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I stumbled upon the following claim in the article "Fructose: the poison index" in the Guardian, written by Dr Robert Lustig.

Fructose causes seven times as much cell damage as does glucose, because it binds to cellular proteins seven times faster; and it releases 100 times the number of oxygen radicals (such as hydrogen peroxide, which kills everything in sight).

Is there any solid scientific support for this statement? Does fructose lead to cell damage by reactive oxygen species, and is this damage much higher than for glucose?

Mad Scientist
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    It is based on an article published in Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v502/n7470/full/502181a.html But, as commented, it does not address ROS effect of fructose and it is also just a News&Views, not an actual scientific paper. It seems that this fructose vs. sucrose issue is still at debate. See also: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22617566 – e.tadeu Oct 22 '13 at 20:32
  • *hydrogen peroxide, which kills everything in sight* well... that is a bit of an hyperbole isn't it? – nico Oct 22 '13 at 20:47
  • @nico: Not on the cellular level, it's not. Hydrogen peroxide makes a great decontaminant because it's *really, really good at killing living cells.* – Mason Wheeler Oct 23 '13 at 22:05
  • @Mason Wheeler: and cells have superoxide dismutases... H2O2 is normally present at the cellular level. Excessive levels are cytotoxic, but if it stays between normal range of concentration it is not an issue – nico Oct 24 '13 at 06:38

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