Fructose - the common line in high blood pressure, insulin resistance, etc. etc. etc

[skyking1]

I will do so once I get off my supervised diet.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

We've started to monitor our uric levels. Both low and high out of range levels are linked to increased mortality - U-Shaped Association Between Serum Uric Acid Level and Risk of Mortality: A Cohort Study - PubMed (nih.gov).

Our levels were on the low side from eating plant based, so we started eating a bit more meat and fish.

 

[ivinsfan]

DW just made me an Impossible burger on a brioche bun. It was quite good, but I really don't know how much healthier it is versus a beef burger. Or maybe its less healthy, who knows? The ingredients do list coconut and sunflower oils, which probably drives the 14 grams of fat (8G saturated). Also 9G of carbs and 19G protein.

It's not actually healthier now healthy could be a meat burger with no bun. Impossible burger has 9 carbs?

 

[audreyh1]

I understand that people are avoiding starchy carbs, but what are you all doing with whole fruit? Limiting the amount of whole fruit to consume to lower your fructose intake?

I occasionally eat fruit. Mostly berries, occasionally some apple or pear.

Whole fruit has fiber which greatly slows the absorption of fructose.

Fruit juices and smoothies are the ones of concern, even with no sugar added, because you consume a much larger portion than you would eating whole fruit, and a lot of fiber has been removed or pulverized.

 

[jollystomper]

I understand that people are avoiding starchy carbs, but what are you all doing with whole fruit? Limiting the amount of whole fruit to consume to lower your fructose intake?

I always thought whole fruit was not an issue. There is not enough in it to cause you harm, and there is so much additional good stuff (e.g. fiber). It is tough to eat too much whole fruit, it fills you quickly. I avoid canned fruit (which might have added sugar) and stick to fresh or frozen.

 

[tmm99]

Thank you, Audrey and jolly. I do eat whole fruit (never a lot - 1/2 apple or a clementine kind of thing), but I do make smoothies at times as well (usually 1/2 banana, a handful of blueberries or strawberries with cuke and kale or cuke and spinach with a scoop of collagen) - Maybe I should shorten the blending duration so the fruit is pulpier.

Surprisingly, my BS doesn't seem to be affected much by those fruits (except for the bananas). Maybe my insulin is being affected though... Dunno.

 

[tulak]

I started listening to the podcast today and it's been great so far. I noticed that Peter Attia has a follow-up podcast with Rick Johnson: https://peterattiamd.com/category/nutritional-biochemistry/. This one is "How fructose drives metabolic disease."

I've always had elevated BP and struggle between either medicating myself or trying to solve it with diet/exercise. I'd like to avoid medications if possible and the latter has been hit and miss. Right now I'm going through various n=1 experiments to see if can make a measurable change in my BP.

As a side note, one issue I've always had is getting accurate readings. A recent example is the same make/model BP monitor consistently reported +15 difference in systolic BP when measured around the same time (I'd swap them out in random order, etc, and they always maintained that difference). Which one should I believe?

I'll solve this by checking against the BP monitor at the doctor's office and then track relative changes around this number. In general, I have an idea of what number to believe, but it is frustrating when you get devices that are inaccurate, especially by such a wide margin.

Then there's the issue of getting a good reading. I've had wide ranges in BP measurements taken 30 minutes apart. There are too many factors that can cause a temporary spike in BP that can be hard to eliminate.

One technological advance that I've been waiting for is an optical blood pressure monitor (also known as obpm or cuffless). This would allow for continuous blood pressure monitoring and eliminate the issues with existing cuff-based bp monitors. I spent some time this morning reading about those and found a Swiss company that has a device on the market: https://aktiia.com/uk/

It costs 210 Euro, but is only available in a few European countries. With a little hassle, I could get one. I am thinking about it, even though I've been hoping that Apple will add this to the Apple Watch. I'd like to avoid wearing another gadget around my wrist.

As for how the device works:

The Aktiia Blood Pressure Monitor is a wrist worn bracelet that analyzes pulse wave velocities and reflections to measure blood pressures. The device is initially calibrated once to readings from a traditional inflating-cuff blood pressure monitor, then optically measures blood pressures of the wearer at regular intervals. It could greatly improve the comfort and frequency of monitoring patients with high blood pressures.

