Steer clear of high fructose products if you want to keep control of your eating habits, scientists advise
Drinking or eating products high in fructose fails to give you that feeling of fullness that helps let you know when to stop, US scientists have found.
Normally, your brain lets you know that you've had enough and it's time to quit, but consumption of fructose apparently fails to trigger the same response. Fructose is a naturally-occurring sugar found in fruit, but its evil relative, high-fructose corn syrup, is a common ingredient in processed food and drink, and is a killer for dieters as well as anyone trying to eat healthily.
The truth about high-fructose corn syrup
The good news is that not all sugar is bad. Results of the experiment, carried out by Yale University endocrinologist Dr Robert Sherwin, showed that sipping drinks containing glucose ‘turns off or suppresses the activity of areas of the brain that are critical for reward and desire for food’ so you feel full after consuming them and are inclined to stop. With fructose, however, the sugar triggers changes in the brain that may encourage you to overindulge as ‘the desire to eat continues’ and is not suppressed. This might also explain why sweet things can be so more-ish.
Eat for happiness
Processed foods that contain high levels of fructose include baked goods, ketchup and soft drinks.
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