Fructose Metabolism and Insulin

Food Nutrition
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So I’m reading a book about natural health management. Of course, there is a chapter in it about diet (nutrition). Whenever I read things like this I always have to remind myself that the book isn’t about diabetes so I have to read nutrition (diet) sections from the point of view of a non-diabetic so as to not roll my eyes at encouraging higher amounts of carb for good health (I have to follow a very low carb diet in order to keep my BG within range).

Anyway, I read this in the nutrition chapter and it immediately got my heat up…and then I got confused…and then I got curious.

“For more immediate energy, fresh fruit, dried fruit or vegetables such as carrots or beetroot are high in fructose, or fruit sugar. This is easily broken down by the body for energy use, and since fructose metabolism does not require insulin, it can be an essential energy resource for diabetics.”

Well, I don’t know about other diabetics but if I ate any of these foods or any fruit or starchy veggie at all I’d have to bolus big time and suffer through BG spikes.

So I got curious, thinking I was understanding this wrong, so I looked up fructose metabolism and insulin.

“Unlike glucose, fructose is not an insulin secretagogue, and can in fact lower circulating insulin. In addition to liver, fructose is metabolized in intestine, testis, kidney, skeletal muscle, fat tissue and brain, but it is not transported into cells via insulin-sensitive pathways (insulin regulated transporters).”

I understand that this means fructose can be less destructive to diabetics and perhaps have a less drastic effect on blood sugar… but I personally would never say it is “an essential energy resource” for me.

My question is how many of you regularly eat fruit? I can’t eat it at all without having to take tons of insulin to cover it! It reacts on my BG just like candy or pizza. I would imagine very active diabetics would benefit well from it, but not inactive people like myself.

I’m guessing that I am in need of some clarification on the original passage.

I guess my confusion might be coming from the fact that the passage is about energy (which I ALWAYS translate as sugar…and therefore ALWAYS relate to BG), and my major concern is keeping my BG regulated, all other health concerns come second.

Someone straighten me out here, please.

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Hi Tamara,
Yes, fruit does cause my BG to spike. I only allow myself a small amount at breakfast (small sliver of melon or apple or orange). Actually require fruit in order to swallow my vitamins - lol.
Not sure of the exact number of carbs, and it’s sometimes it’s hit or miss. Still, I can bolus extra if mealtime dose doesn’t cut it.
Currently using OmniPod for a little while longer

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I eat one medium apple per day with a little yogurt and nuts. I call it lunch.

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I tolerate berries, a small apple, even a small orange or a few grapefruit sections okay (meaning no spikes) but mango or pineapple not so much…and I love mango and other tropical fruits!

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For me, it really depends on the kind of fruit, but all fruit seems to effect both my BG and my insulin requirements (unless I’m eating it to correct a low). The absolute worst is blackberries, which, I’ve read, contain sucrose, rather than fructose. Blueberries are fairly easy for me, as are strawberries, watermelon and pineapple. Apples, oranges and bananas make good hypo-fixes or take a good dose of insulin. I don’t eat enough of many other fruits to know exactly how they affect me.

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I don’t eat much fruit. 20 or so blueberries (in season) in my morning (plain homemade) yoghurt add very few carbs to my morning but they do alter the shape of the curve; my BG rises faster and briefer than without them. I tried an apple when they were just picked, and it was a trip on the gluco-coaster (expression stolen from Terry, I love it!)

Maybe I’ll try again, using Dr Ponder’s ideas from ‘Sugar Surfing’.

I may not be measuring carefully enough, but I’m not sure I can see a difference in my own responses to fructose vs sucrose. That might make for an interesting experiment.

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Hi @Tamra11,

I didn’t eat fruit for a long time because I had spikes. Then this past year I started to eat apples, pears, grapes, and a little bit of banana. Yes, I have to bolus and I’ve figured out how much works for me. I have noticed, as a great tip, that I got from a dietician that pairing up fruit with cheese, meats, or a some sort of protein, it helps lessen the spike of BGs. Not sure if this will work for you but hey its worth a try. I love cheese when I eat apples and pears. Small amounts of fruit and a lot of veggies, I find is better for diabetics. I do feel really energized when I eat fruit with protein sources.
My kids are not diabetics, but whenever they have fruit, I make them have a protein source with it.
Also, for me Bananas and strawberries are the kiss of death in terms of BG spikes. I tend to stay away from them more. I love pears, grapes and apples. I tend not to spike with these when I bolus. Every diabetic has a different reaction to certain foods. I think there might be different glucose indexes for fruit like other foods.

