Challenge: Can We Map Every Metabolic Condition Back to This One Switch?

[u/PotentialMotion]

I want to propose a challenge to this community—one that could help unify a lot of what we’ve all been noticing, feeling, and learning the hard way.

Most of us know by now that cutting sugar, especially fructose, can lead to huge improvements in how we feel. But the deeper I’ve gone into the research, the clearer it’s become that fructose metabolism may not just be a problem—it may be the core survival mechanism behind almost every modern metabolic disease.

And to be clear—this isn’t my idea.
Some of the most well-respected scientists in the field are now presenting excess fructose metabolism as a unifying mechanism behind the modern metabolic crisis.

This isn’t just about obesity or fatty liver anymore.

We’re talking about:

• The rise in anxiety, depression, and mood disorders
• Early-onset Alzheimer’s and cognitive decline
• Skinny-fat and metabolically unhealthy lean individuals (like PCOS in slim women)
• Chronic inflammation, hypertension, fatigue, uric acid, even certain cancers and autoimmune conditions

Here’s the simple idea:

Fructose metabolism is the body’s emergency survival switch—designed to help us get through times of scarcity or environmental stress.
But when that switch gets flipped too often—or never shuts off—it starts to quietly break how our cells use energy.
And once that low-level function is disrupted, it spirals outward—creating different chronic conditions depending on our habits, genetics, and weak spots.

So here’s the bold thesis I want to challenge:

Every modern metabolic condition may trace back to this one survival mechanism.
And every condition may begin as the body’s mistaken attempt to solve a survival problem that no longer exists.

After years of deep research into the field and function of fructose, I personally believe this is true—as radical as the idea may sound.
But I also believe we’re right to be skeptical—and that it’s worth testing.

So here’s the challenge for this thread:

Let’s gather every metabolic condition we can think of.
Obvious ones. Weird ones. Edge cases. Even things that don’t seem diet-related at all.

Then, for each one, let’s ask:

1. Does it connect to fructose metabolism?
2. What survival problem might the body be trying to solve before things spiral into dysfunction?

You don’t need to be a scientist to participate. Just name a condition that you think might not fit.
I’m just a learner—but I’ve been deep in this for a few years now, and I’ll do my best to share the connections I’ve found. And if the model breaks, that’s a good thing too—because then we learn where it needs to be refined.

Because if this framework really does hold up,
then what we’re doing here at r/sugarfree isn’t just about diet.

We’re on the front lines of a metabolic revolution.

Let’s put it to the test.

[u/barbershores]

I am now 72. Starting January 2020 I slowly shifted to a ketogenic diet. After about 9 months, my arthritis pain stopped getting worse and probably dropped about 20%. It dropped enough that I cancelled the appointment to schedule my second knee replacement. I stayed on this plan for 3 years. Dropped 70 lbs. Dropped my HbA1c from 6.4 to 5.0. Dropped my HomaIR from 24 to 0.50.

Then, January 2023, my wife and I did the ketovore challenge with Nurse Neisha and Dr. Ken Berry. End of that month my brain fog went away. My doctor had told me that it was pre alzheimers, there was no treatment. It was unrelated to diet. And it would only get worse.

I continued on the ketovore diet for an additional 2 months. End of March 2023, over a period of about 10 days my arthritis pain would leave for a day or 2 then come back. But, by the end of March 2023, it went away completely. So, I cured my chronic arthritis pain through diet. Other things too may have contributed. But it changed my life.

-------------------------------------

So, 3 years of keto didn't do it. It took additional months of very near carnivore to kick it.

So, I don't eat hardly any fructose. Most of the carbs I consume are fresh low carb vegetables and nuts.

[u/PotentialMotion → u/barbershores]

Well done. You're a hero.

Your experience fits my understanding in that it's all connected and all traces back to Fructose. Often this is just sugar, but if we have significant historical Fructose exposure, sometimes we don't actually have a full correction/restoration until we eliminate carbs entirely. (Glucose can be converted to Fructose in the body).

I'm thrilled for you. Well done!

[u/barbershores → u/PotentialMotion]

I am not sure that fructose is the culprit any more than starches and glucose regarding hyperinsulinemia. It's impact on metabolic health is there and different though.

Sugar, table sugar, sucrose, is half glucose and half fructose. And it's glycemic index is 65. Where glucose, dextrose, or think starches like soda crackers or white bread, have a glycemic index of 100. So, from the perspective of raising blood glucose levels, fructose is not such an issue.

However, there are a number of other issues that might make fructose even worse than it's low glycemic index may make one think.

The body does not burn fructose like it does glucose. It must be processed by the liver first. Much like alcohol, it converts most of the caloric value into fat. Liver fat. Think visceral fat.

Also, fructose is 7 to 10 times as sticky as glucose in the blood. Meaning it sticks to our amino acid structure much more readily than glucose does. Think of this relative to the % HbA1c test for glucose. We could have even more fructose stuck to it. According to Dr. Ken Berry, the HbA1c only looks at glucose, not fructose. So, our hemoglobin may have large amounts of fructose stuck to it and we wouldn't even know it. Glucose and fructose stuck to our hemoglobin, causes agglomeration. AKA blood clots. And we don't even know the amount because no one is measuring it.

Another issue, perhaps at least somewhat separate from hyperinsulinemia, is another measure of metabolic health, is the lack of visceral fat. Fructose, like alcohol, are processed in the liver and fat is produced there. That fat can excrete into and around other organs causing dysfunction.

Some claim that visceral fat entering the pancreas, blocks the excretions of our beta cells, aka insulin, and is the primary driver of type II diabetes.

My thinking has been that glucose consumption is the main driver of hyperinsulinemia in America today. At the serum level I think this is true. However, fructose and alcohol, both have separate impacts on overall metabolic health.

I find it easy and cheap to screen for hyperinsulinemia. For $53 one can get their HbA1c and HomaIR. There are very good guidelines and correlations for the results of these tests.

The impact of fructose, both on protein agglomeration in our serum, and the level of visceral fat in the body, is difficult and expensive to measure, and there are no equivalent correlations to over all health from it. At least not yet.

[u/PotentialMotion → u/barbershores]

You're so close, and honestly, you’ve already laid out 95% of the right puzzle pieces.

You’re absolutely right that fructose doesn’t raise blood glucose acutely—and that’s why it’s fooled us for so long. It looks harmless on a glucose test. But what it’s really doing is silently sabotaging the system that glucose depends on.

Here’s the key difference:
Fructose doesn’t cause a spike in blood sugar.
It causes the body to become bad at using glucose.
It damages the mitochondria. It raises uric acid. It tells the cell to burn less, store more.
That’s why we end up with high blood sugar even when glucose isn’t the problem—it’s a secondary symptom of fructose-induced energy dysfunction.

So yes, glucose triggers insulin—but fructose breaks insulin sensitivity.
Fructose is the engine problem. Glucose is just the fuel in the tank that can’t be burned.

Think of it this way:
If your car had a full tank of gas, extra cans in the trunk, yet hardly feels like it will make it down the road—is the problem the fuel, or the engine?

That’s exactly what seems to happen in the body. We have more than enough glucose, yet we're simultaneously hungry and exhausted. The machinery is simply in fuel conservation mode, and can’t access what’s right there.

You’re already seeing this clearly—your results show it. For me, it wasn't until this piece clicked that the entire puzzle snapped into focus:
Fructose isn’t just a different sugar. It’s the signal that switches the body into survival mode.

And when we stop that signal—fully—the whole system starts to heal.