ScienceDaily: Watch What You Put In That Sippy Cup, Experts Warn
Science Daily — Juice boxes look harmless enough, with those kid-size, bendable straws and promises of 100 percent vitamin C.
As healthy as juice seems, parents need to be wary of doling out too much to children, especially during the summer when kids need plenty of fluids to stay safe, a University of Florida expert says. Unlike water and low-fat milk, fruit juices and sodas are laden with fructose, a type of naturally occurring sugar that could trigger obesity in humans.
As healthy as juice seems, parents need to be wary of doling out too much to children, especially during the summer when kids need plenty of fluids to stay safe, a University of Florida expert says. Unlike water and low-fat milk, fruit juices and sodas are laden with fructose, a type of naturally occurring sugar that could trigger obesity in humans, said Richard Johnson, MD., the J. Robert Cade professor of nephrology in the UF College of Medicine.
“Studies in humans have linked drinking excessive amounts of fruit juice and soft drinks with an increased risk for not only obesity, but also diabetes and high blood pressure,” said Johnson, also the college’s chief of nephrology, hypertension and renal transplantation. “In terms of obesity, fructose actually may set you up to not turn off your satiety response, so you will continue to eat.”
Unlike glucose, fructose does not signal the body to produce insulin, the hormone that turns sugar into energy and lets the brain know it’s time to stop eating. Fructose actually seems to do the opposite — causing resistance to insulin and blocking the “do not eat” order from making it to the brain, Johnson said.
Because fructose doesn’t stimulate insulin, consuming too much over a long period of time could trigger weight gain, said Peter Havel, Ph.D., a research endocrinologist at the University of California at Davis who studies fructose.
“If you consume fructose, it’s more like you’re consuming fat,” Havel said.
Science Daily — Juice boxes look harmless enough, with those kid-size, bendable straws and promises of 100 percent vitamin C.
As healthy as juice seems, parents need to be wary of doling out too much to children, especially during the summer when kids need plenty of fluids to stay safe, a University of Florida expert says. Unlike water and low-fat milk, fruit juices and sodas are laden with fructose, a type of naturally occurring sugar that could trigger obesity in humans.
As healthy as juice seems, parents need to be wary of doling out too much to children, especially during the summer when kids need plenty of fluids to stay safe, a University of Florida expert says. Unlike water and low-fat milk, fruit juices and sodas are laden with fructose, a type of naturally occurring sugar that could trigger obesity in humans, said Richard Johnson, MD., the J. Robert Cade professor of nephrology in the UF College of Medicine.
“Studies in humans have linked drinking excessive amounts of fruit juice and soft drinks with an increased risk for not only obesity, but also diabetes and high blood pressure,” said Johnson, also the college’s chief of nephrology, hypertension and renal transplantation. “In terms of obesity, fructose actually may set you up to not turn off your satiety response, so you will continue to eat.”
Unlike glucose, fructose does not signal the body to produce insulin, the hormone that turns sugar into energy and lets the brain know it’s time to stop eating. Fructose actually seems to do the opposite — causing resistance to insulin and blocking the “do not eat” order from making it to the brain, Johnson said.
Because fructose doesn’t stimulate insulin, consuming too much over a long period of time could trigger weight gain, said Peter Havel, Ph.D., a research endocrinologist at the University of California at Davis who studies fructose.
“If you consume fructose, it’s more like you’re consuming fat,” Havel said.
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