Best wishes,

Busybee

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I have to say, this REALLY sounds like science woo. Does that article cite any research or documentation to back up its grand statements?

It’s true that fructose is mostly absorbed in the small intestine. All that means is that it ends up in the bloodstream, just like glucose, and eventually makes its way to the liver.

It’s also true that there is no liver “uptake” of fructose in response to insulin. But THAT just means that the liver can’t directly store it in the form of glycogen for future use. What the liver does do is break it down (look up “fructolysis”) through a series of chemical steps that eventually produce glucose or glycogen. So you end up at the same place, just through a longer and more intricate path.

My own personal experience is that fruit spikes my blood sugar almost identically to any other form of carbohydrate. Your metabolism may vary, of course.

Take this out of the realm of theory and into the real world, for a moment. HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) is mostly . . . yeah, fructose. And that is what modern soft drinks are sweetened with. Does a coke spike your blood sugar? Do you think people would be so alarmed about the prevalence of HFCS if fructose really was essentially benign?

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Sucrose is nothing more than a combination of glucose and fructose.

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This is exactly what I was thinking. Why would this guy say fructose is better or good for diabetics when it’s still going to spike BG and need insulin bolus to regulate?

It wasn’t from an article, it’s from a book, Yoga, Tai Chi Massage, Therapies, and Healing Remedies by Mark Evans B Phil., FNIMH

So far the book is very hit or miss for me. Interesting, but I am pretty skeptical about many of the things I’m reading. And certainly a few of the things I outright laugh at. There have been a handful of things I find very useful and am going to try out and see if they help me gain better health.

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Twice the fun :smile: But seriously, three big blackberries sent my BG to 250 (from around 90). Surprised me, lemme tell ya!

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I seem to do ok most of the time with most berries, apples and some others in smaller amounts. I can actually drop low with only fruit and not much else sometimes… jam is ok too… however there are other foods involved which may cause a spike in combo with them… grains are the worst for me usually, wheat/gluten which I don’t eat at all now, rice is really bad too, however there have been times when I dropped or didn’t spike too. Really anything has that potential. The worst for me has been snickers bars, they shoot me high no matter what I bolus in the past, whereas vegan chocolate and some organics don’t usually. It is always a matter of how much, and what else you are eating, how is the insulin acting at that time, what else is going on metabolically etc. What he’s saying sounds a bit nuts to me about not needing insulin- I need to bolus for it unless I’m low. I found some dried strawberries which I have use to treat lows, the dried cherries spiked me too much(no added sugars).

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I usually do this too with fruit and always did it in the past too before D.

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As everyone has said, I, too, must bolus for fruit, just like any carb. I do eat berries and apple and other fruit in the morning with yogurt. I sometimes do a bit of exercise when I see the trend line moving up. This helps to keep my bg from spiking out of range. Exercise is usually just half an hour of house cleaning like sweeping or vacuuming. I also eat a banana before my run without a bolus. My run is about 1.5 hours and the banana usually keeps my bg from dropping too low but I sometimes have to eat a glucose tab half way through. Other days, though, my bg will actually rise from the run and then I have to bolus a correction:(

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Here is more info to add to the mix: How safe is fructose for persons with or without diabetes? | The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition | Oxford Academic

I remember a long time ago thinking I could use fructose sweetener in replacement for table sugar, I am sure based on some of the same info shared in this thread. Then I read about how it impacts endothelial cells (think kidney, blood vessels) and increases the risk of weight gain and metabolic syndrome.

Wikipedia has a pretty good entry on fructose - what it is, what foods are highest in fructose and discussion of implications for health. Fructose - Wikipedia

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Just a P.S. to my previous post.

Glucose is the only form of sugar that can be used directly by cells, or converted into glycogen for storage until needed. But all that means is that other sugars need to be chemically broken down and converted to glucose–which is exactly what the liver does with any other sugar you consume. That applies to fructose and every other form of sugar that isn’t simple glucose.

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Because he is uninformed and lazy. I have major issues with people that publish health “advice” (especially in hard copy that a lot of people tend to trust more than stuff they read on the internet), without doing their homework and carefully researching the science behind their statements and claims.

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Hear, hear.
+1

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I have always eaten fruit and dose for it just like any other carb. Anything with the word berry in it seems to be my best choise, bananas and watermelon spike my BG. Anything I eat raises my BG so I will eat just about anything in moderation.

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I think fructose goes into the liver cells without needing insulin or glucose transport, but once in the liver it is converted to glucose. When the liver releases the glucose into the blood stream, that glucose is subject to insulin and transport as usual.