WHY Sugar is as Bad as Alcohol (Fructose, The Liver Toxin)
Summary
TLDREl guion explora los efectos nocivos del alcohol y la fructosa en el cuerpo, comparándolos como toxinas que afectan principalmente el hígado. Muestra cómo el metabolismo de ambas en el hígado puede llevar a problemas de salud como la enfermedad cardíaca, la obesidad y la resistencia a la insulina. Destaca la importancia de la fibra para mitigar los efectos negativos de la fructosa en las frutas y la preocupante presencia de azúcares añadidos en productos alimentarios procesados, contribuyendo a la epidemia de obesidad.
Takeaways
- 🍻 El alcohol es una toxina y su consumo frecuente puede afectar seriamente la salud, causando problemas en el hígado y efectos tóxicos agudos.
- 🚶♂️ Aunque el alcohol puede afectar la capacidad motora fina, la verdadera preocupación es el daño a largo plazo que puede causar en el hígado y otros órganos.
- 🧠 Menos del 10% del alcohol se metaboliza en el cerebro, pero es suficiente para causar la embriaguez o intoxicación.
- 💉 El 80% del alcohol se metaboliza en el hígado, lo que puede llevar a problemas de hígado graves si se consume diariamente.
- 🎉 Un consumo ocasional de alcohol, como en una celebración, no suele causar daños graves a largo plazo, pero la moderación es clave.
- 🍺 La idea de un alcohol que no se metaboliza en el cerebro y no causa efectos tóxicos agudos es problemática, ya que aún podría afectar la conducción y otros aspectos de la salud.
- 🍬 El fructuoso es un compuesto presente en alimentos como la miel, jugos de frutas y el sirope de maíz alto en fructuosa, que también puede causar problemas de salud similares a los del alcohol.
- 🍎 El fructuoso, al igual que el alcohol, se procesa principalmente en el hígado y su consumo frecuente puede llevar a problemas de salud como la enfermedad del hígado graso no alcohólica.
- 🍊 El metabolismo del fructuoso es similar al del etanol, generando una gran cantidad de ácidos grasos y aumentando el riesgo de enfermedades cardíacas y obesidad.
- 🌽 La fibra en los alimentos naturales como las frutas ayuda a controlar la absorción del azúcar y reduce su impacto negativo en el hígado.
- 🍰 Muchos alimentos procesados contienen azúcares añadidos, lo que aumenta el riesgo de obesidad y enfermedades relacionadas con el consumo excesivo de azúcar.
Q & A
¿Por qué se considera al alcohol una toxina?
-El alcohol se considera una toxina porque, aunque es un compuesto químico presente en bebidas alcohólicas, no es necesario para ningún proceso bioquímico en el cuerpo humano y puede causar efectos nocivos en la salud, como alteraciones en el ritmo cardiaco, dilatación de los vasos sanguíneos y pérdida de control motor fino.
¿Cuáles son algunos de los efectos agudos del alcohol en el cuerpo?
-Los efectos agudos del alcohol incluyen cambios en el ritmo cardiaco, dilatación de los vasos sanguíneos, pérdida de control motor fino y la sensación de embriaguez o intoxicación.
¿Por qué el hígado es un órgano especialmente vulnerable a los efectos del alcohol?
-El hígado es vulnerable a los efectos del alcohol porque aproximadamente el 80% del alcohol se metaboliza en este órgano, lo que puede llevar a problemas graves como enfermedades hepáticas si se consume alcohol de forma frecuente.
¿Qué es la fructosa y por qué se compara con el alcohol en términos de efectos en el hígado?
-La fructosa es un tipo de azúcar que se encuentra en alimentos como miel, jugo de frutas y sirope de maíz alto en fructosa. Se compara con el alcohol porque, al igual que el alcohol, la fructosa se procesa principalmente en el hígado y su consumo frecuente puede llevar a problemas de salud similares, como enfermedad del hígado graso no alcohólica.
¿Cómo afecta la fructosa la producción de grasa en el cuerpo?
-La fructosa estimula un proceso llamado lipogénesis de novo, que es la síntesis de grasa a partir de precursores no lipídicos. Esto puede llevar a la acumulación de grasa en el hígado y el aumento del riesgo de enfermedad cardiovascular.
¿Qué es la insulina y cómo se relaciona con la metabolización de la glucosa en el hígado?
