Fructose is a sugar that occurs naturally in fruit. Many people mistakenly believe that because fruit is natural and tastes good, that it must be good for them. Well as the old saying goes "Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing." {Or something like that} Anyway, sugar is sugar. It doesn't matter if it is man-made or made by Mother Nature herself. Your body doesn't care.
The problem here is a simple one.
Fructose is turned into converted to fat in the liver. True, fructose has a low glycemic index, but this is mainly because a large part of it is released by the liver as fat instead of carbohydrate.
We are not saying you must give up your bananas, grapes, apples, and strawberries. But too many, and you could end up looking like a pear.
Remember, not all calories are the same. Calories from fruit are different than calories from
complex carbohydrates such as brown rice. Eating the same amount of calories from rice will not make you gain the weight as the same amount of calories from fruit. This is because the body will process them differently with different insulin releases. What types of foods you eat are just as important as how much and how often.
Complex carbohydrates such as
oatmeal, rice, and potatoes are stored as glycogen and used for fuel. Fructose is stored as fat in the liver. Then from there is ends up in fat cells in the body. To make it simple: Sugar = Fat. But is too many carbohydrates over a period of time, they may also end up being stored as fat. This is due to your glycogen stores in the body being full.
By feeding your body glucose from starchy carbs instead of fructose from fruit, your muscles can be fed and the remainder can be stored as glycogen. This will make your muscles full and hard looking. You will be less likely to store these as fat. Basically, if you rely on simple sugars or fructose, then your muscles will store as much glycogen as they can and any extra carbohydrates you consume will be converted to fat.
