This newsletter keeps you up-to-date with new articles, columns, and Web pages that I have written. I list and link most of these on my Diabetes Directory at www.mendosa.com/diabetes.htm

From time to time Diabetes Update may also include links to other Web pages of special interest.

My most recent contributions are:

on January 4, 2002
• Hispanicsalud
  My current "About the Internet" column for the American Diabetes Association's Web site focuses on the prevalence of diabetes among Hispanics. I look at the only Web site that deals specifically with the issue of Hispanic health, particularly diabetes. The URL is
  http://www.diabetes.org/main/community/info_news/web/default.jsp

  on December 24, 2001

• Diabetes Resources
  In October Abbott Laboratories Inc. MediSense Products published my short list of recommended Web sites and books in the Welcome Edition of the PrecisionTM TakeCharge News, but only on Christmas Eve did they send me a copy. For books they asked me to pick one each for people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The decision for type 2 was easy: a great new book by Gretchen Becker (a subscriber to this newsletter), but for type 1 it was more difficult. See if you agree. The article is on-line at
  http://www.mendosa.com/diabetes_resources.htm.

Updates include:

• Fructose
  Sugar is in and fructose is out. The American Diabetes Association's new statement on "Evidence-Based Nutrition Principles and Recommendations for the Treatment and Prevention of Diabetes and Related Complications" actually represents a very small change in position. The most important change, it seems to me, is its recommendation that we avoid the use of fructose to sweeten our foods.

  Actually, sugar in moderate amounts has been acceptable for the past seven or eight years. In May 1994 the ADA stopped recommending that people with diabetes avoid sugar. Since then, the organization has focused on the total amount of carbohydrates in the diet, regardless of their source.

  The organization's new statement, which is in the January 2002 issue of Diabetes Care and available on-line at no charge at http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/full/25/1/202, for the first time, however, says that we should avoid fructose other than that which occurs naturally in fruit. This is in spite of the fact that fructose causes less of a rise in blood glucose than sugar. Specifically, its glycemic index is 32 (where white bread = 100), while table sugar (sucrose) has a GI of 92.

  Then, why avoid fructose? Because "fructose may adversely effect plasma lipids," the ADA says.

  This is a shift from the ADA's Position Statement on "Nutrition Recommendations and Principles for People With Diabetes Mellitus" issued a year ago and on-line at http://www.diabetes.org/clinicalrecommendations/Supplement101/S44.htm. At that time the organization said that moderate consumption of fructose-sweetened food was okay.

  While the new statement didn't cite sources for the effect of fructose on lipids, they are easily found. One person who has campaigned vigorously against fructose for years is Nancy Appleton, the author of Lick the Sugar Habit (Garden City Park, N.Y.: Avery Publishing Group, 1996). Ms. Appleton writes on page 90 of her book:

  Dr. J. Hallfrisch studied cholesterol and triglyceride levels and found that fructose, unfortunately, caused a general increase in both the total serum cholesterol level and the low-density lipoprotein fraction of cholesterol in most subjects. The triglyceride levels also rose significantly, especially in those persons whose blood sugar levels rise higher than normal when they eat sugar. It was concluded that high levels of dietary fructose can produce undesirable changes in blood lipid levels, which are associated with heart disease.

  The complete citation is J. Hallfrisch, S. Reiser, and E.S. Prather, "Blood lipid distribution of hyperinsulinemic men consuming three levels of fructose," American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 37, May 1983, pp. 740-748, abstract online at http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/37/5/740.

  Subsequent studies support these findings. John P. Bantle et al., "Effects of dietary fructose on plasma lipids in healthy subjects," American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Vol. 72, November 2000, pp. 1128-1134, on-line at http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/72/5/1128 found that a diet high in fructose produced high fasting, postprandial, and daylong plasma triglyceride levels among men, but strangely not among women.

  S. Reiser et al., "Blood lipids, lipoproteins, apoproteins, and uric acid in men fed diets containing fructose or high-amylose cornstarch," American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Vol. 49, May 1989, pp. 832-839 found "that in a diet high in saturated fatty acids and cholesterol, fructose increases the levels of risk factors associated with heart disease, especially in hyperinsulinemic men."

  Back in 1995, Jack Challem, a well-known medical journalist, wrote an excellent article about the dangers of fructose for The Nutrition Reporter. The article is online at
  http://www.nutritionreporter.com/fructose_dangers.html.

Boilerplate:

I send out Diabetes Update e-mail in HTML format, which all Web browsers and most modern e-mail programs can display. HTML has live links to all the sites named in the text so that with a simple click of a mouse you can connect to the site you have just been reading about.

This newsletter is free and will never include advertising. Nor will I ever sell, rent, or trade your e-mail address to anyone without your permission.

Archives:

I send out Diabetes Update about once every two weeks. Previous issues are online:

• Diabetes Update Number 1 of December 10, 2000

• Diabetes Update Number 2 of December 18, 2000

• Diabetes Update Number 3 of January 3, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 4 of January 17, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 5 of January 31, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 6 of February 15, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 7 of March 1, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 8 of March 15, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 9 of March 30, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 10 of April 2, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 11 of April 16, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 12 of May 2, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 13 of May 15, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 14 of May 31, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 15 of June 21, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 16 of July 2, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 17 of July 15, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 18 of August 2, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 19 of August 15, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 20 of August 30, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 21 of September 14, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 22 of October 1, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 23 of October 15, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 24 of October 31, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 25 of November 15, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 26 of December 1, 2001

• Diabetes Update Number 27 of December 14, 2001

This is a one-way "broadcast" mailing list that is not set up to accept replies. If you have any questions or wish to unsubscribe, simply write me at [email protected]. If your friends want to receive Diabetes Update, all they have to do is write me here.

Thanks for joining!

Never Miss An Update

Subscribe to my free newsletter “Diabetes Update”

I send out my newsletter on first of every month. It covers new articles and columns that I have written and important developments in diabetes generally that you may have missed.