The Atlantic Tackles Fructose and Sugar Confusion

A recent article in The Atlantic illustrated the confusion surrounding fructose,
glucose, sugar, and other sweeteners by interviewing several researchers
whose conclusions on nutrition and sugar contradict each other to varying
degrees. James Hamblin points to Mehmet Oz’s unqualified support—and
later retraction—of agave syrup as a natural and healthy sweetener alternative
to sugar or high-fructose corn syrup as an example of how the current
scientific understanding of fructose and glucose is incomplete and difficult
to draw conclusions from. Agave is composed of 90 percent fructose and 10
percent glucose, compared to an even split for table sugar and 55 percent
fructose in high-fructose corn syrup. Because of its low glucose content,
agave has a low glycemic index, which led many nutritionists to believe that
it was a healthy alternative. Fructose has since been blamed for, among other
diseases, liver damage and atherosclerosis, and described as “toxic,” a label
that one researcher dismisses: “If you have too much oxygen, it is toxic. If you
get too much water, you have water intoxication. That doesn’t mean we say
oxygen is toxic.” Hamblin criticizes prematurely conclusive recommendations
on nutrient-based eating, whether nutritionists advise low-fat diets as they
did a decade ago or low-sugar diets as they do now. “If there is a problem in
all of this,” he writes, “it’s that speaking definitively before definitiveness is due
can spread more confusion.” See The Atlantic, June 5, 2014.

Issue 526