Sweet Danger

Overeating any type of food will make you overweight but it seems one type of sugar is worse than other fodder. The culprit is fructose, which along with glucose, is a component of ordinary table sugar. Scientists already knew that fructose increased the likelihood of overeating because it doesn’t trigger the ‘full up’ mechanisms in our brain. And now they’ve found another way fructose can make us overweight – by encouraging the growth of fat cells (pictured) in the liver and stimulating our appetites during the process. This double action can lead to fatty liver disease, obesity and diabetes. What’s more the harmful effects seen in the liver happen even when someone doesn’t overeat. More work is needed to confirm the hypothesis that fructose intake underpins the recent explosion in obesity and diabetes but it’s clear that not all calories are equal.

Written by Julie Webb

Julie Webb

Writer

Julie began her career as a researcher in genetics. In 2000 she won a Wellcome Trust award for her work on a collaborative science drama, staged at the Edinburgh Festival. She now works as a freelance science writer and communicator.

• Image courtesy of David Gregory and Debbie Marshall
• Wellcome Images
• Originally published under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence
• Research published in Diabetes, October 2013