-La insulina es una hormona producida por el páncreas que ayuda a regular los niveles de azúcar en la sangre. Al estimular el receptor IRS-1, la insulina desencadena una serie de reacciones que llevan a la activación de la glucoquinasa, que convierte la glucosa en glucosa 6-fósfato, que se almacena principalmente como glucogén en el hígado.
¿Por qué la fructosa y el alcohol pueden causar resistencia a la insulina en el hígado?
-La fructosa y el alcohol sobrecarrgan las mitocondrias del hígado, lo que lleva a la acumulación de citrato y la producción de grasa. Este exceso de grasa y la activación del enzima JNK1 promueven la inflamación y la resistencia a la insulina en el hígado, afectando la capacidad del páncreas de producir insulina eficazmente.
¿Qué es el síndrome metabólico y cómo está relacionado con el consumo de fructosa y alcohol?
-El síndrome metabólico es un conjunto de factores de riesgo que incluyen la obesidad abdominal, la resistencia a la insulina, la dislipidemia y la hipertensión arterial. El consumo excesivo de fructosa y alcohol puede contribuir a la formación de grasa visceral y a la inflamación, lo que aumenta el riesgo de desarrollar el síndrome metabólico.
¿Por qué es importante la fibra en la dieta para mitigar los efectos nocivos del azúcar?
-La fibra ayuda a reducir la velocidad de absorción intestinal del azúcar, lo que permite que el hígado maneje la cantidad de azúcar de forma más efectiva. Además, la fibra tiene propiedades satietas que pueden ayudar a controlar la ingesta de alimentos ricos en azúcares.
¿Cómo pueden las empresas de alimentos procesados influir en la obesidad y la salud pública?
-Las empresas de alimentos procesados a menudo agregan azúcares a sus productos para mejorar el sabor y la longevidad en el estante, lo que puede llevar a una ingesta excesiva de azúcares ocultos. Esto, junto con la publicidad dirigida a niños, puede contribuir a la obesidad y a problemas de salud crónicos.
Outlines
🍻 El Alcohólo: ¿Causa y Solución de los Problemas de la Vida?
Este párrafo explora la dicotomía de que el alcohol puede ser visto como la causa y la solución de los problemas de la vida. Se discute el conocimiento común sobre los peligros del alcohol, como la toxicidad para el hígado y los efectos inmediatos en el cuerpo, que incluyen cambios en la frecuencia cardíaca, dilatación de los vasos sanguíneos y pérdida de control motor. Además, se plantea la idea hipotética de un tipo de alcohol que no se metaboliza en el cerebro, evitando los efectos tóxicos agudos, y se cuestiona la aceptación de tal sustancia, comparándola con la fructosa, un edulcorante natural que también se procesa principalmente en el hígado y que, con el tiempo, puede causar problemas de salud similares.
🧬 Metabolismo del Azúcar y del Alcohólo: Diferencias y Consecuencias
En este párrafo se compara el metabolismo del azúcar y del etanol en el hígado, destacando cómo el azúcar, una molécula no tóxica, se convierte en glucosa y se almacena como glicogéno o se quema para energía, mientras que el etanol, un toxina, se procesa en mayor cantidad en el hígado y genera una sobrecarga en las mitocondrias, lo que resulta en la acumulación de grasa y la producción de VLDL, un factor de riesgo para la enfermedad cardíaca. También se menciona el papel del fructosa en la producción de grasa y su comparación con el etanol en cuanto a su metabolización y efectos en la salud.
🍰 La Insidiosa Influencia del Azúcar en Nuestra Dieta
Este párrafo profundiza en los efectos del azúcar en la salud, ilustrando cómo el consumo diário de alimentos ricos en azúcar, como jugos de frutas, cereales y yogures, puede llevar a un aumento significativo de grasa visceral, resistencia a la insulina y enfermedades cardíacas, a pesar de que los nutrientes totales y caloricos no hayan cambiado. Se destaca la falta de fibra en los productos procesados y cómo esto afecta la absorción de azúcar en el cuerpo, comparando el consumo de frutas enteras con el de jugos de frutas. Además, se menciona la omnipresencia del azúcar en los alimentos procesados y la exposición a publicidad de alimentos no saludables, sugiriendo que el azúcar puede ser tan destructivo como el alcohol en la salud.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Alcohol
💡Metabolismo
💡Fructosa
💡Glucemia
💡Insulina
💡Glucógeno
💡Mitocondria
💡Ácido úrico
💡Etileno
💡De novo lipogenesis
Highlights
Alcohol is considered a toxin with immediate effects on the body, such as irregular heart rate and loss of motor control.
