Effect of 2 energy-restricted diets, a low-fructose diet vs mod natural fructose diet

[NU_nutrition_TS]

The intention, in HFCS manufacture, is to create a product that is 55% fructose (HFCS55) or 42% fructose (HFCS42) or 90% fructose (HFCS90). HFCS55 is typically used in soft drinks and HFCS42 in baked goods. Often HFCS90 and HFCS42 are blended in order to get HFCS55. Since any manufactured product is going have +/- percentage tolerances it is not surprising that there is a variance between the ratio of fructose and glucose in any particular batch or between manufacturers. This why some samples (of HFCS55) can test at 50% fructose or even higher (as has been reported - up to 75%).

I find Denise Minger's recent write up about wild fruits a little misleading. These might be wild fruits as they grow today - but you still cannot draw the conclusion that this is how they would have been in palaeolithic times - even if they existed at all.

Even one of her quotes regarding the 1000+ varieties of wild fruit found growing on the African continent states that while not deliberately cultivated they are often 'sheltered and tended'. One of the determinants of the sweetness of fruit is how much water they get. Even if they are not given extra water outside of rainfall - if they are sheltered, that may prevent evaporation of moisture in the soil surrounding the plants/trees allowing them to be juicier and sweeter than if they were dehydrated by direct exposure to equatorial sunshine and heat.

I also question her contention that most wild fruit is not more fibrous, pithy and don't contain a greater number of larger seeds than their cultivated/hybridised counterparts. There are plenty of pictures on the net that you can use for comparative purposes. For instance wild bananas compared to cultivated bananas:

Above: Wild banana
Below: Cultivated banana


In the cultivated variety pictured above (grilled/sliced) you can see the seeds are smaller and sparser (a few dark specks visible around the core), while the wild type in the top picture has many large seeds throughout the flesh. In fact, cultivated bananas are sterile - which explains the lack of viable seeds.

Just one further example that anyone can check at nutritiondata.com: Wild blackberries vs. cultivated blackberries. Per 100g, wild blackberries have 10g of total carbohydrate (not counting fibre) of which 4g are sugars split as follows: 10mg sucrose (50/50 fructose/glucose), 1690mg glucose & 1950mg of fructose. Cultivated blackberries also have 10g of total carbohydrate (not counting fibre) of which 5g are sugars split as follows: 70mg sucrose (50/50 fructose/glucose), 2310mg glucose & 2400mg of fructose. So the wild variety has less sugar overall both by mass and calories (31% vs. 47%).

[hailtotheking]

This review of a study on the effects of strawberry polyphenols mitigating the negative effects of high fructose feeding was interesting. Yes it was a rat study, but this study is kinda a slap in the face to all those other rat studies that show high fructose feeding is bad news. I think it was Alan Aragon that said in one of his AARR that rats have a particularly poor ability to metabolise fructose. If humans are better at it, then hey that’s even better news!

Strawberry polyphenols mitigate very high dietary fructose-induced metabolic dysfunction in rats | | nutscinutsci

I've long suspected that intrinsic compounds in whole fruit would offset any possible problems with their relatively small fructose content, unless you are consuming whole high-fructose fruit in infeasibly large amounts.

[hailtotheking]

Lyle did a reasonable short review of the paper in the OP

The Effect of Two Energy-Restricted Diets, a Low-Fructose Diet vs. a Moderate Natural Fructose Diet – Research Review | BodyRecomposition - The Home of Lyle McDonald