Fructose is a sugar found in fruit. Fructose syrup is a common ingredient in table sugar, corn syrup, and many foods and beverages.
The Florida team fed two groups of mice the same diet, except that one group also consumed fructose syrup. After six months, members of the fructose group had higher levels of triglycerides in their blood. Next, the scientists injected all the rats with leptin, a substance that ordinarily would decrease appetite and lower food intake. However, the fructose group members did not decrease their food intake as the other group did.
Dr. Philip Scarpace, one of the authors of the study, believes that elevated triglycerides somehow prevent leptin from entering the brain. Leptin, Scarpace said, signals the brain to "stop eating".
The study appeared in the journal Regulatory Integrative and Comparative Physiology.
Labels: brain_activity, causes of childhood obesity, sugars
Posted By: Aspen Education Group
