If there is one prevailing health / fat loss myth that I find particularly galling it is the one surrounding fruit and just how essential it is to health.  Too often I see supposedly motivated and enthusiastic personal training clients, if truth be told the biggest culprits for this sin are tree huggers and females, who insist that I am wrong when I tell them that fruit is pretty damn useless, and almost always counterproductive, in a fat loss diet, and that anyway “isn’t a lot of fruit supposed to be good for you and we need five servings a day!”.

Let’s get the facts straight here, not only is fruit no good for fat loss (I won’t bore you with the details as I have already written extensively on fruit and fat loss), nor is it “essential” for health and longevity, especially in already overweight individuals who need to do everything they can to improve blood lipid profiles, lower blood pressure etc.  The foods, or to be more precise macronutrients, that are truly essential are protein (remember the derivation of protein comes from the Greek word “of primary importance”) and ‘essential’ fats.  Forget about having a six pack or looking toned and lean, without either of these macronutrients we will die a very premature death.  No one ever died from not eating fruit so long as the rest of the diet was rich in vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, all of which can be derived from eating a wide variety of vegetables. Now before Mr Del Monte and Mr Jaffa put a hit out on me I will qualify much of what I have just written here by stating that I am by no means anti-fruit and that one or two pieces of fruit a day are definitely good for us.  If someone is happy with their body fat levels then by all means eat some fruit on a daily basis, in moderation.  Take note of the “in moderation” please – far, far too often I see food diaries that have fruit as half of the days calorie intake with the poor misguided (19 times out 20 female) client all confused as to why she can’t lose any fat, has blood sugar fluctuations, and mood swings.

Now that I have thoroughly depressed those fruit lovers amongst you, I will slightly switch tack to the main topic of today’s discussion.  The perils of fructose, better known as fruit sugar, and high fructose corn syrup in particular.  The latter is basically a cheap way to add sweetness, and I believe “body”, although I wait to be corrected on this point, to an alarming variety of foods.  We are not just talking about your regular processed fare here, but also breads, supposedly healthy baby foods…the list seems to be pretty endless.  A recent study, the full details of which are below, was brought to my attention by Canadian personal trainer Mike Demeter, a man who is both a continuous font of relevant and interesting knowledge and who clearly gives of his time to help the wider fitness community in a manner that speak volumes for a generous and positive character.  You can find Mike at www.MikeDemeter.com (I haven’t added this as a hyperlink as his site appears to be buggy today so just copy and paste the rul into your browser if you want to see more about Mike).

The take home lesson of all that is below is that you should monitor your fructose intake generally, and if you are ill or in a high risk group for certain cancers then fructose in definite moderation and a total avoidance of all high fructose corn syrups!

Cancer cells feed on fructose, study finds Research shows the refined sugar helps cancer cells proliferate

WASHINGTON — Pancreatic tumor cells use fructose to divide and proliferate, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a study that challenges the common wisdom that all sugars are the same.

Tumor cells fed both glucose and fructose used the two sugars in two different ways, the team at the University of California Los Angeles found.

They said their finding, published in the journal Cancer Research, may help explain other studies that have linked fructose intake with pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest cancer types.

“These findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation,” Dr. Anthony Heaney of UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center and colleagues wrote.

“They have major significance for cancer patients given dietary refined fructose consumption, and indicate that efforts to reduce refined fructose intake or inhibit fructose-mediated actions may disrupt cancer growth.”

Americans take in large amounts of fructose, mainly in high fructose corn syrup, a mix of fructose and glucose that is used in soft drinks, bread and a range of other foods.

Politicians, regulators, health experts and the industry have debated whether high fructose corn syrup and other ingredients have been helping make Americans fatter and less healthy.

Too much sugar of any kind not only adds pounds, but is also a key culprit in diabetes, heart disease and stroke, according to the American Heart Association.

Several states, including New York and California, have weighed a tax on sweetened soft drinks to defray the cost of treating obesity-related diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

The American Beverage Association, whose members include Coca-Cola and Kraft Foods have strongly, and successfully, opposed efforts to tax soda.

The industry has also argued that sugar is sugar.

Heaney said his team found otherwise. They grew pancreatic cancer cells in lab dishes and fed them both glucose and fructose.

Tumor cells thrive on sugar but they used the fructose to proliferate. “Importantly, fructose and glucose metabolism are quite different,” Heaney’s team wrote.

“I think this paper has a lot of public health implications. Hopefully, at the federal level there will be some effort to step back on the amount of high fructose corn syrup in our diets,” Heaney said in a statement.

Now the team hopes to develop a drug that might stop tumor cells from making use of fructose.

COACH MIKE NOTE: “Or simply avoid eating a high fructose diet . .sheeesh . .a drug to block fructose . .what next . .morons”

U.S. consumption of high fructose corn syrup went up 1,000 percent between 1970 and 1990, researchers reported in 2004 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.