14 DAY TRIAL // University of Florida researchers have identified one possible reason for rising obesity rates, and it all starts with fructose, found in fruits, honey, table sugar and other sweeteners, and in many processed foods.
Fructose may trick you into thinking you are hungrier than you should be, say the scientists, whose studies in animals have revealed its role in a biochemical chain reaction that triggers weight gain and other features of metabolic syndrome, the main precursor to type 2 diabetes.
Physical inactivity, increased caloric intake and consumption of high-fat foods undoubtedly account for part of the problem, Dr. Richard J. Johnson, one of the authors, said. 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.
Over the last 30 years, 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.
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.