Fructose and weight gain. Turns out not all

sugar is sugar after all.

We all remember those ads from the Corn Refiners Association for corn sugar high

fructose corn syrup. In an effort to gain consumer acceptance of high fructose corn

syrup, the CRA ran a television advertisement proclaiming that sugar is sugar. The

concept didnt fly very well with consumers (or with lawyers for that matter). Since that

time, high fructose corn syrup has been linked with weight gain and new studies

seem to be proving the idea out more and more.

In the last 40 years, fructose, a simple

carbohydrate derived from fruit and

vegetables, has been on the increase in

American diets. Because of the addition of

high-fructose corn syrup to many soft drinks

and processed baked goods, fructose

currently accounts for 10 percent of caloric

intake for U.S. citizens. Male adolescents

are the top fructose consumers, deriving between 15 to 23 percent of their calories from

fructosethree to four times more than the maximum levels recommended by the

American Heart Association.

A recent study at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the

University of Illinois found that, matched calorie for calorie with the simple sugar

glucose, fructose causes significant weight gain, physical inactivity, and body fat

deposition.

The paper, Fructose decreases physical activity and increases body fat without

affecting hippocampal neurogenesis and learning relative to an isocaloric glucose diet,

was published in Scientific Reports.

The link between increases in sugar intake, particularly fructose, and the rising obesity

epidemic has been debated for many years with no clear conclusions, said Catarina

Rendeiro, a postdoctoral research affiliate at the Beckman Institute for Advanced

Science and Technology and lead author on the study. The reality is that people are

not only consuming more fructose through their diets, but also consuming more calories

in general.

One of the key questions is whether an increase in fructose intake contributes to

obesity in the absence of excessive calorie intake.

The researchers, under the direction of Justin Rhodes of Beckmans NeuroTech Group

and professor of psychology at Illinois, studied two groups of mice for two-and-a-half

months: one group was fed a diet in which 18 percent of the calories came from

fructose, mimicking the intake of adolescents in the United States, and the other was

fed 18 percent from glucose.

The important thing to note is that animals in both experimental groups had the usual

intake of calories for a mouse, said Rendeiro. They were not eating more than they

should, and both groups had exactly the same amount of calories deriving from sugar,

the only difference was the type of sugar, either fructose or glucose.

The results showed that the fructose-fed mice displayed significantly increased body

weight, liver mass, and fat mass in comparison to the glucose-fed mice.

In previous studies, the increases in fructose consumption were accompanied by

increases in overall food intake, so it is difficult to know whether the animals put on

weight due to the fructose itself or simply because they were eating more, Rhodes

said.

Remarkably, the researchers also found that not only were the fructose-fed mice

gaining weight, they were also less active.

We dont know why animals move less when in the fructose diet, said Rhodes.

However, we estimated that the reduction in physical activity could account for most of

the weight gain.

Biochemical factors could also come into play in how the mice respond to the high

fructose diet, explained Jonathan Mun, another author on the study. We know that

contrary to glucose, fructose bypasses certain metabolic steps that result in an increase

in fat formation, especially in adipose tissue and liver.

The precise mechanisms are still being investigated, but one thing is certain: high intake

of fructose by itself adds pounds.

We designed this study based on the intake of fructose by adolescents in the United

States, said Rhodes. Our study suggests that such levels of fructose can indeed play

a role in weight gain, favor fat deposition, and also contribute to physical inactivity.

Given the dramatic increase in obesity among young people and the severe negative

effects that this can have on health throughout ones life, it is important to consider what

foods are providing our calories.

FoodFacts blog knows that everyone in our community counts high-fructose corn syrup

among the top ingredients they avoid. Not all sugar is just sugar for our bodies.

Fructose isnt the same as cane sugar and studies like this are illustrating the facts

regarding the subject.

If youre drinking sugary beverages every day

you may be increasing your risk of non-alcoholic

fatty liver disease.

There are plenty of problems were already used to associating with drinking sugar-

sweetened beverages. Obesity and diabetes come immediately to mind when we think

about the subject. Now FoodFacts.com has read some new information that we should

all be aware of linking sugary drinks to a different problem.

A daily sugar-sweetened beverage habit may increase the risk for non-alcoholic fatty

liver disease (NAFLD), researchers from the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition

Research Center on Aging (USDA HRNCA) at Tufts University report in the Journal of

Hepatology.

