Friday, July 3, 2009

Fructose Damages!



A magical drink which is once called carbonated drinks, or simply put, soft drinks, has been introduced years ago, and was or is still being regarded as one of the biggest milestone achievement as far as beverages industry is concerned.

Let's talk about the main ingredient in soft drinks. Besides the additives and stimulants, the biggest myth which we always tend to think of is how much sugar it contains? We normally do not seek the exact amount of sugar in soft drinks, all we know about soft drinks is that it contains a huge amount of sugar, and that's the end of the story.

We will do the same thing today, we are not interested in digging out the exact amount of sugar, but look more specifically about how the sugar in it affects our system in the body. The sugar being utilized in making soft drinks currently, has been highly replaced by high fructose corn syrup, largely because of the latter is not price-controlled, and it is relatively sweeter, thus it is being used widely as the sweeteners in many soft drinks.

Thus, many people love and crave for soft drinks, because they contain the magical taste, with high fructose corn syrup in it. But please beware, if you are one of them, you may have just encouraging the chances of getting diabetes, obesity and other complications!

A study implemented by Dr. Peter Havel, a researcher from the Department of Nutrition in University of California, has shown that fructose, but not glucose-sweetened beverages increased insulin resistance and belly fat in overweight and obese people.

For the study, Havel & Co gathered 32 obese individuals, where all were in the age ranges around 50. There were two phases in the study where 15 of them were ordered to c0nsume beverages sweetened with glucose, while the other 17 individuals were to consume beverages sweetened with fructose, these beverages omprising 25% of their daily calorie intake.

10 weeks later, participants in both groups show distinct differences. And the differences were as follow:
  • The belly fat in participants who consumed fructose-sweetened beverages increased.
  • Only participants who consumed fructose-sweetened beverages appear to be less sentive toward insulin hormone, and they also developed a higher level of LDL cholesterol, namely bad cholesterol.
Hence, the conclusion is fairly clear that by consuming fructose-sweetened, not glucose-sweetened, beverages would certainly increases visceral adiposity and lipids, and also decreases insulin sensitivity in overweight/obese humans.

For further specific and scientific information, you might find useful information by studying this abstract.

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