Ditch package food, drinks to lessen hunger, sugar cravings

Ditching high fructose corn syrup found in soda and cakes can combat obesity, fatty liver disease and diabetes in as little as eight days.

Researchers got 40 obese children to cut the sugar out of their diet completely. In barely more than a week the results showed the participants had decreased cholesterol, blood pressure and liver fat levels.

High fructose corn syrup is found in 75 percent of packaged food and drinks largely because its cheaper and 20 percent sweeter than raw sugar.

The sweetener turns on pathways to convert the sugar into fat and store it instead of digesting the substance. The body can ditch the pounds once it’s cut from the diet.

High fructose corn syrup is found in 75 percent of packaged food and drinks. When consumed, it is mostly metabolized in the liver and transformed into fat.

The study was published in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.

Professor Jean-Marc Schwarz and colleagues from Touro University in California, United States (US), said removing fructose from the menu can combat obesity, fatty liver disease and diabetes without the need for medications.

It may be linked to liver conversion of sugar to fat, a process known as DNL (de novo lipogenesis), they said.

Compared to glucose, which metabolizes 20 percent in the liver and 80 percent throughout the rest of the body, fructose is 90 percent metabolized in the liver.

Fructose also converts to fat up to 18.9 times faster than glucose.

Professor Schwarz said: “Studies have shown diets high in simple sugars increase both DNL and liver fat.

“Importantly, removal of sugar from diets of children with obesity for only nine days consistently reduced DNL and liver fat and improved glucose and lipid metabolism.”

Fructose turns on the metabolic pathways that converts it to fat and stores it in the body, adding weight.

In the study of 40 obese nine to 18-year-old Americans, going without fructose for only nine days reduced their high cholesterol, blood pressure and insulin resistance.

“Importantly, these same participants had a 56 per cent decrease in DNL during feeding. Overall, liver fat concentration decreased by 22 per cent during fructose restriction,” Schwartz said.

It followed a smaller study on young men by the same team and achieved similar results.

“After as few as eight days a high fructose intake can increase both DNL and liver fat concentration,” he said.

The study showed that short-term restrictions on fructose could help immediately decrease both DNL and liver fat concentration for someone.

It adds to growing evidence DNL is the key linking high sugar consumption to cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.