The researchers analyzed 2,634 self-reported dietary questionnaires from mostly

Caucasian middle-aged men and women enrolled in the National Heart Lunch and

Blood Institute (NHLBI Framingham Heart Studys Offspring and Third Generation

cohorts. The sugar-sweetened beverages on the questionnaires included caffeinated-

and caffeine-free colas, other carbonated beverages with sugar, fruit punches,

lemonade or other non-carbonated fruit drinks. The participants underwent a computed

tomography (CT) scan to measure the amount of fat in the liver and the authors of the

current study used a previously defined cut-point to identify NAFLD. They saw a higher

prevalence of NAFLD among people who reported drinking more than one sugar-

sweetened beverage per day compared to people who said they drank no sugar-

sweetened beverages.

The relationships between sugar-

sweetened beverages and NAFLD

persisted after the authors accounted for

age, sex, body mass index (BMI), and

dietary and lifestyle factors such as calorie

intake, alcohol, and smoking. In contrast,

after accounting for these factors the

authors found no association between diet

cola and NAFLD. Our study adds to a

growing body of research suggesting that

sugar-sweetened beverages may be linked to NAFLD and other chronic diseases

including diabetes and cardiovascular disease, said first author Jiantao Ma, Ph.D., a

former doctoral student in the Nutrition Epidemiology Program at the USDA HNRCA

and a graduate of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts

University.

NAFLD is characterized by an accumulation of fat in the liver cells that is unrelated to

alcohol consumption. NAFLD is diagnosed by ultrasounds, CT, MRI, or biopsy, and

many of the approximately 25% of Americans with the disease dont experience any

symptoms. Being obese or overweight increases the risk for NAFLD and people with

NAFLD are at greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

Sugar-sweetened beverages are a major dietary source of fructose, the sugar that is

suspected of increasing risk of NAFLD because of how our bodies process it. Few

observational studies, to date, have examined the relationship between sugar-

sweetened beverages and NAFLD, Ma said. Long-term prospective studies are

needed to help ascertain the potential role of sugar-sweetened beverages in the

development of NAFLD.

The cross-sectional nature of this study prevents us from establishing causality. Future

prospective studies are needed to account for the changes in beverage consumption

over time as soda consumers may switch to diet soda and these changes may be

related to weight status, added corresponding and senior author Nicola McKeown,

Ph.D., a scientist in the Nutritional Epidemiology Program at the USDA HNRCA and an

associate professor at the Friedman School. Although there is much more research to

be done, sugar-sweetened beverages are a source of empty calories, and people need

to be mindful of how much they are drinking, perhaps by reserving this habit for special

occasions.

The over-consumption of sugar is a rampant problem in American diets. Were getting

the bulk of the sugar in our diets without even realizing it. Sugar is lurking in processed

foods and drinks like soda in amounts most consumers dont understand. Unless

consumers are reading labels carefully and checking the nutrition facts for the foods and

beverages theyre consuming at fast food and fast casual chains and then keeping track

of the grams of sugar as they add up during the day, its actually difficult to know for

sure. As we learn more about the effects of consuming sugary drinks from studies like

this one, it becomes more important than ever to consciously monitor our sugar intake.

Well all be healthier for it.

Help for diabetics may come from cactus, chia

and soy decreasing high glucose in the blood.

Diabetics have a difficult time with diet. Theres a lot of dietary avoidance that can

become cumbersome and challenging. Today FoodFacts.com found some information

regarding foods that diabetics SHOULD eat that can actually help their condition.The so

called functional foods such as cactus pads, chia and soybean, when included in a

balanced diet, help reduce obesity and control diabetes, says Nimbe Torres y Torres,

from the Institute of Biomedical Research at the National Autonomous University of

Mexico (UNAM).

Functional foods are those that provide other benefits to the body in addition to the

original nutrient foods, such as cactus pads, chia and soy mainly, besides spinach,

oatmeal, yogurt, fish rich in Omega 3 and fortified margarines.

Torres y Torres, researcher, recommends consumption of 300 grams of raw, or 250 of

cooked, cactus pads because eating as garnish significantly lowers glucose peaks,

allowing a good function of the pancreas.

During her participation in the first symposium: Initiative for a correct diet: yogurt effects

on health held in Cancun, in the Caribbean coast of Mexico, she said it is important to

cook food thoroughly, but not overcooking in order to retain its nutrients.

Mexicans tend to overheat food diminishing nutrients, in the case of the cactus it

should not be cooked more than 10 minutes. It is very important that the viscous part is

retained because that contains the soluble fiber that works as a prebiotic .

She mentioned that the consumption of these foods has to be constant. People with

diabetes who include cactus in their diet reduce glycated hemoglobin, triglycerides and

free fatty acids.

Nimbe Torres y Torres also analyzed the

effect of soy in animal models and found

that it decreases the secretion of insulin,

blood pressure, triglyceride and cholesterol

by up to 20 percent since it contains a low

glycemic index and has six grams of protein

in a portion 250 milligrams.