Alcohol metabolism primarily occurs in the liver, leading to potential serious liver issues with frequent consumption.
The concept of a hypothetical 'kid beer' illustrates the absurdity and danger of normalizing alcohol for children.
Fructose, found in honey, fruit juice, and high fructose corn syrup, is likened to alcohol in its liver metabolism and health effects.
Robert Lustig emphasizes sugar as a 'poison' with detrimental health effects supported by over 16 years of research.
Glucose metabolism in the liver is contrasted with ethanol and fructose, highlighting the unique health risks of sugar.
Glycogen storage from glucose is beneficial as an energy reserve, unlike the direct conversion to fat seen with fructose.
Ethanol and fructose overload liver mitochondria, leading to increased fat production and health risks.
The conversion of fructose to fat is more pronounced due to the stimulation of de novo lipogenesis enzymes.
Fructose metabolism results in higher uric acid levels, contributing to hypertension.
The movie 'That Sugar Film' demonstrates the rapid health effects of high sugar intake, including weight gain and fatty liver disease.
Fiber in whole fruits helps mitigate the negative effects of fructose by slowing sugar absorption.
Processed foods often lack fiber and contain added sugars, increasing the health risks associated with sugar consumption.
The prevalence of sugar in packaged foods and advertising contributes to the obesity epidemic.
The average American child is exposed to a significant amount of advertising for unhealthy foods, normalizing sugar intake.
The comparison between 'kid beer' and sugar-packed snacks highlights the hidden dangers of sugar in everyday products.
Transcripts
To alcohol!
The cause of and solution to all of life's problems.
We’re all familiar with the dangers of alcohol and the fact that frequent alcohol consumption
can fry your liver.
Anyone who has had alcohol before will not doubt that it is a toxin, even if they are
not familiar with what it specifically does inside your body.
This is because you can experience the immediate or “acute” effects of alcohol exposure
in a single night after just a few drinks.
You might not notice your heart rate becoming irregular, your blood vessels dilating, or
your loss of fine motor control, but you will notice something is different as you become
“drunk” or “intoxicated”.
Then if the pleasant feeling of being drunk had you doubting whether or not alcohol is
a toxin, the hangover that comes the next day will surely confirm that it is.
So you don’t really need much education or convincing about whether or not frequent
consumption of alcohol has some potentially serious effects on your health.
The reason you can feel the effects of alcohol right away and get “drunk” is because
a little bit of the alcohol is metabolized by the brain.
Actually what goes to the brain is less than 10% of the alcohol.
The majority of it- about 80% gets metabolized by the liver.
This is why you can develop all sorts of serious liver issues quite quickly if you’re drinking
on a daily basis.
However, your liver is a very powerful organ that can handle various toxins relatively
well, so one night of celebrating your birthday at the bar isn’t going to have you trying
to get on the liver transplant list.
But what if we could make an alcoholic drink with a special type of alcohol that didn’t
get metabolized in the brain, so you wouldn’t experience the acute effects of alcohol toxicity?
You could have several beers at lunch and still be sharp as a tack during the company
meeting at 2PM.
Maybe you’d even be allowed to drink and drive because it wouldn’t impair your motor
skills.
Companies might even get away with marketing this special alcohol to kids.
"I present to you... kid beer" Hey I mean if the kid isn’t slurring his words and
falling down, it should be OK right?
...Of course not, no parent in their right mind would give their kid alcohol simply because
they don’t appear drunk.
So here are the immediate health effects, and the long term health effects that come
with alcohol consumption.
How would you feel about a substance that doesn’t get metabolized in the brain, so
you get none of these and you only have to worry about 8 of these 12 problems from frequent
consumption?
...Still not OK that, I’m guessing.
Well we already have a substance like this that is consumed on a daily basis.
Like alcohol, it’s not necessary for any biochemical reaction in the body, you don’t
need it to survive.
It’s not metabolized in the brain so it doesn’t get you drunk, but like alcohol
and other toxins, it’s processed primarily in the liver.
And frequent consumption of it leads to all sorts of health problems.
This substance is fructose.
Table sugar, sucrose, is made up of one molecule of glucose and one molecule of fructose.
Fructose is in honey, it’s in fruit juice, it’s in high fructose corn syrup - it’s
what makes the really sweet stuff sweet.
"Okay, now you wouldn't think twice about not giving your kid a budweiser.
But you don't think twice about giving your kid a can of coke.
But they're the same."
This is Robert Lustig, he is one of the biggest factor in bringing the detrimental effects
of sugar to light.
