What is fructose?You take a bite out of an apple or peach and get that succulent rush of juices that are sweet to the palate. Referred to as a fruit sugar, fructose is a simple carbohydrate that can stimulate your taste buds immensely. It’s commonly called the sweetest of all the sugars. How is table sugar formed? By combining fructose and glucose you get sucrose which is otherwise referred to as table sugar or can sugar. If you’ve ever wondered where fructose occurs naturally, just take a bite out of a piece of fruit! Is fructose bad for me? In moderation this is no problem to the human body. However, like any other substance an overabundance can cause problems. Smaller amounts of fructose have been show to be beneficial to the body. When we overload the body it’s unable to process the excess fructose which is why only about 10% of your diet should come from fructose related products. Facts about fructose…What happens if I consume too much fructose?A bit of chemistry is needed to further explain this! Carbs are created by chains of glucose and as it enters the bloodstream your body creates an output of insulin to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand. The liver is the main processor for sugars. When it’s overloaded with fructose it can’t be processed by the liver and the excess is passed off as fats and sent through the bloodstream and blood vessels as triglycerides. Why is too much of this sugar bad? This is potentially bad for at least three reasons:1. Heart disease is directly related to high blood triglyceridesHave you ever been binge eating? Trace back through the history and you’ll find that this compound is probably a major factor in that event. 2. Fructose has the ability to bypass the normal appetite signaling system and as a result your stomach still has the empty feeling. No wonder fructose and weight gain go hand in hand when it comes to weight related problems. 3. Excess fructose consumption could result in insulin resistance that has the capacity to develop into type 2 diabetes. What are the major fructose foods? Fruits and vegetables are the major foods which contain fructose naturally. The human body normally has no problem in digesting and handling this type of sugar very easily. However, the main problem develops when added sugars to the modern diet over the body and the fructose gets passed off as fat. What are high corn syrup dangers? High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is made up of 55% fructose and 45% glucose. However, sucrose is half fructose and half glucose. So, HFCS actually doesn’t have a whole lot more fructose than “regular” sugar, gram for gram.