A Couple of More Things I Want to Mention
Regarding other downsides to fructose ingestion (whether in soft drinks or fruit juice)
Reading the clinical and lab observations with regard to the health effects of fructose, one of the odder, more unexpected findings I encountered was the fact that unabsorbed fructose interferes strongly with zinc absorption. Ledochowski, Widner, Murr, and Fuchs (2001) report that fructose malabsorbers have serum zinc values significantly below those without this problem. Those so afflicted are afflicted to the point that they are actually zinc deficient:
“In summary, fructose malabsorption is associated with lower serum zinc concentrations; in this study, 10 of 147 subjects (6.8%) had zinc deficiency, and all 10 suffered from fructose malabsorption. Although this is probably not attributable to a shortened transit time of a defective DMT-1-transporter, the exact mechanism still remains to be elucidated. Fructose malabsorption may thus reflect only part of a more complex malabsorption syndrome. Because fructose malabsorption can be seen in approximately one-third of the Western European population, fructose malabsorption could be a major etiology of low zinc status.”
Harder et al., 2020, more recently show that the zinc-reducing effect of ingested fructose is not limited to fructose malabsorbers, and takes place quite quickly — within two weeks.
Good zinc status, of course, is important for establishing and maintaining innate immunity against respiratory viruses like COVID19 – but it also is critically important in establishing and maintaining both the male and female sides of fertility. Human sperm counts have, in fact, declined about 50% since the 1970s introduction of high fructose corn syrup into the Western diet. See below.
The data suggest, then, that not only can you make yourself and yours depressed, anxious, angry, unreasoning, demented, and/or indiscriminately aggressive, by blithely feeding your sweet tooth through the ready means provided by members of the Corn Refiners Association -- but you can also increase personal/family susceptibility to diseases like COVID19 while materially reducing your probability of having children.