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Type 2 diabetes fueled by added fructose
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Current dietary guidelines allowing 25% of total daily calories as added sugars are being challenged by researchers who are proposing reductions in the amount of added sugars people consume, according to recent review published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
“At current levels, added-sugar consumption, and added-fructose consumption in particular, are fueling a worsening epidemic of type 2 diabetes,” James J. DiNicolantonio, PharmD, a cardiovascular research scientist at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Mo., said in a press release. “Approximately 40% of US adults already have some degree of insulin resistance, with projections that nearly the same percentage will eventually develop frank diabetes.”
James J. DiNicolantonio
End-organ damage and diabetic complications have been linked to fructose consumption, particularly high-fructose corn syrup and sucrose.
DiNicolantonio and colleagues performed a comprehensive literature review that showed significant adverse metabolic harms (ie, worsening of glucose and insulin levels, glucose tolerance, blood pressure, fast storage, and lipids) when glucose-only starch or lactose is replaced with fructose-containing sucrose (even when calories were held constant), and these effects are greater when higher proportions of fructose are added to the diet.
DiNicolantonio suggests that added sugar levels should be more in line with the American Heart Association’s recommendations of no more than 6 teaspoons per day for women and no more than 9 teaspoons per day for men. Currently, there is no recommended restriction on fructose-containing added sugar in the American Diabetes Association guidelines or the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
“Clearly a calorie is not a calorie,” DiNicolantonio told Endocrine Today. “To say this differently, a calorie coming from added sugars is much more harmful than a calorie coming from starch or lactose for promoting diabetes.” – by Amber Cox
For more information:
James J. DiNicolantonio, PharmD, can be reached at jjdinicol@gmail.com.
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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