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Not all sugars have an equal effect on obesity 6-25-08
A new study suggests that consuming fructose containing sweeteners including
high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and sucrose in beverages or processed food may
increase the odds for a person to become obese.
The study showed obese and overweight people who had an intake of about 15
percent of calories from pure fructose for a period of as short as ten weeks
gained 1.5 kilograms in weight and had their intra-abdominal fat increased.
Intra-abdominal fat is the one that wraps around internal organs and causes a
pot belly and has been linked to an increased risk of diabetes and
cardiovascular disease.
In comparison, the same amount of weight gain was also observed in a group of
obese and overweight people who used glucose, but the increase in
intra-abdominal fat did not occur in the group.
Glucose is the basic compound found in complex carbohydrates like grain starch.
The study was conducted by Peter Havel at al at the University of California
Davis and the results were presented at a meeting of the Endocrine Society in
San Francisco last week.
Fructose in HFCS, which is widely used in soft drinks and heavily consumed by
Americans, has been long suspected to be a culprit for the ever-increasing
obesity epidemic in the United States.
Studies showed that people are not sensitive to fructose and even after
consuming tons of it they do not have a full feel to a point that they would
stop using it, a conceivable way for a person to become obese or overweight.
Fructose containing HFSC has been also found to cause an oxidative stress in the
body and reports being circulated around suggest that fructose and HFCS trigger
insulin resistance and diabetes.
The study was meant to examine the effect of pure fructose on the weight gain in
obese and overweight people. Two phrases of key words that should be remembered
are PURE fructose and obese and overweight people.
In the study, the researchers asked 33 overweight and obese adults to go on a
diet consisting of 30 percent fat, 55 percent complex carbohydrates and 15
percent protein for a period of two weeks.
Afterwards, they told participants to use a diet in which 25 percent of their
calories coming from either fructose or glucose for further 10 weeks.
People in both groups gained an average 1.5 kilograms in weight, the study
found. But the types of fat each group gained differed with only the fructose
group gaining the risky type of fat associated with heart disease.
Additionally, those who consumed fructose also had raised levels of fatty
triglycerides, which get deposited as intra-abdominal fat and cholesterol,
according to a statement by New Scientist. In this group, insulin sensitivity
fell by 20 percent.
None of these effects were seen in the group consuming glucose.
Because the study used pure fructose, it is not known if the results would apply
to HFCS or sucrose.
"The question is, what is the amount of HFCS or normal sugar you need to consume
to get these effects?" said Havel, who suggested that people with metabolite
syndrome avoid drinking too much of any fructose-containing beverages.
Metabolic syndrome is a blend of conditions including belly fat and insulin
resistance that are associated with diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
PepsiCo, which funded Havel's research, did not think the results of the study
are applicable to the company or the drinks the company manufactures.
"This is a very interesting and important study," said a spokeswoman. "But it
does not reflect a real-world situation nor is it applicable to PepsiCo since
pure fructose is not an ingredient in any of our food and beverage products."
However, evidence showed HFCS does have a negative effect to say the least.
In another study, Havel and colleagues compared the immediate effects of
consuming a meal with 25 percent of the energy from either one of HFCS, sucrose,
fructose and glucose.
They found that blood triglyceride levels were raised to a similar level 24
hours after consuming fructose, sucrose or HFCS, but not glucose, suggesting the
fructose and fructose containing products may have the same effect on obesity,
obesity and cardiovascular health.
The findings were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition vol 87
p 1194.
Nevertheless, long-term studies are needed to confirm whether the high levels of
triglycerides produced by HFCS and sucrose have the similar effects to fructose
on abdominal fat and insulin resistance.
"It adds to what we have known for a long time," said Francine Kaufman at the
Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles. "It's probably not a good idea to
consume too much sugar."