She also stated that the use of chia seeds

has health benefits because it is a source of

acid Omega 3 and antioxidants, while

should also be included in the diet in raw

oatmeal or soy milk and green banana

porridge.

Currently the UNAM specialist develops a combination of chia seed with cactus and soy

protein to control diabetes and a recipe book on the combination of these foods.

Any time you can add something to your diet (as opposed to taking something away)

that will improve your health conditions, youre actually simplifying your life. Adding

dietary options for health doesnt require restrictions, it opens up healthier options. And

that is always a welcomed improvement.

Low protein, high-carb diet as effective as

calorie cutting?

When youre looking for weight loss, which diet style do you follow? There are many out

there these days from the traditional calorie cutting diet to the high protein, low carb diet

to the high-carb, low protein diet. Each of these (and other eating styles) have their

fans. Most people, however, who are attempting weight loss, try to restrict their calorie

intake for a period of time. Its simple to follow and calculate and its been proven to

work. Cutting calories has also been proven to have other health benefits as well. But

what about those other dietary styles?

Cutting calories through dietary restriction has been shown to lower cholesterol,

improve insulin sensitivity, and even prolong life in mammals. Now, new research

publishing on May 28th in Cell Reports shows that, at least in mice, low protein, high

carbohydrate diets can provide benefits similar to those obtained with calorie restriction.

Weve shown that when compared head-to-head, mice got the same benefits from a

low protein, high carbohydrate diet as a 40% caloric restriction diet, says senior author

Stephen Simpson, Academic Director of the University of Sydneys Charles Perkins

Centre. Except for the fanatical few, no one can maintain a 40% caloric reduction in the

long term, and doing so can risk loss of bone mass, libido, and fertility.

The investigators compared three 8-week

diets varying in protein-to-carbohydrate

ratio under conditions where food was

restricted or food was available at all times.

Of the three, low protein, high carbohydrate

(LPHC) diets offered when food was always

available delivered similar benefits as

calorie restriction in terms of insulin, blood

sugar, and cholesterol levels, despite

increased food intake.

Even though the mice on LPHC diets ate more when food was always available, their

metabolism was higher than that of mice on the calorie-restricted diet, and they did not

gain more weight. Calorie restriction did not provide any additional benefits for LPHC

mice.

Additional research is needed to determine how LPHC diets affect long-term metabolic

health and survival, as well as to what extent the type and quality of proteins and

carbohydrates matter. An important next step will be to determine exactly how specific

amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, contribute to overall health span and

lifespan, says lead author Samantha Solon-Biet, also of the Charles Perkins Centre.

If the studys results apply to humans, adjusting protein and carbohydrate intake could

lead to healthier aging in a more realistic manner than drastically cutting calories. It still

holds true that reducing food intake and body weight improves metabolic health and

reduces the risk of diseases like type 2 diabetes, obesity, and fatty liver disease, says

Simpson. However, according to these mouse data and emerging human research, it

appears that including modest intakes of high-quality protein and plenty of healthy

carbohydrates in the diet will be beneficial for health as we age.

This interesting information will, no doubt, be surprising for some. FoodFacts.com

understands that high carbohydrate intake has not been a popular dietary option for

quite some time. In fact, the opposite has been far more widely embraced. While dietary

trends will always come and go, studies like this will give us a better view of the eating

styles that are beneficial for our weight and our overall health.Getting guidance from

medicine and science is a helpful tool that can better direct our dietary decisions.

Skipping meals? Increased belly fat may be the

unhealthy results.

Too busy for breakfast? Working through lunch? If these things are happening in your

life on a consistent basis, it may be time to rethink your schedule.

A new study in animals suggests that skipping meals sets off a series of metabolic

miscues that can result in abdominal weight gain.

In the study, mice that ate all of their food as a single meal and fasted the rest of the

day developed insulin resistance in their livers which scientists consider a telltale

sign of prediabetes. When the liver doesnt respond to insulin signals telling it to stop

producing glucose, that extra sugar in the blood is stored as fat.

These mice initially were put on a restricted diet and lost weight compared to controls

that had unlimited access to food. The restricted-diet mice regained weight as calories

were added back into their diets and nearly caught up to controls by the studys end.

But fat around their middles the equivalent to human belly fat weighed more in the

restricted-diet mice than in mice that were free to nibble all day long. An excess of that

kind of fat is associated with insulin resistance and risk for type 2 diabetes and heart

disease.

