Watch for Fructose Instead of Starches

Dieters could fare better during the holidays by watching out for fructose rather than carbs, according to new research from the University of Florida (UF).

That means limiting your intake of traditional treats like cookies and fruitcakes, but not necessarily staying away from bread, rice and potatoes.

"There's a fair amount of evidence that starch-based foods don't cause weight gain like sugar-based foods and don't cause the metabolic syndrome like sugar-based foods," said Richard Johnson, senior author of the study and division chief of nephrology in the UF College of Medicine. "Potatoes, pasta, rice may be relatively safe compared to table sugar. A fructose index may be a better way to assess the risk of carbohydrates related to obesity."

Many diet plans -- including low-carbohydrate programs like Atkins and South Beach -- seek to limit consumption of certain foods that increase blood levels of glucose, one of the three primary blood sugars (the others are fructose and galactose). This "glycemic index" approach restricts foods like bread and potatoes because the starches are converted to glucose in the body.

However, the UF researchers found that fructose appears to create greater problems for dieters than glucose. Excessive fructose consumption drives up uric acid levels in the body. High uric acid levels, in turn, can make it hard for a body's natural insulin to control how cells use and store sugar and other nutrients. When that happens, the results can include obesity, type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, a condition that increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Earlier this year, Johnson and other UF researchers published a study showing how rising sugar consumption has been correlated with increased levels of obesity and diseases like diabetes. Obesity is now increasing not only in the U.S., but worldwide; in fact, more people around the globe are now suffering from obesity rather than hunger, according to the World Health Organization. The agency blames the trend on the growing consumption of high-fat, high-sugar and processed foods.

"One of the things we have learned is this whole epidemic brought on by Western diet and culture tracks back to the 1800s," Johnson said. "Nowadays, fructose and high-fructose corn syrup are in everything."

Fructose and high-fructose corn syrup are widely used in many sodas, other beverages, and processed and convenience foods. Johnson said soft drinks are probably the number-one source of fructose in many peoples' diets.

"Certainly we don't think fructose is the only cause of the obesity epidemic," Johnson said. "Too many calories, too much junk food and too much high-fat food are also part of the problem. But we think that fructose may have the unique ability to induce insulin resistance and features of the metabolic syndrome that other foods don't do so easily."

The UF research team, whose findings were recently published in the European Journal of Nutrition, soon plan to test a low-fructose diet on human subjects.

University of Florida, "Too Much Fructose Could Leave Dieters Sugar Shocked." URL: (http://news.ufl.edu/2007/12/12/fructose-2/)