Diabetes? Obesity? Fatty Liver? Yes, you just may be.

How about giving the kids who come to your door a beer instead of a piece of candy? 

Fructose follows the same pathway as alcohol and has all the adverse health effects without the buzz.

Trick or Treat! It’s that time of year again.

Sugar is a toxin, not natural, and has drug-like properties, making it addictive and causing metabolic damage with every dose.

Sugar in any food or food-like product, whether labeled natural, whole, organic, raw, or any other way, is processed and will create an unnatural negative hormonal response every time. 

Sugar is about half glucose and half fructose. High fructose corn syrup is just about 5% more fructose than glucose than sugar is, but pretty close.

Fructose is toxic, and its toxic metabolic and obesogenic damage is magnified when fructose is isolated in a liquid, ingredient, and syrup. 

No single pathway, biochemical reaction, or process in the body requires fructose.

Fructose is, therefore, not a nutrient, as it adds any nutrition directly, as a cofactor, or has a supportive effect on any cellular or bodily function.

Fructose is believed to carry 4 calories of potential energy, and its refined state of alcohol can only be used for 7 calories for use or storage in the liver.

All the dangers, damage, and severe health deterioration that result from consuming alcohol at high levels are the same for fructose, with the only difference being the intoxication effect. 

Alcohol is at least self-limiting, and you eventually must stop consuming it by passing out. Not with fructose, which can be consumed all day and night long. And kids and many adults do just that.

In most people, fructose will not be used for immediate energy, glycogen stores, or even into the body’s blood flow as the liver prioritizes its metabolism into the fatty liver and visceral fat, increasing your belly circumference as it does.

Fructose is the number one cause of non-alcoholic liver disease, the world’s number one liver disease, which historically is only seen when heavy alcohol abuse occurs. Not anymore.

With the additional 60 lbs. of fructose per year the average American consumes, fructose is now shown to cause, not correlate to, but cause, diabetes.

Children are particularly susceptible to this problem as they grow, and toddlers between 2 and 5 years old are the fastest-growing population with diabetes. 

Trick or treat?

The problem isn’t calories or added calories.

The problem isn’t obesity or weight gain.

The problem is fructose, the metabolic damage it creates, and the insulin resistance that develops as a result.

If you still give a developing child candy, understanding it is the same as a beer, our culture and society are doomed, just like your kids!

We can do better!

Dr. Don