This does support the notion that small

meals throughout the day can be helpful for

weight loss, though that may not be

practical for many people, said Martha

Belury, professor of human nutrition at The

Ohio State University and senior author of

the study. But you definitely dont want to

skip meals to save calories because it sets

your body up for larger fluctuations in

insulin and glucose and could be setting

you up for more fat gain instead of fat loss.

The research is published online in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry.

Belury and colleagues were able to tie these findings to the human tendency to skip

meals because of the behavior they expected to see based on previous work in

the mice on restricted diets. For three days, these mice received half of the calories that

were consumed daily by control mice. Food was gradually added so that by day six, all

mice received the same amount of food each day.

But the mice that had been on restricted diets developed gorging behavior that

persisted throughout the study, meaning they finished their days worth of food in about

four hours and then ended up fasting for the next 20 hours.

With the mice, this is basically binging and then fasting, Belury said. People dont

necessarily do that over a 24-hour period, but some people do eat just one large meal a

day.

The gorging and fasting in these mice affected a host of metabolic measures that the

researchers attributed to a spike and then severe drop in insulin production. In mice that

gorged and then fasted, the researchers saw elevations in inflammation, higher

activation of genes that promote storage of fatty molecules and plumper fat cells

especially in the abdominal area compared to the mice that nibbled all day.

To check for insulin resistance, the scientists used a sophisticated technique to assess

glucose production. The liver pumps out glucose when it receives signals that insulin

levels are low for example, while people sleep, the liver supplies glucose to the brain.

But that production stops after a meal, when insulin is released by the pancreas and

performs its main task of removing sugar from the blood and shepherding the glucose to

multiple types of cells that absorb it for energy.

With this research technique, Belury and colleagues found that glucose lingered in the

blood of mice that gorged and fasted meaning the liver wasnt getting the insulin

message.

Under conditions when the liver is not stimulated by insulin, increased glucose output

from the liver means the liver isnt responding to signals telling it to shut down glucose

production, Belury said. These mice dont have type 2 diabetes yet, but theyre not

responding to insulin anymore and that state of insulin resistance is referred to as

prediabetes.

Insulin resistance is also a risk for gaining abdominal fat known as white adipose tissue,

which stores energy.

Even though the gorging and fasting mice had about the same body weights as control

mice, their adipose depots were heavier. If youre pumping out more sugar into the

blood, adipose is happy to pick up glucose and store it. That makes for a happy fat cell

but its not the one you want to have. We want to shrink these cells to reduce fat

tissue, Belury said.

Skipping meals may seem like an easy answer to an overcrowded schedule. As this

study points out though, it may have some very negative effects for our bodies.

FoodFacts.com is already aware that skipping meals does have a negative effect on

weight. Now, this study draws a clear connection between skipped meals and belly fat.

Lets remember to take time out of our day at mealtimes. Making meals a part of our

schedule instead of disposable time that can be rearranged is the healthy thing to do!

Suffering from seasonal allergies? Probiotics

might help.

The season is upon us. After an especially long, cold and snowy winter, millions of

people here in the U.S. are greeting the change in seasons with a chorus of sneezing,

watery eyes and runny noses. Seasonal allergies have arrived and with them, the

attempt to find a way to stop them. Could eating yogurt or taking probiotic supplements

be helpful?

Researchers analyzed the results from more than 20 previous studies and found that

hay fever sufferers may get some benefits from using probiotics, improving their

symptoms and quality of life.

But the jury is still out about whether

probiotics are actually an effective

treatment for people with seasonal

allergies, said lead author Dr. Justin Turner,

an ear-nose-and-throat surgeon at

Vanderbilt University Medical Center in

Nashville, Tennessee.

Additional high-quality studies are needed

before doctors would recommend for or

against using probiotics to help treat people with seasonal allergies, Turner said.

Probiotics are bacteria that are thought to help maintain a healthy gut. They are found in

certain foods, such as yogurt with live active cultures, kefir and sauerkraut, and also

supplements. Probiotics may change the balance of bacteria in the intestines in a way

that could protect the immune system from flaring up in response to pollens and other

allergens, which may help reduce allergy symptoms, Turner said.

But he also cautioned that there is still much more information that needs to be

understood about the effect of probiotics on the immune system.

Seasonal allergies are estimated to affect approximately 50 million Americans,

according to the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Allergy

symptoms such as sneezing, a stuffy or runny nose, and itchy and watery eyes are

typically treated with a combination of medications, including antihistamines,

decongestants and steroid nasal sprays.

In the new study, published online in April in the journal International Forum of Allergy &

Rhinology, researchers reviewed data from 23 randomized trials and more than 1,900

people.

