When is a safe time for sugar?
There has been a significant increase in metabolic diseases over the past 30 years, with incidence rates now reaching global pandemic levels. During this time, consumption of fructose has also increased, which is alarming because fructose has the ability to promote chronic metabolic disease. Fructose comprises half of the molecules in sucrose (table sugar) and 55 percent of the molecules in high fructose corn syrup—the synthetic equivalent to sucrose. Currently, per capita consumption of fructose in America is 75 grams per day, whereas a century ago, Americans consumed an average of only 15 grams per day. However, is fructose consumption always bad for all people?
According to noted researcher Robert Lustig, it appears that “the only safe time for fructose consumption is in a lean, healthy individual in a glycogen-depleted state.”1 However, in a glycogen replete state when a person has been fed, fructose leads to fat gain, cholesterol and blood lipid problems, fatty liver and insulin resistance (a risk factor for many diseases, including type II diabetes, heart disease, dementia and, likely, cancer), and drives excess food consumption.
The take-home message is that if athletes desire to eat sugar, which many of them do, they must “earn” the right through strenuous, glycogen-reducing exercise and the maintenance of a lean physique to avoid potential metabolic diseases as a result of their fructose consumption. Moreover, with MuscleSound technology, athletes can have their muscles scanned before they are allowed to consume sugar to ensure their muscle glycogen levels are reduced. Otherwise, athletes who consume sugar without verifying that their muscle glycogen levels are depleted are at risk of harming their long-term metabolic health as well as their performance capabilities.
The “down & gritty” on sugar:
- Both sucrose and high fructose corn syrup consist of two molecules: glucose and fructose.
- Glucose generates an insulin response, but fructose does not.
- Fructose has a high propensity to increase body fat when consumed in a glycogen-replete state.
- Athletes who consume fructose and glucose together when in a glycogen-replete state are at risk of developing long-term metabolic diseases and can harm their performance capabilities.
- Athletes who wish to eat sugar must “earn” the right through glycogen-reducing exercise.
- MuscleSound technology can verify an athlete’s current state of glycogen depletion to verify when it’s safe to consume sugar.