COMMONWEALTH Healthcare Corp. cardiologist Dr. Peter W. Gregor on Tuesday shared with Rotarians information about the presence of fructose in today’s food and the danger it poses to one’s health.
A Rotarian himself, Gregor was the Rotary Club of Saipan’s guest speaker during its weekly luncheon meeting at the Hyatt Regency Saipan’s Giovanni’s Restaurant.
He began his presentation about food by passing out chocolate bars which, he said, “you are free to eat with caution.”
He also reminded everyone that the indigenous people of Saipan had a good diet for thousands of years, and “did not have diseases I’m about to show you.”
His presentation was about heart attacks and their risk factors which include Type 2 diabetes and obesity.
Gregor said the number one complication of obesity is Type 2 diabetes which may lead to cardiovascular disease.
He said smoking and high cholesterol levels are among the major risk factors for coronary disease.
And then there’s high-fructose corn syrup which, starting in 1984, was added to beverages and 90% of food that Americans eat, he said.
Fructose is not sugar: “it’s poison,” he added.
According to Gregor, sugar can be “metabolized and broken down by all the cells in the body, and for thousands of years the people of the islands ate fruit, vegetables, taro, and other staples because they had good sugar and no one got fat.”
He said when corn is turned into fructose, it can only be broken down by the liver. It also inhibits an enzyme called leptin which tells us when we’re already full.
When leptin is inhibited, Gregor said, “you get to eat more and more and more.”
As for the “safe sugars,” he said they are called “sucrose and glucose and are found in natural products such as fruit.”
The one made from corn or high fructose corn syrup is artificial sugar “which the food industry has inserted into over 500,000 food products,” he added.
Gregor said since fructose was invented in 1984, the American people have seen suffering from an obesity epidemic and now a diabetes epidemic directly related to fructose.
“Avoid food that has on the label the words, ‘fructose’ or ‘corn syrup.’ These include regular sodas and juices, canned drinks, almost all cereals, bread, baked goods, mayonnaise, salad dressings, ketchups, and pancake syrups that come from the U.S. mainland.”
Dr. Peter W. Gregor, a cardiologist of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., talks about the danger of fructose in the body during the Rotary Club of Saipan’s weekly luncheon meeting at the Hyatt Regency Saipan’s Giovanni’s Restaurant on Tuesday.
