Fructose may contribute to overeating

[PrincessFiona60]

No comment, I will let the article speak for itself.

JAMA Network | JAMA | Effects of Fructose vs Glucose on Regional Cerebral Blood Flow in Brain Regions Involved With Appetite and Reward PathwaysFructose Consumption and Weight Gain

 

[bakechef]

I wonder if it is caused by isolating fructose. I'm willing to believe that fructose naturally occurring in foods such as fruit would be harmless, but isolating it an adding it to food, is what is causing the issue. When it occurs naturally, the food is complete and readily digestable, because the food contains what it needs to be complete. Does this make sense? Like, eating an apple is good, but soda with HFCS, bad news.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Makes sense to me.

 

[Tombo]

I wonder if it is caused by isolating fructose. I'm willing to believe that fructose naturally occurring in foods such as fruit would be harmless, but isolating it an adding it to food, is what is causing the issue. When it occurs naturally, the food is complete and readily digestable, because the food contains what it needs to be complete. Does this make sense? Like, eating an apple is good, but soda with HFCS, bad news.

Yeah, I would have thought so because we have been consuming fruit for centuries without the big obesity epidemic (excuse the pun :P)

 

[GLC]

I see no reason to doubt that role for fructose, but I strongly suspect that it's largely abstract knowledge for us as adults. I rather think the damage is done in infancy and childhood, the brain having been set up in that peculiar environment. Which explains why eliminating free fructose in the diet doesn't have much effect on perceived hunger. The proliferation of HFCS in processed foods correlate in time with high intake of the fashionable new processed foods and the dramatic increase in dinner plate size and people being accepting of the portion size increases. In short, for adults today, it's not the fructose; it's the fructose adapted brain. It's very possible that fructose (and other factors) are behind the real cause of obesity, which is eating too dang much.

What we're doing here is really of great potential benefit. If we're stuck with eating less when our brain wants to eat more, we have a better chance of eating less and liking it when the food is really good and from scratch basic ingredients.