Researchers using MRI scans showed that glucose "turns off" or suppresses the activity of the brain in areas that are critical for reward and desire for food. Thus drinks sweetened with glucose turned off the desire for food. Fructose didn't have the same inhibitory effect seen on MRI.
Glucose is not as sweet as fructose, and sugary drinks are not typically sweetened with glucose alone. They can be sweetened with sucrose (table sugar) which is a disacharide, a glucose and fructose molecule (50%-50%), or high fructose corn syrup, which is around 45% glucose and 55% fructose. Our sweeteners may be setting us up for weight gain and metabolic changes that can increase our risk for heart disease and diabetes. (All Sugars Aren't the Same: Glucose Is Better, Study Says.)
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By MARILYNN MARCHIONE and MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writers
This is your brain on sugar – for real. Scientists have used imaging tests to show for the first time that fructose, a sugar that saturates the American diet, can trigger brain changes that may lead to overeating.
After drinking a fructose beverage, the brain doesn't register the feeling of being full as it does when simple glucose is consumed, researchers found.
It's a small study and does not prove that fructose or its relative, high-fructose corn syrup, can cause obesity, but experts say it adds evidence they may play a role. These sugars often are added to processed foods and beverages, and consumption has risen dramatically since the 1970s along with obesity. A third of U.S. children and teens and more than two-thirds of adults are obese or overweight.
All sugars are not equal – even though they contain the same amount of calories – because they are metabolized differently in the body. Table sugar is sucrose, which is half fructose, half glucose. High-fructose corn syrup is 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose. Some nutrition experts say this sweetener may pose special risks, but others and the industry reject that claim. And doctors say we eat too much sugar in all forms.
For the study, scientists used magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, scans to track blood flow in the brain in 20 young, normal-weight people before and after they had drinks containing glucose or fructose in two sessions several weeks apart…
Keep reading: Brain image study: Fructose may spur overeating – DC Breaking Local News Weather Sports FOX 5 WTTG.
