Is hidden fructose making you fat and lazy?

Is fructose making you fat?

If you aren't doing it already, now is the time to check food labels for fructose – particularly if you’re trying to lose weight.

A study at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois found that, matched calorie for calorie with the simple sugar glucose - fructose causes significant weight gain, physical inactivity, and body fat deposition.

Where is fructose hiding?

In the last 40 years, fructose has been on the increase in western diets. Because of the addition of high-fructose corn syrup to many soft drinks and processed baked goods, fructose currently accounts for 10 percent of the caloric intake of U.S. citizens.

Fructose vs. glucose

In a study based on the intake of fructose by adolescents in the United States, where there is a dramatic increase in obesity among young people, researchers studied two groups of mice for two-and-a-half months.

One group was fed a diet in which 18 percent of the calories came from fructose, mimicking the intake of adolescents in the United States, and the other was fed 18 percent from glucose.

The results showed that the fructose-fed mice displayed significantly increased body weight, liver mass, and fat mass in comparison to the glucose-fed mice. Remarkably, the researchers also found that not only were the fructose-fed mice gaining weight, they were also less active.

"The important thing to note is that animals in both experimental groups had the usual intake of calories for a mouse," said said Catarina Rendeiro, a postdoctoral research affiliate at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and lead author on the study. "They were not eating more than they should, and both groups had exactly the same amount of calories deriving from sugar, the only difference was the type of sugar, either fructose or glucose."

For more weight loss tips, click here

1. Prev:Eating out? 5 Best restaurant meal hacks for WEIGHT LOSS
2. Next:The less you sleep, the more you eat