Nutritional experts have for years debated on the primary culprit for increasing obesity. While diets that are high in fat and carbohydrates contribute to the condition, it turns out, fructose may be one true driver of obesity, according to a study.
According to Richard Johnson, from University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, the primary problem in obesity is fructose -- which is present in table sugar and high fructose corn syrup.
Fructose can also be made in the body from carbohydrates (particularly glucose).
When fructose is metabolised, it lowers the active energy in the body (known as ATP, or adenosine triphosphate) which causes hunger and food intake.
What Johnson calls the “fructose survival hypothesis” brings together most of the dietary hypotheses of obesity, including the two that have been most incompatible with each other -- the energy balance theory, which proposes too much food (and primarily fat) drives obesity, and the carbohydrate-insulin model, which puts carbohydrates at the centre of weight gain.
“Fructose is what triggers our metabolism to go into low power mode and lose our control of appetite, but fatty foods become the major source of calories that drive weight gain,”Johnson said.
Obesity is a known risk factor for various diseases including heart disease, diabetes, cancer and dementia.
Data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) shows that worldwide, more than 1 billion people are obese -- 650 million adults, 340 million adolescents, and 39 million children.
