SAMA HOOLE: Fructose metabolism: Goes straight to the liver: Unlike glucose (which every cell can use), fructose is processed almost entirely by the liver.

"Did you know fructose bypasses insulin?! This means fruit sugar is superior!" Yes. Fructose bypasses insulin and goes straight to your liver. Where it's converted to fat through de novo lipogenesis. This isn't a feature. This is how you get fatty liver disease. Glucose at least gets used by muscles immediately. Fructose goes to your liver, gets turned into triglycerides, and stored.

You've just discovered the mechanism by which chronic fructose consumption causes metabolic syndrome. --Sama Hoole

"But fruit is natural! Humans evolved eating it!"

Barely. And the fruit we evolved with was nothing like modern fruit.

Wild berries: Small, sparse, seasonal, mostly seed with minimal flesh. Maybe 6g fructose per 100g if you're lucky. Available 2-3 months per year.

Modern… pic.twitter.com/I8xhMBbQsQ

— Sama Hoole (@SamaHoole) December 4, 2025

"But fruit is natural! Humans evolved eating it!" Barely. And the fruit we evolved with was nothing like modern fruit. Wild berries: Small, sparse, seasonal, mostly seed with minimal flesh. Maybe 6g fructose per 100g if you're lucky. Available 2-3 months per year. Modern fruit: Year-round, bred for sweetness, minimal seeds, 15-20g fructose per 100g. An apple is a weapon of mass metabolic destruction compared to what our ancestors found. Fructose metabolism: Goes straight to the liver: Unlike glucose (which every cell can use), fructose is processed almost entirely by the liver. Converts to fat: The liver turns excess fructose into triglycerides. This creates fatty liver, insulin resistance, and metabolic syndrome. Doesn't trigger satiety: Glucose signals fullness. Fructose doesn't. This is why you can eat fruit until you're sick and still want more. Feeds de novo lipogenesis: Your body literally makes new fat from fructose. This is the mechanism behind "how do gorillas get fat eating plants?" They eat massive amounts of fructose. You don't want to be a gorilla. "But honey is ancestral!" Yes. And our ancestors raided bee hives maybe twice a year and got stung to shit in the process. They weren't buying jars at Tesco and having it daily. The dose makes the poison. A small amount of honey occasionally? Probably fine. Daily fruit smoothies because "it's natural"? You're giving yourself metabolic syndrome with extra vitamins. Fructose is fructose. Whether it's in an apple, a Coke, or honey. Your liver processes it the same way. The "but it's natural!" argument is meaningless. Arsenic is natural. Doesn't mean you should eat it. If you want optimal metabolic health, fruit is unnecessary at best and problematic at worst. You don't need it. You're just addicted to sugar and using "but vitamins!" as justification.

SAMA HOOLE: Diabetes treatment became: Eat carbs → inject insulin → blood sugar spike → inject more insulin.

Before dietary guidelines, the standard diabetes treatment was simple:

"Restrict carbohydrates. They raise your blood sugar."

This was obvious. Logical. Effective.

Diabetics who restricted carbs had stable blood sugar. Those who didn't, didn't.

Elliott Joslin, founder of…

— Sama Hoole (@SamaHoole) November 28, 2025

Before dietary guidelines, the standard diabetes treatment was simple: "Restrict carbohydrates. They raise your blood sugar." This was obvious. Logical. Effective. Diabetics who restricted carbs had stable blood sugar. Those who didn't, didn't. Elliott Joslin, founder of Joslin Diabetes Center: "The chief principle of treatment is limitation of carbohydrates." This was 1916. It remained standard through the 1960s. Then 1977 Dietary Guidelines: "Everyone should eat more carbs, less fat." Diabetics included. The American Diabetes Association updated their advice: "Diabetics can eat carbs! Just take insulin to cover it." Diabetes treatment became: Eat carbs → inject insulin → blood sugar spike → inject more insulin. Instead of: Don't eat carbs → stable blood sugar → minimal insulin needed. One addresses the cause. One treats the symptom forever. We chose symptom management. Created a multi-billion dollar insulin industry. Modern diabetics eat 200-300g carbs daily and inject insulin 4-6 times daily. Pre-1977 diabetics ate 20-50g carbs daily and used minimal insulin. One group had stable blood sugar and minimal complications. One group has unstable blood sugar and complications despite medication. Guess which approach we recommend today. The pre-1977 doctors were right. We abandoned their approach for profit.

Coffee Is Rich in Polyphenols But Spikes Insulin

Coffee is a stimulant whose breakdown products spike insulin. But coffee has a dark color and that means it is rich in polyphenols or anti-oxidants. Remember, any color in any that occurs naturally is rich in polyphenols. Blueberries, cherries, raspberries, all rich in polyphenols.  Unsweetened chocolate--rich in polyphenols.  Coffee is rich in polyphenols but its breakdown products do spike insulin.  So you need to make the call whether it is worth it.  I like it, so, yes, to me, it is worth it.

Decaffeinated coffee is soaked in methelyne chloride.  The same stuff is used to soak your laundry at the laundromat when they dry clean it.  This pulls out the caffeine.  Then they try to drive off all of the methelyne chloride and then add the flavors back.  What!  That doesn't make sense. This method may be the cheapest method to extract the caffeine.  There are more expensive, time-consuming methods that uses hot water to extract caffeine.  Caffeine is more water-soluble than the polyphenols are. 

He says that most people don't do well with coffee--caffeinated or de-caffeinated.  Hmm. 

He recommends teas, particularly green tea.  He cites the green color in green tea as possessing a lot of polyphenols.  But all teas have color. I haven't come across a single tea in my life that doesn't have color.  Unless you're talking about plain hot water; if so, that's not tea.  He explains that black tea (there's your colors) are fermented green teas. Didn't know that. He says that black teas, like Lipton teas and others, have only 1/10 the amount of polyphenols that green has.  Again, not heard that before. It's why green tea tastes more bitter than black tea.  Interesting.  So the bitterness of a food also indicates a higher concentration of polyphenols? Apparently so if you're comparing chocolates.

To knock out the bitter taste of green tea, he recommneds adding lemon or sugar.  He points out that tea has about half the caffeine as coffee. One cup of green tea will contain about 600 ORAC units. The higher the units, the greater concentration of polyphenols.  Dr. Mercola explains what polyphenols are and why they're important:  

Polyphenols are phytochemicals, meaning compounds found abundantly in natural plant food sources that have antioxidant properties. There are over 8,000 identified polyphenols found in foods such as tea, wine, chocolates, fruits, vegetables, and extra virgin olive oil, just to name a few.

Polyphenols play an important role in maintaining your health and wellness.  Antioxidants as a group help protect the cells in your body from free radical damage, thereby controlling the rate at which you age.

If your body does not get adequate protection, free radicals can become rampant, causing your cells to perform poorly. This can lead to tissue degradation and put you at risk of diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease, for example.

Healthwise, seems that coffee is best when fully caffeinated and enjoyed with a meal to minimize the spike in inuslin.  So enjoy a cup today.