Last night while most of the country was watching the Super Bowl, I was learning about fructose metabolism. A lecture by Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist held my attention for over 90 minutes as he explained how fructose, present in both fruit juice and most soda can act as a poison in our livers. This revelation makes loads of sense to me, both personally and professionally.

Since the popularity of Atkins and South Beach diets, many of us have understood how refined carbohydrates can lead to high trigylcerides and fat accumulation. But many nutritionists and health professionals  continue to believe that  a calorie is a calorie and all sugars act the same in the body.  Dr. Lustig proceeded to blast those theories out of the sky with his lecture, demonstrating that fructose metabolism is eerily similar to alcohol metabolism in the liver.

High levels of fructose do not just appear in our diets in the form of High Fructose Corn Syrup. Most people, with the exception of employees of Coke and Pepsi, now agree that our increased soda consumption plays a role in the obesity epidemic.  Fructose is also abundantly present in fruit juices, which have been promoted as a healthy beverage since the Nixon administration.

According to Dr. Lustig, fructose acts as a toxin in the liver resulting in a non alcoholic fatty liver and leads to gout and hypertension by creating excess uric acid. Not only are we seeing fat kids, we have increased incidence of hypertension and gout in young patients. Bottom line: we were never meant to be able to metabolize these abnormally high amounts of fructose.  By eliminating all forms of sugary beverages and adopting a water or milk only strategy, you can be on your way to reversing weight gain and other metabolic damage.

It will be very hard to pull fruit juice out of schools, now that the soda industry owns brands like Tropicana (Pepsi) and Minute Maid (Coca Cola), but after watching this lecture, many will agree its an important next step. Personally, I’ve never been a fan of juice thanks to the damage I’ve seen it create in children’s teeth. I’ve always advised parents to eat the fruit instead to get the entire benefit that Mother Nature intended: fiber, micronutrients all in the right proportions.

Don’t take my word for it. Watch this lecture yourself and see if you start to re-think your drinks. Warning: some complex biochemistry will be shown, that a science nerd like me loves. Just breathe and go with it, you’ll be glad you did!