A report published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings is warning people to replace processed foods made with added sugars with whole foods like fruits and vegetables. Foods with added fructose, found in high fructose corn syrup, and sucrose are especially harmful.
Present guidelines from the Institute of Medicine allow for up to 25 percent of total daily calories to come from added sugars, however these added sugars have been linked to the development of type 2 diabetes and other metabolic disorders. In the U.S., one in 11 people have type 2 diabetes, which is around 29 million people. Globally, the number of people diagnosed with diabetes has doubled. In all, 75 percent of all packaged foods and beverages contain added sugars.
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"Approximately 40% of US adults already have some degree of insulin resistance with projections that nearly the same percentage will eventually develop frank diabetes," says lead author James DiNicolantonio of Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute, in Kansas City, MO, reported on Medical News Today.
The authors of the study report that excessive fructose causes insulin resistance. Sucrose is another name for table sugar while high fructose corn syrup is a fructose glucose liquid sweetener. When tested, the form that’s added to soda, tends to have more fructose than glucose.
"At current levels, added-sugar consumption, and added-fructose consumption in particular, are fueling a worsening epidemic of type 2 diabetes," says DiNicolantonio.
Though fructose is found naturally in fruits. It exists in much lower amounts than in processed foods and beverages. University of Utah researchers recently found that high fructose corn syrup was also more toxic than table sugar or sucrose.
James Ruff, the study’s author, says, “Our previous work and plenty of other studies have shown that added sugar in general is bad for your health. So first, reduce added sugar across the board. Then worry about the type of sugar, and decrease consumption of products with high-fructose corn syrup.”
Read more about places that high fructose corn syrup is hiding
High fructose corn syrup has been coming under fire lately. Another study also found that high consumption of the liquid sweetener led to memory loss in adolescent mice.
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