They found that the majority of these studies (17 of 23) showed that people with

seasonal allergies who took probiotic supplements or ate foods containing probiotics

showed improvement in at least one outcome measure, such as improving their allergy

symptoms, or their general quality of life, compared with allergy sufferers who took a

placebo.

Six of 23 studies found probiotics had no benefit to people with hay fever, the

researchers said.

But because the studies used different strains of live bacteria, different dosages and

different probiotic supplement formulations over different periods of time, it is difficult to

make any formal recommendations about probiotic use, bacterial strains or length of

treatment that may benefit people with seasonal allergies, Turner said.

Even if probiotics prove effective for seasonal allergies, its unlikely they would replace

the standard medical treatments currently used by people affected by them, Turner

said.

While more research is needed, FoodFacts.com wants to point out that for seasonal

allergy sufferers, its easy enough to determine if probiotics can help you. Yogurt is

simple enough to add into your diet. And the majority of these studies did yield results

that illustrates the addition as a viable option. Over-the-counter medication for seasonal

allergies can keep us awake, put us to sleep, raise our blood pressure, and make us

thirsty not to mention that most contain ingredients were not very fond of. Testing out

the probiotic concept seems to be more than a reasonably good idea!

Americans still eat too much junk: 61% of food

purchases are highly processed.

If we look at the news, we see that American consumers have become much more

aware of nutrition and diet. Our voices are being heard by food manufacturers, fast

casual chains and even some fast food giants. Manufacturers are removing ingredients

we find objectionable. Fast food is becoming less desirable. And Panera Bread recently

committed to removing over 150 controversial ingredients from their menu items. All

seems to be well in food land, doesnt it?

Unfortunately, thats not exactly true.

FoodFacts.com was disturbed to learn that

according to new information, most of the

foods we buy are highly processed and

loaded with sugar, fat and salt.

We like junk food so much that 61% of the

food Americans buy is highly processed,

according to research published in the

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. And

almost 1,000 calories a day of persons diet

come solely from highly processed foods.

Not all processed food is the same, however. The USDA classifies processed food as

any edible thats not a raw agricultural commodity, so even pasteurized milk and frozen

fruits and vegetables count. Its important for us to recognize that a processed food is

not just Coca-Cola and Twinkiesits a wide array of products, says study author

Jennifer Poti, a research assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at

Chapel Hill.

So in the first study of its kind, researchers scrutinized our diets by analyzing a massive

set of data of the foods we buy while grocery shopping. The stats came from 157,000

shoppers, who tracked their edible purchases with a barcode scanner from 2000-2012,

for anywhere from 10 months to 14 years.

Using software that picked out words in the nutrition and ingredient labels, the 1.2

million food products were placed into one of four categories : minimally processed

products with very little alteration, like bagged salad, frozen meat and eggsbasic

processedsingle-ingredient foods but changed in some way, like oil, flour and sugar

moderately processedstill recognizable as its original plant or animal source, but with

additivesand highly processedmulti-ingredient industrial mixtures that are no longer

recognizable as their original plant or animal source.

No surprise, our favorite categories are those last two. More than three-quarters of our

calories came from highly processed (61%) and moderately processed (16%) foods and

drinks in 2012. Best-selling products were refined breads, grain-based desserts like

cookies, sugary sodas, juice, sports drinks and energy drinks.

Preferences for highly processed foods were remarkably stable over time, Poti says,

which likely has implications for our health, since the study also found that highly

processed foods were higher in saturated fat, sugar and salt than other purchases. But

interestingly, no U.S. study has yet looked at the link between highly processed foods

and health outcomes like obesity and diabetes, Poti says.

To be clear, the researchers arent pooh-poohing processing, per se. Food processing

is important for food security and nutrition security of Americans, Poti says. The study

wasnt able to capture the full spectrum of our dietsloose spinach doesnt come with a

barcode, after alland the authors acknowledge that food purchasing doesnt always

directly translate to dietary intake. But the results suggest that we might want to swap

some bags of chips for, say, cans of beans. Foods that required cooking or

preparationlike boxed pasta and raw eggswere generally less than 20% of

calories purchased throughout the entire time period, Poti says.

So were getting it, but were not getting it. FoodFacts.com often wonders if average

consumers associate nutritional awareness with more obvious junk food fast food

and fast casual chains, soda and specific controversial ingredients that have received

lots of negative publicity. Is it harder to associate a box of instant mashed potatoes with

the term junk food, than it is to link a Big Mac to the phrase? Does everyone

understand what highly processed foods actually are? Or are foods in boxes and cans

somehow immune to the association because they live on our grocery store shelves?

Weve still got so much work to do. Check out our grading system for more information.