Sugar, fructose and weight gain

Reporter: Helen Wellings
Broadcast Date: March 28, 2009

A mountain of research has convinced reformed 'foodaholic' David Gillespie that it is the fructose in sugar that is making us fat.

David Gillespie calls himself a recovering lawyer and reformed 'foodaholic.'

Six years ago - with 40 extra kilos on his waistline and getting more obese each year - he vowed to discover why he couldn't stop eating and constantly put on weight despite going on diets.

A mountain of scientific research convinced him it's not fat that makes us fat, but the fructose in sugar. Once in the bloodstream, it instantly converts into fat. Gillespie's book calls it 'Sweet Poison.'

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"When we eat fat protein and carbohydrates we feel full. There is no such control for fructose, you can eat as much sugar as you can get into your mouth and it will never fill you up," Gillespie said.

The more we sugar eat, the more we crave - not only sugar but other foods too.

"If you eat foods with sugar in them, you are going to get fat, but it is the much more insidious thing that is much more dangerous - it makes you immediately a candidate for Type 2 Diabetes, for heart disease and for a range of cancers that have been directly linked to sugar," Gillespie said.

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In the 19th Century, our diet included about 1 kilo of sugar a year - in fruit, when it was in season. Now, with supermarket shelves laden with sugared foods and drinks, we consume on average 50 kilograms a year of sugar.

Our calorie intake has increased 30% since the 1980s.

Fruit juice is a sugar shocker, full of fructose. A glass of apple juice equals 4 apples; orange juice, 4 oranges.

"It contains exactly the same amount of sugar as a soft drink, as coke - that's eleven teaspoons of sugar - eleven in apple juice. As soon as you finish the glass of apple juice you have in the morning, the first mouthful has already been converted into fat in your bloodstream," Gillespie said.

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David and his 6 children each have a couple of pieces of fruit a day and drink plain water, not juice.

"It is much better to have the whole fruit rather than the juice of the fruit. When you juice a fruit, you throw away the fibre and keep the sugar so you are keeping the worst aspect of the thing and throwing away the best."

Low fat foods are usually high in sugars and salt.

"Most BBQ sauces, 55% sugar; plain tomato sauce 21% sugar; tomato paste 11% sugar; chilli capsicum spread 12% sugar; mayonnaise 20 - 25% sugar; ice-teas, this container has 10 teaspoons of sugar alone; sesame poppy crackers for your cheese almost 10% sugar; and most jams 60 - 70% sugar," Gillespie said.

"A lot of people say you shouldn't eat Coco pops because they're full of sugar but they are about the same sugar as supposedly healthy cereals. And All Bran actually contains 13% sugar. Muesli? They have plenty of dried fruit in them which has fructose in it as well, so that will put on weight," Gillespie said.

Consumption of artificial sweeteners is soaring. David Gillespie used them to unhook him from sugar addiction, then stopped using them, as he wasn't convinced of the long-term effects.

The world's first low GI sugar, an Australian innovation, has just been launched. Called LoGiCane and manufactured by CSR, it's touted as a healthier alternative to normal table sugar.

"Low GI sugar is a naturally occurring table sugar that has been processed less, that has a lower GI of 50 compared with ordinary table sugar which has a GI of 65," Dr. Barclay, Chief Scientific Officer of the Glycemic Index Foundation said.

Low Glycemic Index foods are slowly converted to glucose in the body thereby, helping weight control.

Dr Alan Barclay says all sugars should be eaten in moderation, but low GI sugar "â€¦is a better sugar."

David says less processed or not, sugar is bad for us.

"It doesn't matter if it's plain white sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar or castor sugar, they are all exactly the same - all fructose."

So what's OK for sweetness?

"Have a really dark chocolate 70% - 80% cocoa has a lot less sugar. If you are going to eat cereal, have Weetbix, very low in sugar. Most alcohols are fine, It's the mixes put with the alcohol that are the problem. Beer is fine," Gillespie said.

David's simple message for losing weight and staying healthy?

"No diet .. avoid sugar," he said.

And David Gillespie says trying to reduce sugar dependency is similar to reducing or giving up smoking or drugs - extremely difficult to achieve and to stick to.