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medpundit |
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Thursday, July 17, 2003I've read that the higher fructose corn syrup used these days in lieu of sugar is fueling the obesity crisis, and that it isn't metabolized as easily. If it isn't metabolized as easily, shouldn't that make the calories less absorbtive, meaning the bloodstream has less sugar absorbed and less sugar to convert to fat? Fructose, the simple sugar that’s derived not only from corn starch, but from fruits, dahlia bulbs and Jerusalem artichokes, is often touted as a healthy sweetener, but it isn’t necessarily better for us than plain old glucose. (Conventional sugar is a combination of glucose and fructose). While it’s true that fructose is probably absorbed a little less easily from the gut than glucose, once it’s in the body, it’s more likely to be converted to fat. The majority of glucose metabolism occurs in the liver, where it’s converted to energy and the building blocks of fat. The majority of fructose metabolism occurs in fat cells where it’s converted to energy and the building blocks to make two types of molecules that serve as energy stores - glycogen and fat. The liver at least has a metabolic function that requires energy to operate, so the glucose there isn’t entirely converted into stored energy. The fat production becomes a problem when the glucose intake exceeds the energy needs. But fat cells exist just to store energy as fat. (They can also mobilize that fat into fuel molecules for transport to other parts of the body when needed, but in our sedentary society, we rarely need the export.) The result is that fructose consumption is much more likely to lead to a surfeit of fat cells. So, did the switch from conventional sugar to fructose as a commercial sweetener foster the obesity epidemic? Doubtful. It takes much less fructose to get the same amount of sweetness as conventional sugar, and conventional sugar has equal amounts of glucose and fructose in it. It's not so much the type of sugar we're eating, but the amount of it. posted by Sydney on 7/17/2003 10:32:00 PM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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