Does Coke makes you hungry?
A really interesting study about fructose's role in creating leptin resistance will be published in the American Journal of Physiology. Researchers at the University of Florida fed rats fructose, a type of sugar found naturally in fruit, and unnaturally in soft drinks. The control rats ate a normal rat diet without fructose. The rats who ate fructose became resistant to the hormone leptin, which signals the brain to stop eating when full.
The researchers then fed these same rats a high fat, high calorie diet, "the kind many Americans eat." Not surprisingly, the leptin resistant rats ate more, and gained more weight than the leptin sensitive rats.
Diabetes is a chronic disease that develops from insensitivity to the hormone insulin. Could obesity be caused by an insensitivity to leptin? The research hasn't proven that obesity is that simple, but leptin probably has some role.
What is really interesting about this study is that it links fructose to obesity. Not only is pop just empty calories, with no nutritional value, it may be causing someone to become obese. High fructose corn syrup isn't just in Coke, however, it is added to many foods. I think I'll start looking at the ingredient list even more carefully.
Comments
It sounds compelling, but it is also important question if the response is due to the fructose consumption, vs. a 60% simple sugar diet or a 60% dextrose diet. It is impossible to ingest a 60% fructose diet, even if we fed a 100% HFCS diet we could only reach a maximum of 55% fructose. It is of utmost importance for us to differentiate between HFCS and fructose. Coke is made with HFCS, not fructose. I wish these studies used a physiologically plausible amount of fructose for a change, at least as a reference. Any diet made up of 60% of any sugar would be expected to have an abnormal effect on the body.
Posted by: Bill | October 23, 2008 2:43 PM
This is really interesting. I know that I frequently check nutrition labels for high fructose corn syrup and this study gives me yet another reason to check!
Posted by: Hyedi Cribben | October 28, 2008 7:18 PM