Since the 1970's, there has been a 50% increase in sugar consumption in the American diet due to increases added sugars, primarily from high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) found in sodas and processed foods (Vos, Kimmons, Gillespie, Welsh, & Blanck, 2008). Although HFCS has a similar composition to table sugar, the high concentrations of HFCS being added to the American diet poses significant health risks, especially to the liver.
Unlike glucose, fructose metabolism is unregulated, bypassing the phosphofructokinase checkpoint and negative inhibition from ATP and citrate before entering the glycolytic pathway. Subsequently, fructose metabolism produces an abundance of acetyl-CoA which is converted to fat through de novo lipogenesis. With huge surges in HFCS consumption this problem is compounded (Jensen et al., 2018).
Adding insult to injury, fructose is mostly metabolized by the liver, whereas glucose is metabolized by almost every cell in the body. High levels of HFCS consumption overload the liver, cause stress, and favor de novo lipogenesis leading to an accumulation of fat particularly in liver cells. For these reasons, increases in sugar intake are especially harmful to the liver and have been linked to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and cited as a contributing factor to other metabolic diseases (Nomura & Yamanouchi, 2012). In addition, increases in NAFLD prevalence have paralleled increases in sugar consumption (“High Fructose Corn Syrup,” 2015). Key takeaway too much of anything is not good, especially if its fructose!
Citations
High Fructose Corn Syrup: Just Like Sugar, or Worse? (2015, January 8). Retrieved December 3, 2018, from https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/high-fructose-corn-syrup-vs-sugar
Jensen, T., Abdelmalek, M. F., Sullivan, S., Nadeau, K. J., Green, M., Roncal, C., … Johnson, R. J. (2018). Fructose and sugar: A major mediator of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Journal of Hepatology, 68(5), 1063–1075. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2018.01.019
Nomura, K., & Yamanouchi, T. (2012). The role of fructose-enriched diets in mechanisms of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, 23(3), 203–208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnutbio.2011.09.006
Vos, M. B., Kimmons, J. E., Gillespie, C., Welsh, J., & Blanck, H. M. (2008). Dietary Fructose Consumption Among US Children and Adults: The Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The Medscape Journal of Medicine, 10(7), 160.
Thank you for this post, Dana! I have always wondered why high fructose corn syrup was considered worse for you than sugar. This makes a lot of sense. I also found an article that found evidence that high fructose corn syrup can lead to arthritis (DeChristopher, Uribarri, & Tucker, 2016). They found that heavy intake of high fructose corn syrup from sugary drinks increased a person's risk for arthritis by 3 fold even in people as young as their 20-30s (DeChristopher, Uribarri, & Tucker, 2016). This could be due to the fact that the high fructose corn syrup causes the formation of advanced glycation end products from the intestines which then go to other parts of the body and cause inflammation (DeChristopher, Uribarri, & Tucker, 2016). I am definitely going to try and reduce my consumption of sodas and fruit juices!
ReplyDeleteDeChristopher, L. R., Uribarri, J., & Tucker, K. L. (2016). Intake of high-fructose corn syrup sweetened soft drinks, fruit drinks and apple juice is associated with prevalent arthritis in US adults, aged 20–30 years. Nutrition & Diabetes, 6(3), e199. https://doi.org/10.1038/nutd.2016.7