the evils of fructose

As a certified sugar addict (with the empty jellybean bags hidden in the trash to prove it), one of the ideas that took me the longest to accept is that SUGAR IS BAD FOR US. I bought fully into the low-fat zeitgeist. I've been eating conscientiously since high school, when I started carefully avoiding high-fat foods and giving myself a free pass on carbs and candy.

The more I read, the more it seems that sugar (specifically fructose) is a prime factor in insulin resistance, hypertension, and a raft of other things we don't want to have. This makes me a little sad because now that I have this knowledge I'll have to cut back on sweet fruits (mmmm pineapple) and dried fruit. On the other hand, if this is true, it may explain my slow weight loss: having eliminated refined sugar, I started eating fruit by the pound.

One concept really struck me: We're not fat because we eat too much. We EAT too much BECAUSE WE'RE FAT. If our bodies processed nutrients correctly and our cells got the energy they needed, we would stop eating! Our bodies can't regulate our own fat, that's why we're hungry, and that's why we eat.

A couple of statistics from the first presentation below really shocked me:
in 1890, 3% of the population was obese; in 2010, the figure is 32%
in 1898, 10 out of 35,000 hospital admissions had diabetes; in 2010, 1 in 5 had it
in 1700, average sugar consumption: 1 lb/year. Today: 70 lbs/year
Something major has changed in our environment to cause these statistics and Dr. Topf makes a strong case that the culprit is fructose.

Here are some great links:
Uric Acid, Fructose and Hypertension - Dr. Joel Topf
http://www.slideshare.net/nephron/uric-acid-fructose-and-hypertension

Sugar Dangers - Dr. Richard Johnson (Part 1 of 3 -- all 3 are excellent)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOJ3SiRj4AQ&feature=player_embedded

Both links thanks to Tom Naughton at the Fat Head blog (http://www.fathead-movie.com/). Fat Head should be required reading for anyone interested in nutrition. He favors eating a lot of animals, which as a vegetarian I won't do, but what he says about carbs seems to be smack on the button.