Fructose Linked to Heart Disease

Glucose and fructose are both described by scientists as simple sugars, but what they do inside our bodies is fairly complex. The Scientific American reports that researchers at the University of Davis have learned that consuming large quantities of fructose, a sugar found in high fructose corn syrup used to sweeten soft drinks and processed foods, may lead to increased risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. The research team, Sciam reports, studied the consumption of fructose- and glucose-sweetened beverages
among 32 overweight men and women ages 40 to 72. Every day for 10
weeks, 17 study participants drank three bottles of fructose-sweetened
drinks and 15 of them drank bevs sweetened with glucose. By the end of
the study, the fructose and glucose-chugging groups had gained about
the same amount of weight – an average of about 3.3 pounds (1.5
kilograms) — but those in the fructose group accumulated about twice
as much visceral fat,
the kind that builds up around organs (rather than under the skin) and
increases one’s risk for developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Wait, there’s more: Sciam reports that low-density lipoprotein
(LDL or “bad” cholesterol) levels shot up by about 14 percent and
insulin sensitivity dropped by about 17 percent in the fructose
guzzlers; there were no such changes in the glucose group.
Read more in the Scientific American.