WeightControl.com Interview with:
Katie Page, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine
Co-Director, Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute
Department of Internal Medicine
Division of Endocrinology
USC Keck School of Medicine
WeightControl.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Health experts advise people to cut back on sugar. My team at Keck School of Medicine at USC has been researching whether the type of sugar people consume makes a difference on their health. In this paper, we examined how appetite regulating hormones respond to sucrose compared to glucose. Sucrose is a disaccharide that contains equal parts of glucose and fructose, whereas glucose is a simple sugar (or monosaccharide).
The different structures affect the way the sugars interact with tissues, which influences their effects on the body. In prior studies, we showed that the monosaccharide, fructose, produces lower levels of hunger suppressing hormones than glucose. In this study, we were interested in examining sucrose because it is more of a real-world sugar and one of the most commonly consumed added sugars in our diet.
WeightControl.com: What should readers take away from your report?
Response: We found that sucrose is less effective at increasing hunger suppressing hormones when compared to glucose. This was particularly true for individuals with obesity. It is important to keep in mind that all added sugars, whether glucose or sucrose or other types of added sugars, can be harmful for your health if consumed in excess.
WeightControl.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this work?
Response: This study was conducted in young, healthy adults and over a relatively short time span of 2-hours. It would be interesting for future studies to test the effects of sucrose compared to glucose on appetite regulating hormones over a longer time frame and in different age groups as well as in people with health conditions, such as diabetes.
WeightControl.com: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Response: The majority of sucrose in the American diet comes from sugar-sweetened foods and beverages. I would advise reducing the consumption of sugar-sweetened foods and beverages and instead eating more whole foods, like fruits and vegetables, which have many health benefits.
This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health. I have no disclosures.
Citation:
Alexandra G Yunker, Shan Luo, Sabrina Jones, Hilary M Dorton, Jasmin M Alves, Brendan Angelo, Alexis DeFendis, Trevor A Pickering, John R Monterosso, Kathleen A Page. Appetite regulating hormones are reduced after oral sucrose vs glucose: influence of obesity, insulin resistance and sex. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2020; DOI: 10.1210/clinem/dgaa865
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Last Updated on December 14, 2020 by weightcontrol