Alkalizing Fruit and Vegetables: and the untold Truth About fruit and Fruit Juice

Along with this article on the alkalizing effect of fruit and vegetables, I also received another one in the 'Australian' two weeks ago.

The first article confirms what we have known for quite some time; that reversing the 80/20 rule from acid (80) and alkaline (20) we are far better off healthwise to eat 80% alkaline-producing foods and beverages.

The second print article exposes the role of fructose in obesity. The headline is 'Sweet and Deadly For the Waistline' and it's written by David Gillespie, author of Sweet Poison: Why Sugar Makes Us Fat.

David's own research began when as a corporate lawyer he found himself 40kg overweight. He agrees that we are 'ill-equipped to deal with the relatively large amounts of sugar we ingest as a matter of course as part of our SAD (Sad/Standard Australian/American Diet)

Nothing new so far, but David continues, describing research that shows we have one primary appetite control centre in our brain called the hypothalamus, which reacts to four major appetite hormones.

Three of these hormones tell us when we have stuffed ourselves. One of those three also temporarily inhibits the effect of the other three, and also makes 'menu suggestions' given our state of satiety.

Now remember what we were talking about at the beginning? Fruit and vegetables. But here's the problem. Fructose, found in almost all fruit, cannot stimulate the release of these 'satiety' hormones. What does that mean? It means that you can eat heaps of fruit, thinking you are a good little healthy diner, and you won't be told 'ENOUGH!' by these hormones. Further, the fructose - all of it - will be converted directly to FAT.

Summarizing, fructose is a one way street to Fat City.

Given that we now eat (on average) 38kg of sugar in some form per year, (19kg of fructose), it's no surpise that we are now seeing amazing increases in once-rare diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardio vascular ailments.

What to do?

Well, it ain't easy, because food manufacturers are very adept at creating labels like' 'Low Sugar' or 'Sugar free'. What they neglect to inform us about is the fructose content. Sugar? Noooo.. It's fructose, not sugar!

If you drink one glass of apple juice, you have probably ingest fructose equal to six apples. Drink that one glass per day and you'll add 2.5kg to your avoirdupois.

My solutuion is simple. Less fruit, more vegetables. Green vegetables. Green, ALKALIZING vegetables.