At first, he can sound a bit over the top when talking about sugar- "Sugar is a poison,
it is a chronic, dose dependent hepato- liver toxin."
However, he can back all his statements up with more than 16 years of medical research,
academic discourse, policy analysis, data analysis, a whole lot of patient care and
maybe most important: the biochemistry of how sugar is processed in the body.
There's all sorts of compelling statistics we could talk about, but the actual mechanisms
that cause sugar to have such bad effects on the body paint a much clearer picture.
Once you understand how it is processed in the body, it leaves very little debate as
to whether or not sugar could be considered a toxin, and you start to see how a lot of
modern health issues are caused by sugar.
Let’s look at how sugar is metabolised,But first we’ll look at glucose or “starch”
to see how a non-toxic carbohydrate is metabolized.
By the way, it’s not necessary to remember all these specific terms that come up.
Just pay attention to how glucose flows through the cell so we can see how it’s different
from alcohol and sugar.
So here is what’s happening in your liver when you eat something like a slice of white
bread.
First off, only 20% of the glucose you ate will actually hit the liver because the other
80% is metabolised by all the other cells in your body.
Before glucose can get into the liver cell, it needs to stimulate the pancreas to make
insulin.
The insulin will stimulate this insulin receptor IRS-1, which causes a series of reactions
to then stimulate SREBP1 and activate this enzyme called glucokinase.
Glucokinase takes glucose to Glucose 6-Phosphate which mostly gets stored in the liver as Glycogen.
Glycogen is a good thing because it acts as a reserve tank of energy that your body can
access when necessary.
This is why runners will “carb load” before a race- to completely fill up their glycogen
stores and have more energy during the race than what is just sitting in their gut.
What doesn’t go to glycogen gets metabolized down to pyruvate.
Pyruvate enters the mitochondria, Mitochondria is like the coal furnace of your cell because
it converts the Pyruvate to Acetyl-CoA then burns that in the TCA cycle to produce a bunch
of energy in the form of ATP.
Not all of this is gonna get burned off so a little bit may be left over as citrate.
The SREBP1 from before activates these three enzymes start a process called de novo lipogenesis.
De novo “new” lipo “fat” genesis “making”.
So the cell is taking this leftover citrate and converting it into fat.
The liver really doesn’t want the fat sitting around inside it, so it gets converted down
to something called VLDL which is stored in your fat tissue.
Not only can this make you fat, but VLDL is actually a big contributor to heart disease.
While this might sound bad, it’s actually not that big of a deal because remember: only
20% of the glucose made it to the liver, then half of that went to glycogen, then alot of
that is burned off for energy, so maybe 1/50th of what you ate will actually turn into VLDL.
So could a farmer whose eating rice and vegetables at every meal die of a heart attack?
Maybe.
But it’s gonna happen when they're about age 90, so that’s not too bad.
So now let’s look at ethanol, which is “drinking alcohol” to see what makes it so different
from glucose.
Here’s what happens in the liver when you have an alcoholic drink.
As you can guess, ethanol is not necessary for any biological process, so a majority
of is processed like a toxin in the liver.
10% will get processed in the stomach and intestines and another 10% gets processed
by the kidneys, muscle and the brain.
This is the first big difference between glucose and ethanol, the liver has to work 4 times
as hard because it processes 80% of the ethanol that comes in.
Ethanol doesn’t need insulin to get into the cell, it just diffuses in there and is
converted to acetaldehyde.
Acetaldehyde generates something called reactive oxygen species.
Reactive oxygen species damage proteins in the body, can cause cancer and are thought
to be the key factor in aging.
This is how anti oxidants are supposed to combat aging, because they deal with these
ROS’s.
The acetaldehyde then gets converted to acetate and goes into the mitochondria like last time.
With glucose, only 20% of the substrate went to the liver and then maybe half of that went
to the liver mitochondria because the rest went to glycogen.
So what alcohol is doing is overloading your mitochondria.
So A bunch of acetate comes in, goes through the TCA cycle and you’re left with a ton
of citrate.
The same three enzymes start “new fat making” are stimulated and you end up with a lot of
bad fat.
This will go to your fat stores, primarily your visceral fat.
This is the stuff that causes a lot of health issues and surrounds your organs, giving you
a big gut.
This is why people get “beer bellies” because that’s the area that gets filled
with the fat produced by alcohol.
So the liver has all this fat being produced that it doesn’t want sitting around inside
it so it will also export some of the fat out in the form of free fatty acids.
These can get into the muscle, causing muscle insulin resistance which is very problematic.