That's from https://www.medgadget.com/2019/03/a...-pressure-monitor-is-accurate-for-months.html.

 

[mpeirce]

...even though I've been hoping that Apple will add this to the Apple Watch. I'd like to avoid wearing another gadget around my wrist.

The chatter is that next to be added will probably be body temperature, then blood pressure and blood sugar.

The later two would be very useful to many people, but are pretty hard to do with a watch. Still, folks expect all this eventually.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

DW just made me an Impossible burger on a brioche bun. It was quite good, but I really don't know how much healthier it is versus a beef burger. Or maybe its less healthy, who knows? The ingredients do list coconut and sunflower oils, which probably drives the 14 grams of fat (8G saturated). Also 9G of carbs and 19G protein.

I can't get on board with the "Impossible Meats"...it reminds me too much of Soylent Green. Yes, it looks/smells/flames up like COW but it's not cow at all. We are fortunate that we are able to source most of our meats locally and it isn't processed by the "big 3" meat producers.

 

[braumeister]

The chatter is that next to be added will probably be body temperature, then blood pressure and blood sugar.

The later two would be very useful to many people, but are pretty hard to do with a watch. Still, folks expect all this eventually.

Yes, there are lots of rumors that blood glucose monitoring may be in the next Apple Watch (version 8). It would be a real game changer if they manage to do that.

Since nobody really expected the EKG or blood oxygen readings to be available in a watch (they already are), I think the odds are good that we'll see that eventually.

 

[NomDeER]

DW just made me an Impossible burger on a brioche bun. It was quite good, but I really don't know how much healthier it is versus a beef burger. Or maybe its less healthy, who knows? The ingredients do list coconut and sunflower oils, which probably drives the 14 grams of fat (8G saturated). Also 9G of carbs and 19G protein.

I heard Dariush Mozaffarian (a cardiologist and dean of the Tufts nutrition school) say on a podcast that he suspects that the Impossible burger is not any healthier than beef. He was talking about the heme added to Impossible burgers, but I also have heard him say that he doesn't think that there is evidence to support coconut oil being a food that should be eaten frequently. He doesn't think that red meat is very healthy and he advocates not eating it more than once a week and only if it's unprocessed. But, he does not believe that saturated fat on the whole is terrible, though it's not a health food either. So, basically, he thinks that people should not eat a lot of beef but for reasons other than saturated fat.

He definitely would say skip the bun as he thinks that highly processed grains should almost never be eaten.

Impossible burgers are not things I'm interested in eating anyway, but I thought his take was interesting.

I love berries, though.

 

[Chuckanut]

I understand that people are avoiding starchy carbs, but what are you all doing with whole fruit? Limiting the amount of whole fruit to consume to lower your fructose intake?

Whole fruit contains fiber which is a good antidote to the naturally occurring sugar in the fruit. Some fruits like grapes and some tropical fruits have been bread to be especially sugary, but a few pieces of fruit a day don't bother me.

 

[REWahoo]

Some fruits like grapes and some tropical fruits have been bread to be especially sugary...

So that's where breadfruit came from!

The things you learn on this forum...

 

[reneeh63]

Perfect. Today I grilled me a burger with some good cheese on top. No bun, no fries, no ketchup, catsup, or mustard. And a beer.

...lotta carbs in that beer! 12-15 g anyway unless you're talking light beer.

 

[ERD50]

...lotta carbs in that beer! 12-15 g anyway unless you're talking light beer.

Or a Guinness. 10 grams of carbs vs 6 for Bud Light, but I'd rather have 7.2 oz of Guinness than any amount of Bud Light.

https://www.thedailymeal.com/healthy-eating/guinness-healthier-your-light-beer

-ERD50

 

[Vacation4us]

Post having Covid I went Keto. Less than 20kg of carbs a day. No fruit except lemon juice in small amounts. I had been on BP meds for over 8 years.

Kept getting dizzy on my walks. Took my BP 80/60. Contacted my MD no more BP meds for me. Routinely have BP under 120/70 now.

I am now a true believer that fructose ie sugar and carbs are a killer. Listened to tons of podcasts on insulin resistance, diabetes, and cancer. Giving up carbs is the cheapest cure out there it’s a shame more “experts” don’t push this info out.