Study: Different People Show Differences In Fructose Metabolism.

fructose, which is widely consumed through high-fructose corn syrup, “may promote obesity and diabetes by overstimulating a hormone that helps to regulate fat accumulation,” citing a study unveiled on Monday in the journal Molecular Metabolism. Highlighting the importance of the study, the blog post notes that the Harvard Medical School study “marks the first time that scientists have identified a hormone that rises sharply and consistently in response to eating fructose.” According to the paper, the results suggest that people “may vary in their sensitivity to the sugar, and that eventually it may be possible to test an individual for susceptibility to illnesses linked to weight gain.” Some mornings the subjects were given the test with 75 grams of fructose instead of glucose. At other times, they were given a 75-gram mixture of fructose and glucose, similar to the sugar content of a 20-ounce bottle of Pepsi. Glucose had only a minimal impact on the hormone, called fibroblast growth factor 21, or FGF21. But fructose increased its levels; the largest dose increased hormone levels fourfold within two hours on average. The obese subjects had higher levels of FGF21 to begin with. A buildup of these triglycerides in the liver itself leads to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, an increasingly common metabolic disorder that affects about 10 percent of children and as many as a third of all adults. Fatty liver often coincides with insulin resistance, a precursor to Type 2 diabetes, and it is a strong risk factor for heart disease. FGF21 appears to be largely produced in the liver, and some researchers suspect that it helps to burn fat stores there and elsewhere in the body. But as fat accumulates and more of the hormone is released, the body may become desensitized to its effects. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/13/vulnerability-to-fructose-varies-health-study-finds/?_php=true&_type=blogs&ref=health&_r=0