Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Fructose Linked to Obesity, Diabetes

Posted by samzenpus on from the fruit-sugars-bad-for-you dept.

Engineer-Poet writes "Eurekalert announces that researchers at the University of Florida have demonstrated a link between fructose consumption and metabolic syndrome (a precursor of adult-onset diabetes). In part, it makes you feel hungrier than you should be. This is particularly bad for Americans, because sugar price supports have created a market for fructose as a substitute in almost everything. Dr. Richard J. Johnson says, "If you feed fructose to animals they rapidly become obese, with all features of the metabolic syndrome, so there is this strong causal link. And a high-fructose intake has been shown to induce certain features of the metabolic syndrome pretty rapidly in people." Eating fructose causes a rise in uric acid in the bloodstream. Uric acid in turn blocks the action of insulin, which regulates metabolism (including uptake by fat cells). Elevated uric acid levels can eventually cause features of metabolic syndrome, including high blood pressure, obesity and high cholesterol. The good news is that the action of uric acid can be blocked with drugs, and we can change what we eat. If enough of us boycott fructose and corn-syrup products, the market will respond."

3 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Corn Syrup... by Saeed+al-Sahaf · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Take a look at the labels of just about any processed food product made today: Corn syrup. This is fructose.

    Now if we could get the sugar lobbies to allow the lowering of cane sugar import tariffs, we might see healthier food.

    --
    "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
  2. Typical attitude by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The good news is that the action of uric acid can be blocked with drugs

    Shouldn't that read: now we know the cause of the problem is fructose, we can avoid consuming too much of it?

    Christ, typical fucking Yanks. "I'm fat, but instead of eating fewer double-happy-McLard-cheeseburgers, I'll take diet pills and throw up after eating!"

    1. Re:Typical attitude by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      As a skinny American who goes out of his way to watch what crap he eats, let me just say, it's not at all easy. The VAST MAJORITY of food in the grocery stores here is unfit for human consumption, and the labeling of this food is often intentionally deceptive. The goal of labels is not to inform consumers, it is to sell products, and the only agency responsible for regulating this, the FDA, is in the pocket of the food companies and rarely even enforces its own policies.

      Since the actual content of food here is so non-obvious, it takes a huge amount of awareness, ingredient reading, and careful research about the contents of each common ingredient, just to monitor what toxins go into ones diet here. It's nowhere near as easy as just not going to McDonalds, when the vast majority of foods in the grocery stores are of identical content. This situation has grown progressively worse, starting around the 50s, scaling up in the 70s, and then skyrocketing in the last 10-20 years.