ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the interactions of dietary fructose with mineral status and bioavailability, amino acid absorption, ethanol metabolism and explores possible mechanisms of action, and discusses the significance to health and well-being. Some signs of copper deficiency in experimental animals include anemia, hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, hyperuricemia, abnormal electrocardiograms, cardiac hypertrophy, fibrosis, and rupture, weakening of arteries, pleural effusion, and often sudden death. The measurements of serum copper concentration, ceruloplasmin activity, and superoxide dismutase activity can provide useful indices of copper status in humans. An iron-fructose complex has been isolated and purified, and elemental analysis indicates the complex contains two atoms of iron, two molecules of fructose, and one atom of sodium. The relevance of these findings to iron nutriture remains questionable, being dependent upon formation of an iron-fructose complex under normal dietary conditions. A relationship also appears to exist between increased incidence of colon and mammary cancer and low levels of environmental selenium.
