Uric Acid Levels Indicate Fructose Sensitivity

Hi,

Dr Mercola has again caught my attention and helped me make a better decision about my health. I know from my most recent blood tests that I have a high uric acid level (8.6 if I remember correctly) -- this is actually very high from what I am reading in his article.

This excerpt from his post about uric acid will explain more clearly than I could, the connection between diabetes, fructose, and uric acid levels:

    "Going back to the issue of genetic variability, it seems that some people may be able to process fructose more efficiently, and the key to assess this susceptibility to fructose damage lies in evaluating your uric acid levels.

    "Dr. Johnson (Richard Johnson, MD, who is the chief of the division of kidney disease and hypertension at the University of Colorado.) agrees that using uric acid levels as a marker to identify your susceptibility could be a reasonable approach.

    "So, for example, if you’re passionate about fruit and typically eat large amounts of fruit, but have a uric acid level above 5 (or better yet, 4 if you’re a man, and 3.5 if you’re a woman), then you may want to consider lowering your fruit consumption until you’re able to optimize your uric acid levels.

        “We have some evidence from our laboratory that uric acid actually regulates the sensitivity to fructose,” Johnson says. “So the higher your uric acid, the more sensitive you are to the effects of fructose.

        … So I agree with you. If you measure your serum uric acid and it’s very significantly high, you probably will get into more trouble with fruit juices and large amounts of fruit than other individuals would.

        That seems to be the take home message from our current research.”

( Here is the link to the whole article in case you want to read it -- you will have to sign up with your e-mail address to be able to read it:  http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/06/19/richard-johnson-interview-may-18-2010.aspx  )

So there I have it: I do actually need to stay away from fruit. I have no idea whether this will be for a limited time or forever. I do know that my uric acid levels have always been high (along with my father and both of my living brothers), but I did not know what caused this phenomenon. My present doctor saw the blood report but said nothing about the uric acid levels or what causes them. Myself, being ignorant of the significance, simply filed the numbers away in my brain again with no inkling that I could affect these numbers simply by completely avoiding fruit and anything else with fructose.

As I wondered if there are other things that I should avoid,  I found this at Wikipedia.com: "Honey, tree fruits, berries, melons, and some root vegetables contain significant amounts of molecular fructose, usually in combination with glucose, stored in the form of sucrose" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fructose )

If you take a look at Dr Mercola's article you will find a chart of lots of different fruits and the fructose levels they contain. He says that limes have 0 grams of fructose, and that dried figs have 23 grams of fructose. Limes, lemons, cranberries and passion fruit all register below "1" and top the list for low fructose fruit.

Grapes, mangoes, dried apricots and dried figs are at the other end of the spectrum with 1C of grapes having 12.4 grams of fructose, 1/2 a mango has 16.2 (so a whole one has more than 32!) 1C of dried apricots has 16.4 (but who could eat a cup of dried apricots?) and a cup of dried figs containing 23 grams (again, who could eat that many?)

I wish the fruits on the chart had all been 1/4C servings so I could get a more accurate picture in my head of what is going on. But, I guess that is really a moot point, when the message is that I should stick with the "avoid fruit" idea until those uric acid levels come down.

Since, for the most part, I have been staying away from fruits, I think my uric acid levels should be better at my next test (even though I did recently consume perhaps six apples in about five days. By the way a medium apple contains 9.5 grams of fructose). I guess that means no more apples for me, and no grapefruit (1/2 medium has 4.3) either, even though  my doctor has recommended them to me. Oddly enough, I was right to be a little afraid to eat them. Just goes to show you that you have to pay attention to your own health needs if you want to make real and significant changes in your health.The Lord and I are the ones in charge of my own health -- He for the creation and maintenance -- me for the obedience to the physical laws he created.

I thought it was slightly interesting that a fresh raw apricot of medium size has 1.3 grams of fructose, but dried apricots in a 1C portion had 16.4 grams of fructose. I don't know whether the increase in fructose is due to the fact that dried apricots are smaller and there are more of them in the cup, or if the amount of fructose actually increases during the drying process. It appears to me that simply having more in the cup is what is raising the number. I have no evidence for my belief that drying or even cooking fruits makes them have more sweetness and be even worse for the diabetic than fresh raw whole fruit. I am not even going to talk about fruit juice because without the fiber that is just a sugar bomb to the blood stream and, in my opinion, no diabetic or prediabetic should be drinking fruit juice of any kind.

Both Drs Mercola and Johnson call this finding "fructose toxicity" -- meaning that fructose is actually toxic to the body, especially when consumed in large quantities such as from HFCS found in such things as sodas. It appears that the more soda a person drinks the closer to toxic they become.

The conclusion they appear to be drawing is that fructose is actually the cause of the diabetes epidemic. And they bring up another amazing and odd phenomenon. They are also saying that once you have diabetes, there is something called the "polyol pathway" wherein, the body, after it has become insulin resistant, begins to make fructose from other sources of food as well! The final statement? The polyol pathway phenomenon is quite remarkable and is also a very strong testament to the need to severely limit your fructose intake if you are a diabetic or even a prediabetic.


Near the end of his article he puts in a bad word for agave too. No matter what the manufacturer says on their label, agave syrup has been tested by an independent laboratory at Dr Mercola's request and can contain as much as from 59 to 67 percent fructose. Honey is 70 percent on average. Both agave and honey should be avoided by diabetics, especially those with high levels of uric acid.

Well. Now I know. And so do you. Take action to improve your own health. Increase the amount of fresh raw leafy greens and vegetables that you consume. Eliminate all forms of sugar. I am leaning towards allowing Xylitol for lack of any evidence that it is harmful and much evidence that it actually helps to eliminate harmful bacteria from your body. Don't eat processed or overly cooked foods. (I actually recommend no cooking of food, but that may seem like an insurmountable chasm to some folks -- if you can do it, great. If you cannot, then start out by taking small steps in that direction by first including and increasing fresh raw foods which you consume before you eat anything cooked. The idea being that your tummy may get full faster and you will naturally and gradually begin to eliminate the eating of cooked and processed foods. 

If you eat your food the way God created it you will be eating your way to improved health. The more your foods contain sugars and are cooked or processed you are eating your way towards chronic disease and pain.


Please, take baby steps in the healthy direction and it will become easier to toddle on to better health later.


So I am back on the "no fruit" plan and want to see if my uric acid numbers go down as a result.


Be back soon


--Marcia