Fructose in moderation can offer diabetes benefits

Tue, 26 Jun 2012
Although many scientists have warned about the dangers of consuming fructose for diabetes patients, a new study has revealed that taking it in moderation could actually offer some benefits for people with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes.

The study, carried out at St. Michael's Hospital in Canada and reported in the journal Diabetes Care, found that consuming too much fructose was the problem, and that diabetics received benefits to blood sugar levels, and also a lowering of their cholesterol, blood pressure, body weight and uric acid when they took fructose in moderation.

The study reviewed data on 18 separate projects involving over 200 diabetics over a wide age range that consumed fructose, which occurs naturally in fruit and vegetables and also honey, from between seven days and 12 weeks.

The findings were based on the consumption of pure fructose and not necessarily on foodstuffs that contain it, such as table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, and it is believed that we process high-fructose corn syrup in a different way than that of other sugars. A previous study also showed that pancreatic cancer cells use fructose to help them proliferate.

Researcher Adrian Cozma said "We're seeing that there may be benefit if fructose wasn't being consumed in such large amounts."

He added "All negative attention on fructose-related harm draws further away from the issue of eating too many calories."
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