No Fructose Diet – Week 1 Verdict

What have I done so far?

·        1 week, no fruit (at all!) including no fruit drinks, nothing fruit flavoured, I checked everything I ate for fructose content.

·        I replaced fruit with rice cakes, small quantities of nuts, or ham or something similar.

·        I drank water instead of fruit drinks.

·        I have used no sports drinks or anything of that nature.

·        I have still followed the 3-2-1- rules with regards to meal balance (see the rules for that here http://melanieryding.blogspot.com/2010/12/what-is-3-2-1-diet.html

·        I still drink black coffee.

How was it eating like this?

I found this exceptionally hard. Harder than I thought. I really miss and crave sweet things. I found myself rationalising the fact that I could eat biscuits, for example, because they had no fructose! In cafes, where I would normally choose a banana or an apple for example, I would be very tempted to choose a less healthy option because I craved the sweet taste. Savoury snacks just simply don’t cut it in my opinion!! If I was to stay on a no fruit diet long term, I know that the detrimental effects of eating more cr@p because I am avoiding fruit sugar would be something that would need real consideration.

At times, I also found that exercise was harder. I was trying to rationalise this by telling myself that it was all in my head. I drank water instead of the usual energy drink, used red bull (which I hated, because its fizzy!) but found myself more fatigued, and more muscle aches when usually I wouldn’t have this problem.

The results after 7 days?

Weight difference: -2.5lbs

BMI difference: -0.1

Body fat % difference: no change

Water content difference: no change

What does this mean?

Hubby’s first reaction was that maybe because the conversion happens in my liver, the liver is skinnier, but that is all! Who knows!

Personally, I think big changes would be seen more in people who previously had a high fructose diet, (e.g. corn syrup, etc) or an unbalanced diet that contained TONS of fruit. There is clearly research to support this, but the research I have read tends to be on people with a much higher body fat % in the first place.

Further research:

After someone sending me some more research that was another challenge to this theory, I wondered why is fructose was so bad, did energy drinks contain it.

This article is an interesting read, and says that fat is a poor fuel that makes you go slower, but also talks about fat burning and weigh management, embracing the train before breakfast idea that I already do http://www.lakeland100.com/downloads/article3.pdf. He says that training in this way will not yield results but is a weight management tool.

This one, however, talks about fuel for performance, and suggests that despite fruit sugar being bad, a glucose/fructose combination is actually good for you with regards to sports performance: http://www.lakeland100.com/downloads/article4.pdf

Here’s more on this topic:

‘Jeukendrup and his colleagues believe that the glucose-fructose combination works better than glucose alone because having multiple carbohydrate sources allows more carbohydrate to be absorbed from the digestive tract. Research indicates that glucose and fructose have their own separate transport systems in the digestive tract. These transporters help carry ingested glucose and fructose from the digestive tract into cells. However, the glucose transporter can only carry glucose, and once it’s filled, it can’t carry any more. But the revelation is that fructose has its own separate transportation system. So even though the glucose transporter is filled to capacity, the fructose transporter can deliver even more fuel to working muscles. Thus, by providing both glucose and fructose, and taking advantage of both transportation systems, you too can deliver more fuel to your muscles and extend endurance even further.’ http://www.powerbar.com/articles/18/latest-research-on-carbohydrate-recommendations-during-exercise.aspx

My conclusion so far: Fructose may scientifically be proven to contribute to body fat, but it also contributes in part to sports performance, so where you gain in one area, you might lose in the other.

So far, avoiding fruit has in fact made NO DIFFERENCE at all to my body fat %.

What now?

I will try and persevere for another week, this time, including fructose during training, but not as a snack at other times.