It's long, (and found courtesy of Avedon) but very important to mark some time to watch this UCSF clip (from an actual doctor, Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology) about why fructose is as chronically toxic as ethanol, causing the same uric acid buildup, hypertension, liver damage, insulin resistant (hence, diabetes), obesity and bad cholesterol formation. Fructose is only safe to eat when it comes in a piece of fruit.
As Avedon says, the same is true of all artificial sweeteners that bypass regular carbohydrate digestion and have to be primarily metabolized by your liver. Your body has perfectly good ways of telling when you've had enough to eat of things that break down in your digestive tract. If you short-circuit the process, you will inevitably and with certainty make yourself sick, because your brain will still believe it's starving. That's why they, like fructose, make you want to eat more than you need.
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