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Study Reveals Why High Fructose Corn Syrup Makes You Fat: It Expands Gut Surface and Boosts Nutrition Absorption
Fructose is a type of sugar commonly found in fruits. There is also artificial fructose, created through the use of enzymes that convert glucose into the said type of sugar. An example of this is high fructose corn syrup, an artificial sweetener made from cornstarch. While fructose is generally not harmful to our bodies, overconsumption of it is.This research, published over a month ago in the journal Nature, revealed how fructose could be dangerous. Fructose alters the cells in the digestive tract of mice. Scientists state that these findings could explain the link between fructose consumption and increased rates of obesity and certain types of cancer.The study found that mice that were fed diets that included fructose had villi that were 25 percent to 40 percent longer than those of mice that were not fed fructose. Additionally, the increase in villus length was associated with increased nutrient absorption, weight gain and fat accumulation in the animals.“Fructose is structurally different from other sugars like glucose, and it gets metabolized differently,” said senior author Dr. Marcus DaSilva Goncalves, the Ralph L. Nachman Research Scholar, an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism and an endocrinologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. “Our research has found that fructose’s primary metabolite promotes the elongation of villi and supports intestinal tumor growth.”[...]Future research will aim to confirm that the findings in mice translate to humans.This research reminds us of two things: to eat moderately and that anything too much is not good.(Image Credit: Taylor et al. (Research authors))#Fructose #Obesity #Cancer
Scientists Claim Overeating Is Not the Primary Cause of Obesity
The cause of obesity has always been considered to be overeating. It's just common sense, right? Obesity and overeating have been studied for at least a hundred years, which led to the energy balance model (EBM). This model states that when more calories are ingested than the body expends in activity, the excess is stored in fat cells, and that's why you're fat. But some things about this assumption don't quite add up. Why are so many people able to balance that energy intake so easily, while others struggle all their lives? A new study published Monday takes a closer look at the biological functions of fat development and the importance of the carbohydrate-insulin model, or CIM. The authors of “The Carbohydrate-Insulin Model: A Physiological Perspective on the Obesity Pandemic,” a perspective published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, point to fundamental flaws in the energy balance model, arguing that an alternate model, the carbohydrate-insulin model, better explains obesity and weight gain. Moreover, the carbohydrate-insulin model points the way to more effective, long-lasting weight management strategies.According to lead author Dr. David Ludwig, Endocrinologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and Professor at Harvard Medical School, the energy balance model doesn’t help us understand the biological causes of weight gain: “During a growth spurt, for instance, adolescents may increase food intake by 1,000 calories a day. But does their overeating cause the growth spurt or does the growth spurt cause the adolescent to get hungry and overeat?”In contrast to the energy balance model, the carbohydrate-insulin model makes a bold claim: overeating isn’t the main cause of obesity. Instead, the carbohydrate-insulin model lays much of the blame for the current obesity epidemic on modern dietary patterns characterized by excessive consumption of foods with a high glycemic load: in particular, processed, rapidly digestible carbohydrates. These foods cause hormonal responses that fundamentally change our metabolism, driving fat storage, weight gain, and obesity.So where does that take us? Further research is needed, as you have guessed, to test the two models against each other. If the CIM model is more useful, we could change the way our food is processed, and it might go a long way toward changing the perception of obesity as a moral failure. Read about the research at SciTech Daily. One of the study's authors also takes us through the history of obesity science and how the EBM model kept scientists from exploring other reasons for the rise of obesity in this essay. (Image credit: Renée Gordon) #obesity #obesityscience #insulin #carbohydrate
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