Oct. 20, 2023 – Obesity researchers have struggled to find out the reason for the disease. They have observed links between obesity and genetics, diabetes, calorie intake, high-fat foods and carbohydrates. Now a brand new theory suggests that every one of those aspects play a task, however the most important reason for obesity could also be fructose.
Fructose is present in small amounts in foods resembling fruits and in large amounts in sweeteners resembling table sugar and high fructose corn syrup. In a scientific article published this week within the journal obesityResearchers explained that fructose triggers cravings for fatty foods and carbohydrates while blocking the body's ability to make use of stored energy from fat.
Ultimately, fructose causes people to eat more food, which is then stored as fat, in a cycle that continues to forestall the body from using the stored energy but at the identical time tells it to soak up more. In other mammals in nature, the cycle is usually triggered in times of crisis. The researchers called it “a spectacular system that prepares animals for a time when there is less food, water or oxygen, such as in preparation for long-distance migration or hibernation.”
The body can even produce fructose itself as a substitute of getting it from food. In addition to the fructose cycle being triggered during times of stress, it may be resulting from excessive glucose levels, which occurs in diabetes, researchers say, and when consuming a weight loss plan high in salt or low in water.
The authors explained that eating fruit is unlikely to trigger the problematic fructose cycle because fruits contain only small amounts of fructose and the nutrients and fiber in fruits can neutralize the results of fructose. However, they found that alcohol, especially beer, causes the body to supply fructose.
“Essentially, these theories, which place a litany of metabolic and nutritional factors at the heart of the obesity epidemic, are all pieces of a puzzle united by one final piece: fructose,” said writer Richard Johnson, MD, a researcher on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, in a Press release. “Fructose is what causes our metabolism to go into energy saving mode and lose control of appetite, but fatty foods become the main source of calories that drive weight gain.”