Study finds fructose to be significant contributor to weight gain

If you check out the ingredient list of any pre-packaged food or soft drink don’t be surprised if you see fructose, or high-fructose corn syrup, listed as one of the ingredients. For the last few decades, the addition of fructose to prepared foods has been on the rise. Fructose is a simple carbohydrate that is derived from vegetables and fruit.

The American Heart Association recommends that consumers get no more than five per cent of their caloric needs from fructose. Adolescent males are the highest consumers of fructose, consuming approximately 15-23 per cent of their daily calories from it.

In the current atmosphere of rampant obesity, researchers at the University of Illinois sought to determine whether fructose contributed to weight gain without any increase in caloric consumption. Basically, everyone knows that eating too many calories leads to weight gain, but what researchers wanted to determine was if eating an appropriate number of calories, but having a significant amount of those calories come from fructose, would still lead to weight gain.

The researchers analyzed two groups of mice for two and a half months. One group was fed a diet that was 18 per cent fructose, the other a diet that was 18 per cent glucose. Neither of the groups were eating an excessive number of calories. The only difference was the type of sugar: fructose or glucose.

In comparison to the glucose-fed mice, the fructose-fed ones showed significant increases in weight, liver mass and fat mass. The fructose-fed mice also became less active than the glucose-fed ones.

The takeaway from this is that the number of calories you consume isn’t the only concern in maintaining a healthy way, but also the quality of those calories.