In a highly valuable study conducted by biologists at the University of Utah, mice were fed sugar in the same doses as consumed by most people, to study its effects. It was noted that the fructose-glucose mixture present in high-fructose corn syrup was by far more toxic than table sugar or sucrose, which resulted in reduction of both the lifespan and reproduction of female rodents. It serves as an extremely helpful study demonstrating the effects of fructose-glucose mixture on the body.
The high-fructose corn syrup present in a large number of processed foods comprises approximately equivalent amounts of glucose and fructose. However, they are distinct molecules, known as monosaccharides, in corn syrup. Conversely, table sugar or sucrose is a disaccharide compound that is formed when glucose and fructose are chemically bonded. According to researchers, the potential effects of fructose-glucose mixture are of major concern and importance.
The study’s initial author, James Ruff, reveals that their earlier work as well as a number of other relevant investigations have depicted that added sugar is generally harmful for our body. Therefore, the first step should be to reduce the use of added sugar and then review in detail about the kind of sugar and how the consumption of products that contain high-fructose corn syrup can be reduced.
In the American diet, sucrose makes up 44 percent of the added sugar while 42 percent is high-fructose corn syrup. Juices, molasses, and honey, all of which combine glucose and fructose, make up the remaining 14 percent. A large number of early studies in people and rodents established a connection between fructose consumption and complications in metabolism, including insulin resistance, abnormal cholesterol, triglyceride levels, and obesity. Such studies revealed high-fructose corn syrup to have adverse effects on our body.
These findings indicate that sucrose is also harmful for males and poses the same dangers as high-fructose corn syrup. However, it is believed that the fructose-glucose diet may influence female mice more as compared to male mice since the latter experienced a superior metabolic energy crunch. The researchers think that whatever caused the unusual effects to the female mice on the fructose-glucose diet must have taken place at the time or before the monosaccharides were absorbed into the bloodstream.
The results do not necessarily translate from mice to humans. However, they do indicate the general effects of fructose-glucose mixture on our biological systems.
