risk factor that causes the acceleration of liver disease in those infected with HCV is the regular use of marijuana. There are [more]

Trans Fats and Heart Disease

According to the National Safety Council website seat belts saved an estimated 5000 lives per year between 2004 and 2008. A whopping 5000 people per year. In that same time period, according to an analysis published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) an estimated 144,000 to 250,000 heart attacks would have been prevented annually if Trans fats were eliminated from the American diet. Why are people so reluctant to give up their Trans fats yet buckle up when they are driving to their favorite Trans fat food outlet? We have all been educated for decades about the importance of seat belts but little has been emphasized by the health care, manufactured food or government organizations as it relates to the dangers [more]

Fructose and Addiction

We have known for some time now that fructose affects the brain and chronic excess ingestion leads to an addiction of overeating, weight gain and development of the metabolic syndrome in many of us. An estimated 67 million adults now suffer from the consequences of excess fructose in our diet. The craving for overeating has been linked to a lack of brain regulation of our appetite by hormonal influences. Initially, it was unclear how or why this was occurring. The data is now mounting that it is derived by a specific sugar, fructose. A brand new study published in 2013 in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that fructose and not other sugars directly alters blood flow to different areas of the [more]