Consume sucrose, more “natural form of sugar,” it can be as bad for your health as consuming fructose-rich corn syrup, according to a U.university of CCalifornia, Davis, to study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
“This is the first study of dietary intervention that shows that the consumption of sweetened drinks of corn with sucrose and high fructose increase liver fat and decrease insulin sensitivity, “said Kimber Stanhope, a research biologist in nutrition at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.” People usually have a skewed perspective on aspartame and give a pass to sucrose, but this study suggests that consumers should be equally concerned about the two main sugars added to our food supply. ”
Participants (18–40 years) were assigned to matching beverage groups by sex, body mass index, fasting triglycerides, lipoproteins, and insulin concentrations. They drank three servings a day of a sucrose-sweetened drink, a fructose-rich wheat-sweetened drink, or an aspartame-sweetened drink for 16 days.
The double-blind study was unique in that all 187 subjects lived in a clinical unit for 3.5 days before drinking and during the last days of drinking. Therefore, their diet and activity levels were monitored prior to assessments of risk factors that occurred before and after beverage consumption. This control helped the researchers document how quickly the study subjects, even those with very low or normal weight, presented changes. liver fat, insulin sensitivity and circulating lipids, lipoproteins and uric acid when they drank the added sugars. There were no significant differences between the effects of sucrose and those of high fructose corn syrup., and both sugar-sweetened beverages increased risk factors compared to aspartame-sweetened beverages.
“Within two weeks, we observed a significant change in insulin and liver fat sensitivity in the two groups consuming sucrose.– or fructose-rich corn syrup–sweetened drinks, “Stanhope said.” This is worrying because of the prevalence of fatty liver [nonalcoholic fatty liver disease] and type 2 diabetes continues to rise globally. ”
Decreased insulin sensitivity is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes, and seeing a clinically significant change within two weeks highlights the need for consumers to read labels carefully and be aware of the source of added sugars. Sucrose can be labeled as sugar, cane sugar, or evaporated cane juice among other names, but they are all sugar.
Misconception of the consumer
Stanhope said the study is important because many consumers believe corn fructose with a lot of fructose is more harmful to health than sucrose. Many consumers also believe in consuminging sucrose it is safer what consuming aspartame.
Previous studies in humans and animals have shown that sugar–sweetened beverages are associated with an increase in fat in the liver. This study also shows that these drinks can promote the accumulation of fat in the liver and lead to metabolic syndrome.
“Everything is physiologically connected, although we are not sure [in what] Stanhope said. “It’s very likely that the mechanism by which we develop metabolic syndrome is insulin and liver fat resistance. An increase in liver fat can be benign over time and for some people. But also it can progress to inflammation associated with liver cells that causes fibrosis and negatively affects liver function, which can make a person more prone to liver cancer. “
This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, a Award Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health and Intramural Grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Other authors of the UC Davis study are: Desiree M. Sigala, Bettina Hieronimus, Valentina Medici, Vivien Lee, Marinelle V. Nunez, Andrew A. Bremer, Candice A. Price, Yanet Benyam, Abhijit J. Chaudhari, Yasser Abdelhafez, John P. McGahan and Peter Havel. Other contributors include Chad L. Cox of California State University, Sacramento; Michael Goran of Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles; Claude B. Sirlin de University of California, San Diego; Giovanni Pacini and Andrea Tura of the National Research Council, Italy; and Nancy L. Keim of the Western Research Nutrition Research Center, Davis.