Fructose can make you eat more than you should

(Image source: iStock)

Because it is more potent and cheaper than regular sugar, high fructose corn syrup has been widely used by the food industry. However, this change may be causing consumers to overeat and the cause may be the way the brain interacts with fructose.

Researchers at Yale University in the United States have come to the conclusion that the human brain does not register a feeling of satiety in a similar way to glucose intake. To conduct the study, the scientists used a magnetic resonance imaging machine to monitor the blood flow in the brains of 20 youngsters after they drank glucose or fructose drinks at two-week intervals.

Examinations have shown that by drinking glucose, the brain shuts down or reduces activities in the region responsible for feeling rewarded or craving for food. However, when consuming fructose, these changes were not noticed, that is, the desire to eat continues to exist.

The research was conducted with people of weight within the average considered healthy by doctors and now will also be conducted with obese, to verify if the action of fructose acts in the same way in both groups of volunteers.

If you want to keep fit, just take the advice of the experts: Cook more at home and avoid processed foods containing high fructose corn syrup. As might be expected, something easy to say but hard to accomplish.