A new study published in the Journal of Hepatology suggests that consuming even moderate amounts of sugar may affect the metabolism.
The research was carried out by scientists from Switzerland and Austria.
Veggies and fruits contain some sugars as natural components. Nevertheless, many food manufacturers use added sugars in many processed foods to boost the flavor and enhance the texture and appearance.
Multiple studies have proved the link between high sugar consumption and different health issues, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity, or type 2 diabetes.
The World Health Organization advises that people should not eat more than 25g or 6 teaspoons of added sugar on a daily basis.
In this study, scientists tried to examine how the body changes when people take in moderate amounts of sugar.
94 healthy participants were recruited for this project, which took place from 2013 to 2016. They were all male, aged 18 to 30 years, and had a moderate weight.
In the first step, all participants had to refrain from sugar-sweetened drinks for four weeks. After this period, they started consuming beverages containing glucose, sucrose, or fructose 3 times a day. This is equivalent to 80 grams of each kind of sugar a day.
Another group was asked to stop the consumption of these sugar-sweetened products.
The scientists used tracers to find out how sugary beverages affected the participants. These are basically substances that may be followed when they move in the body.
The results show that the consumed calories were not more than those before the study. Researchers assume that sugary beverages may increase satiety and cause them to eat less food.
More importantly, added sugar may affect overall health.
Those people who consumed drinks with fructose had more fat than those who drank glucose-containing beverages or those who refrained from these products.
The buildup of fat in the liver may result in severe health problems, such as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes.
An especially surprising result by the scientists was that table sugar or sucrose enhanced the production of fat a bit more than fructose.
This study plays an important part in examining the harmful effects of sugar and helping dietitians make significant recommendations in the future.
However, the research also has some limitations.
It did not control how participants complied with the study. Also, scientists did not know the intestinal capacity of all individuals.
Source:
www.journal-of-hepatology.eu/article/S0168-8278(21)00161-6/fulltext
