Fructose does not have a good reputation. It has been
associated with diminished memory and ability to learn. High fructose corn
syrup is as widely used as it is reviled. New medical research has found that
fructose “turns off” a critical part of our brain that tells us when we are
full. What can be done?
There are several kinds of sugar in our diet. Two primary
sugars are glucose and fructose. Table sugar is a 50/50 split of glucose and
fructose. The evil high fructose corn syrup shifts the mix to 55% fructose and
45% glucose. This small change makes a big impact where it matters: in our
brain and around our middle.
Dr. Robert Sherwin is an endocrinologist at Yale
University. He wanted to study the effect of high fructose corn syrup on the
brain. He did this by rounding up 20 young, healthy people and studying their
brain activity as they drank beverages with and without high fructose corn
syrup.
Since he couldn’t saw open their skulls and watch, he
used the next best thing: a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device. This
gadget tracked the flow of blood through various regions of the brain as it
reacted to drinking the beverage.
The MRI scans showed that the area of the brain
responsible for feeling hunger was suppressed after drinking a beverage
containing glucose. This made sense, because the sweet beverage should satisfy
your hunger. However, that area of the brain was not suppressed after drinking
a beverage containing fructose.
That means that beverages that contain fructose can
actually mask the feeling of being full, causing you to eat more than you would
without the fructose! By reducing your intake of fructose, you are more likely
to feel full more quickly and perform that most vital of all exercises: pushing
away from the dinner table.
Give it a try! You might just find that your diet is a
whole lot easier to follow without a brain full of fructose.
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