Fructose – a sugar used in ice cream, candy, and other processed foods – is one of the leading causes of obesity, as it increases people’s appetites.
Scientists warn against eating fructose-infused processed foods, as the sugar found in these foods have damning effects that lead to a slew of health problems.
A new study using brain scans has shown that fructose is more harmful than other sugars.
While pure fructose is found in nature in things such as fresh fruit, most fructose eaten is high-fructose corn syrup, which is found in processed foods.
The brain scans showed that fructose failed to produce the feeling of fullness, unlike glucose.
Dr. Kathleen Page and her colleagues at Yale University examined factors that might link fructose and weight gain, including the possibility that it lessens blood flow to the receptors in the brain that deal with appetite.
Twenty healthy adults underwent two magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sessions after drinking fructose or glucose.
The researchers then measured changes in blood flow to a region of the brain called the hypothalamus after each drink.
The drop in blood in the area was greater with glucose than fructose.
“Glucose but not fructose ingestion reduced the activation of the hypothalamus, insula, and striatum-brain regions that regulate appetite, motivation, and reward processing,” said Dr. Page.
The study is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
With obesity being an epidemic in the United States, doctors and health officials are looking for anyway to curb it before it really tips the scale.
James Gilbert | Elite.
