ScienceDaily: University Of Florida Scientists Find Sugar May Have A Sour Side
But Americans are feasting on more fructose than ever. It's in soft drinks, jellies, pastries, ketchup and table sugar, among other foods, and is the key component in high fructose corn syrup, a sugar substitute introduced in the early 1970s.
Since then, fructose intake has soared more than 30 percent, and the number of people with metabolic syndrome has more than doubled worldwide, to more than 55 million in the United States alone, Johnson said. The condition, characterized by insulin resistance, obesity and elevated triglyceride levels in the blood, is linked to the development of type 2 diabetes and hypertension.
"If you feed fructose to animals they rapidly become obese, with all features of the metabolic syndrome, so there is this strong causal link," Johnson said, "And a high-fructose intake has been shown to induce certain features of the metabolic syndrome pretty rapidly in people."
Now UF research implicates a rise in uric acid in the bloodstream that occurs after fructose is consumed, Johnson said. That temporary spike blocks the action of insulin, which typically regulates how body cells use and store sugar and other food nutrients for energy. If uric acid levels are frequently elevated, over time features of metabolic syndrome may develop, including high blood pressure, obesity and elevated blood cholesterol levels.
Researchers from UF and the Baylor College of Medicine studied rats fed a high-fructose diet for 10 weeks. Compared with rats fed a control diet, those on the high-fructose diet experienced a rise in uric acid in the bloodstream and developed insulin resistance.
"When we blocked or lowered uric acid, we were able to largely prevent or reverse features of the metabolic syndrome," Johnson said. "We were able to significantly reduce weight gain, we were able to significantly reduce the rise in the triglycerides in the blood, the insulin resistance was less and the blood pressure fell."
UF researchers are now studying the uric acid pathway in cell cultures in the laboratory, in animals and in people, and are also eyeing it as a possible factor in the development of cardiovascular and kidney diseases because of its effects on blood vessel responses. They are conducting a National Institutes of Health-funded trial to determine if lowering uric acid in blacks with hypertension improves blood pressure control and are collaborating with scientists at Baylor to determine if lowering uric acid will reduce blood pressure in adolescents with hypertension.
But Americans are feasting on more fructose than ever. It's in soft drinks, jellies, pastries, ketchup and table sugar, among other foods, and is the key component in high fructose corn syrup, a sugar substitute introduced in the early 1970s.
Since then, fructose intake has soared more than 30 percent, and the number of people with metabolic syndrome has more than doubled worldwide, to more than 55 million in the United States alone, Johnson said. The condition, characterized by insulin resistance, obesity and elevated triglyceride levels in the blood, is linked to the development of type 2 diabetes and hypertension.
"If you feed fructose to animals they rapidly become obese, with all features of the metabolic syndrome, so there is this strong causal link," Johnson said, "And a high-fructose intake has been shown to induce certain features of the metabolic syndrome pretty rapidly in people."
Now UF research implicates a rise in uric acid in the bloodstream that occurs after fructose is consumed, Johnson said. That temporary spike blocks the action of insulin, which typically regulates how body cells use and store sugar and other food nutrients for energy. If uric acid levels are frequently elevated, over time features of metabolic syndrome may develop, including high blood pressure, obesity and elevated blood cholesterol levels.
Researchers from UF and the Baylor College of Medicine studied rats fed a high-fructose diet for 10 weeks. Compared with rats fed a control diet, those on the high-fructose diet experienced a rise in uric acid in the bloodstream and developed insulin resistance.
"When we blocked or lowered uric acid, we were able to largely prevent or reverse features of the metabolic syndrome," Johnson said. "We were able to significantly reduce weight gain, we were able to significantly reduce the rise in the triglycerides in the blood, the insulin resistance was less and the blood pressure fell."
UF researchers are now studying the uric acid pathway in cell cultures in the laboratory, in animals and in people, and are also eyeing it as a possible factor in the development of cardiovascular and kidney diseases because of its effects on blood vessel responses. They are conducting a National Institutes of Health-funded trial to determine if lowering uric acid in blacks with hypertension improves blood pressure control and are collaborating with scientists at Baylor to determine if lowering uric acid will reduce blood pressure in adolescents with hypertension.
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