Some of it won’t even be able to get out, so you have a fat droplet sitting around in
the liver and now you have your alcoholic fatty liver disease.
So the excess of Acyl-CoA, the ethanol and the ROS species activate an enzyme called
JNK1 which is the bridge between metabolism and inflammation.
This ends up further damaging the liver and it promotes insulin resistance within the
liver by inactivating IRS-1, that insulin receptor from before.
This means your pancreas has to work a lot harder and pump more insulin out to do its
job.
Now let’s look at sugar.
Sugar is made up of equal parts glucose and fructose.
Fructose is what causes the problems so let’s see how it’s metabolized very similarly
to ethanol.
Here’s what’s going on in the liver when you have a glass of something sweet like orange
juice.
So first off - like Ethanol, Fructose is not necessary to the body so it’s treated like
a foreign substance and almost 100% of it is processed in the liver.
It comes in, gets metabolized down to pyruvate and enters the mitochondria.
Now we have the same situation where everything goes straight to the liver, does not get stored
in glycogen and overloads your liver cell’s mitochondria.
The pyruvate goes through TCA cycle, produces a bunch of citrate and that gets converted
down to VLDL.
This leads to increased risk of heart disease and visceral fat accumulation.
Now you’ve got a “soda belly”.
Like before, it exits the cell as free fatty acids leading to muscle insulin resistance.
Not all of the fat can get out of the cell so fat accumulates in the liver and you get
non alcoholic fatty liver disease.
The same JNK1 gets stimulated which promotes inflammation and JNK1 acts on the same IRS-1
insulin receptor causing insulin resistance in the liver.
All of this is actually illustrated really well in the movie “That Sugar Film.”
Damon Gameau goes on a diet with plenty of low fat and so called “healthy” foods
like yogurt, whole grain cereals, fruit juice and fruit smoothies.
The aim is to eat foods marketed as “healthy” while reaching the average sugar intake of
a typical Australian which is about 40 teaspoons.
His results demonstrate all of these biochemical processes we just talked about.
He gained 8.5kg and an extra 7% total body fat mainly in the form of visceral fat, his
heart disease risk went up, he’s developed insulin resistance and after only 18 days
he developed non alcoholic fatty liver disease.
What I thought was interesting was that he didn’t change the amount of calories he
was consuming yet he packed on such a significant amount of fat.
Actually there’s another element to fructose metabolism that makes it generate so much
fat.
Fructose forms something called Xylulose 5-Phosphate, and this further stimulates the de novo lipogenesis
enzymes, leading to even more fat making.
That explains the obesity epidemic.
Also, when it’s getting converted to Fructose 1-Phosphate it produces Uric Acid.
Uric Acid raises your blood pressure and now you get hypertension too.
Oh and Coca Cola still wants to pretend that obesity is all about calories and a calorie
is just a calorie no matter where it comes from.
One thing I should mention is that fiber helps prevent the sugar in fruit from becoming a
problem.
Fiber reduces the rate of intestinal absorption meaning your liver can easily handle the steady
stream of sugar from a piece of fruit.
The fiber will also fill you up.
So 4 apples might be actually a lot of food to take in in one sitting, but you can get
4 whole apple’s worth of sugar delivered to your liver in a few seconds from one glass
of apple juice.
One night of tequila shots isn’t going to cause your liver to explode, but having a
shot of whiskey with every meal and for a snack would do some serious damage.
By the same token, having a big piece of cake with ice cream at a birthday party isn’t
that big of a deal, but most of us are loading up on sugar all throughout the day without
noticing it.
We’ll have a breakfast of cereal and juice, then a starbucks pseudo-milkshake thing on
the way to work, have a sandwich with low fat yogurt for lunch, a granola bar for a
snack, then some pasta with a salad for dinner.
But we’re not realizing that that the yogurt has as much sugar as candy, the granola bar
has as much sugar as a package of oreos, and even your pasta sauce and salad dressing has
sugar pumped into it.
80% of the 600,000 packaged food items on the market have added sugar in them.
By the way, they’re not gonna have any of that protective fiber you find in whole fruits
or vegetables.
The fiber has been removed to improve shelf life of the products.
The average American child sees 30,000 TV commercials a year advertising fast food or
candy.
While something like kid beer sounds joke-ish-ly evil, maybe it’s not all that different
from these fun, colorful sugar packed items kids have access to wherever they go.
"Alright, I'm hanging up."
"You know what's the most destructive force in the universe?"
"Sugar?"
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