According to a study sponsored by the American Psychological Society, eating too much fructose can induce leptin resistance, a condition that can easily lead to becoming overweight.

Leptin is a hormone that plays a role in helping the body to balance food intake with energy expenditure. When leptin isn’t working — that is, when the body no longer responds to the leptin it produces — it’s called leptin resistance. Leptin resistance is associated with weight gain and obesity in the face of a high-fat, high-calorie diet, which is typical in industrialized countries.

It also appears that the fructose intake can produce higher levels of triglycerides in the blood.

Other studies have shown that elevated triglycerides impair the transport of leptin across the blood brain barrier. The researchers hypothesize that the elevation in triglycerides produced by fructose prevented leptin from reaching the brain. If leptin does not reach the brain, the brain will not send out the signal to stop eating.

What makes this response to fructose insidious is that many processed foods have high-fructose corn syrup as an ingredient, even those not normally considered sweets.

Today approximately 25 percent of our average caloric intake comes from sugars, with the large fraction as fructose.(1)

(1) Fallon, Sally and Mary Enig, Nourishing Traditions, New Trends Publishing, Washington DC, 2001, p. 23.

Related articles by Zemanta

• High Fructose Corn Syrup mob tries to take down our own Doug Aamoth
• High Fructose Corn Syrup is the Devil
• Corn Syrup’s New Disguise
• A Healthy Weight is Critical for Well-Being
• Is High-Fructose Corn Syrup Really Good for You?
• Skinny on sugar: Myths still dilute the sweet truth
• Tim Hayward: Advertising junk food to kids is the wrong message