SubscribeFruit, Sugar Gives You a Pot Belly...
New research by The University of California, Davis claims that fructose--found in fresh fruit, fruit juice, and jams--may cause people to accumulate belly fat.
After 10 weeks of being fed a "normal diet" the 33 study participants--overweight and obese adults--were split into two groups. For the next 10 weeks one group received 25% of their calories from fructose and the other group was fed the same amount from glucose.
At the end of the 20-week experiment both groups gained around 3.3 lbs, but the fructose group accumulated fat around their stomach, while the glucose group's extra weight was spread throughout the body.
Personally, I'm not sure what this study discovered. That eating extracted nutrient-deficient plant SUGAR makes us fat! I don't know about you, but I learned that by the second grade--thank you Sesame Street. Besides, I thought scientists figured this out a few years ago: Fructose Means More Fat?
Refined sugar giving you a potbelly seems like common sense, but sugar from fresh fruit?! And here I thought all my bananas and blueberries could do no wrong!
ReplyHeather, they did use refined sugar only. They did not use fruit. At least when you're taking in fruit you are ingesting extra fibre as well, which helps combat the adverse effects of sugar.
The relevance of this study I suppose is if you're a person regularly taking sweet drinks or candy/chocolate. If you want to avoid bigger belly's, go for glucose sweetened rather than fructose sweetened! But of course you'll still get fat if you eat lots.
ReplyLong ago Linus Pauling predicted that fructose (or levulose) would precipitate fat whereas dextrose (the mirror image of levulose) would not. This appeared in one of either two books that he wrote on the benefits of vitamin C. The human body is designed to handle the right handed version of the sugar molecule but not the levulose (fructose) version.
ReplyI think it was in How to Live Longer and Feel Better. Dr. Pauling also believed taking megadoses of vitamin C would improve cancer survival rates (these results have not held up to later research).
ReplyAlmost all the enzymes in the human body are designed to break down only one isomer (either the levo- or the dextro- version) of molecules. Linus Pauling also discovered that not only can Vitamin C help cure cancer, but that your body can only use L-vitamin C, which is the kind that occurs in nature. Synthetic vitamin C, just like most synthetic compounds, occurs about 50-50 L-Vitamin C and R-vitamin C, so it's only about half as effective as the natural stuff.
Reply...That's a ridiculously high percentage of Calories from sugar.
A little flawed, it would seem...
ReplyDid they provide specifics of the difference in fat dispersment? Are we talking major inches or fat percentages here or 1/10th of a millimeter or a hundredth of a decimal? Did they account for genetics and body types?
I second previsouly mentioned concerns. Definitely flawed.
ReplyI agree, I'm not real sure that this study helped prove anything to me. Obviously, it is a good idea to avoid refined sugar. But this is something that I think we already know.
ReplyWell, I live on fruit and I've never accumulated weight around my belly (hips, thighs, but not belly). I wouldn't want to try the fructose experience though. The thought' quite revolting!
ReplyI remember reading about another study that showed people who overate carried their weight in their butts and thighs. People that carried their weight in their tummies tended to do so because of health problems (such as PCOS in women). I'm guessing that the 'beer gut' thing probably would make the study be a bit off too.
ReplyAs someone who lost a tremendous amount of weight (without surgical intervention), I would offer the same comment to people who asked me how I lost weight:
Nobody got fat from eating an apple (or any other fruit/veggie).
Of course if your diet consists of other not so healthy foods along with the fruits and veggies that's another story.
I lost my weight the unpopular way: I ate less, I ate healthier and I exercised.
ReplyEllen, no one seems to want to talk to me when I tell them that. I get, at least two or three times a week, "How did you lose all this weight?"
"Fairly simply, actually. I eat less. I move more. I make better choices. It's not rocket science."
"Oh. Well, good luck. Gotta get to McDonald's before it closes!"
Yeah...whatever.
ReplyHopefully the data found in this study will be of benefit to someone. Otherwise it was just a waist of time.
ReplyUnintentional pun?
Anyway, the researcher, Paul Havel, appears to have been working in this area for awhile, and is gearing up for a much larger study.
This study did not look at HFCS nor sucrose: it only considered fructose and glucose. From a gloss of the New Scientist review:
Concerning Gerry's comment Besides, I thought scientists figured this out a few years ago: Fructose Means More Fat?, from the same gloss:
You can read the entire gloss here (which is a copy - the original requires a subscription).
On avoiding that apple, um, if I consumed 25% of my calories from eating apples, I would be spending way too much time in the loo.
ReplyAnd I was just about to eat my apple too...
ReplyI read a little more about this same study somewhere else. What they don't mention in this article is that fructose often comes in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, not just fruit. When you consider that many processed foods have this ingredient (soft drinks, bread, cereal, yogurt, etc), it's not so hard to figure out how they came up with 25% of a day's calories from fructose.
ReplyFructose is found everywhere! It's one half of a sucrose molecule, which is similarly found everywhere... just avoid sugar in general, haha.
ReplyI'm confused. Didn't both groups gain weight of excess calorie consumption? Or is it just the sugar?
ReplyBernie (comment #3) fructose and glucose are not mirror images of each other (enantiomers) they are both right handed (dextro rotatory) and have different structures though they both have the same chemical formula. As Joey points out sucrose (table sugar) is made of one fructose and one glucose linked together.
Refined means purified it does not mean synthesized. So a refined sugar is no different from a sugar in, for example, an apple. There is just more of it relative to everything else. High fructose corn syrup is corn which has been processed to remove lots of the "other stuff", leaving a lot of fructose.
The study had participants consume at the high end of intake of fructose but the study is relevant as Quito points out. Good quotes.
Many studies have shown that high fructose intake is associated with a range of negative effects including abdominal obesity. Read up about glycation if you want to see the mechanism and effects of high levels of simple sugars in the body.
Bottom line eat lots of veggies as well as your fruit. Do not rely on just fruit for your daily servings.
ReplyI'm going to dump my fruit bowl and head over to Burger King! Thanks for the important info.
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