Background: Intake of high excess free fructose (EFF) beverages, including high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), sweetened soft drinks, fruit drinks, and apple juice, may be associated with childhood asthma, adult idiopathic chronic bronchitis/ COPD, and autoimmune arthritis, possibly due to underlying fructose malabsorption. Fructose malabsorption may contribute to the intestinal in situ formation ...

SUGAR-SWEETENED SOFT DRINKS CONTRIBUTE 7.1% OF total energy intake and represent the largest single food source of calories in the US diet. Coincidentally or not, the rise of obesity and type 2 diabetes in the United States parallels the increase in sugarsweetened soft drink consumption. Several studies have found an association between sugar-sweetened beverages and incidence of obesity in chil...

Hypertension is a multifactorial disease in which both genetic and environmental factors play a role in the slope of changing BP with increasing age.1 Most health care providers and patients alike are aware of the relationship between increasing dietary salt and BP. There is also evidence this relationship may be modified by increasing dietary potassium consumption.2,3 Moreover, more recent dat...