Fructose Question

Had a little conversation with my FST peeps and they seem to think that the fructose question posed by my supervisors is quite a bit of a controversial topic.

So I did a little research and approached one of my FST profs for help.

Here goes...

Dear Dr Huang,

......

I'm currently pursuing my masters degree in Nutrition and Dietetics and
I have a question regarding fructose and blood glucose level. I
understand that fructose is sometimes used as a substitute for sucrose
to sweeten foods for people with diabetes. Does fructose consumption
affect blood glucose level? ie. does fructose metabolism require insulin
for absorption into cells?

Best Regards,
Liyan




Dear Liyan,

Regarding to fructose, it is a bit of a controversial. To answer your
question,

Yes, Fructose will lead to rise of glucose level because it can be
converted to glucose in the liver rather rapidly. Fructose per se,
however, does not provoke release of insulin. Fructose is mainly
metabolized in the liver and the transportation of fructose is
accomplished by GLUT-5 NOT by GLUT-4 which is regulated by insulin.

Regards,
Dejian


Well, I guess ingesting fructose per se will not increase your BGL level. I spoke to my supervisor today and she said what she was trying to get at is that using fructose as a substitute, the patient is going to take in less calories as compared to normal sugar. So indirectly, its going to help in improving the glycemic control of the patient. Oh well... Then some of you are going to say the use of aspartame results in almost negligible caloric intake. Oh well...

What matters most is that we all learnt something! Right???