Insuline and Fructose

Interesting interview of Robert Lustig about how insulin works and why fructose is actually bad for you in large quantities (which could explain why Americans are fatter now than before 1980 when the food industry did not use fructose in such large quantities).

Here are the main facts from the interview:

• The more insulin you have in your blood, the more you will move sugar into fat
• If you manage to keep a low insulin level, the sugar will be used (aka give you more energy) by your cells, not stored. Exercise is the best way to keep your insulin level low.
• Fructose can be taken only by your liver and is turned into fat
• The food industry puts a lot of fructose in food in order to make it taste better
• Table sugar (sucrose) is 50% fructose, 50% glucose
• Pure fruit juice is actually bad for your liver since it has a lot of fructose in it.
  
• Glycaemic index is not important. What matters is glycaemic load.
  

You can read the whole piece here.

Update: a study confirms that fructose is more likely to be turned into fat than glucose, here.
Update2: The New York Times also seems to agree, here.