Is Fructose Making People Fat?
Simple sugar found in high-fructose corn syrup and elsewhere is tied to appetite changes in study
TUESDAY, Jan.1 (HealthDay News) -- New research suggests that fructose, a simple sugar found naturally in fruit and added to many other foods as part of high-fructose corn syrup, does not dampen appetite and may cause people to eat more compared to another simple sugar, glucose.
Glucose and fructose are both simple sugars that are included in equal parts in table sugar. In the new study, brain scans suggest that different things happen in your brain, depending on which sugar you consume.
Yale University researchers looked for appetite-related changes in blood flow in the hypothalamic region of the brains of 20 healthy adults after they ate either glucose or fructose. When people consumed glucose, levels of hormones that play a role in feeling full were high.
In contrast, when participants consumed a fructose beverage, they showed smaller increases in hormones that are associated with satiety (feeling full).
The findings are published in the Jan. 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association .
Dr. Jonathan Purnell, of Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, co-authored an editorial that accompanied the new study. He said that the findings replicate those found in prior animal studies, but "this does not prove that fructose is the cause of the obesity epidemic, only that it is a possible contributor along with many other environmental and genetic factors."