Sugar Reduction and Metabolic Health Improvements in Children

Food Facts / November 2, 2015

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco studied the health effects of children on a reduced sugar diet. This study consisted of children who were obese and had at least one metabolic disorder. Over nine days, the children ate a diet restricted in sugar, but still consumed the same number of calories from carbohydrates as they did before the study. The goal of the study was not weight loss, but instead to study the effects of sugar on metabolic health.

The study produced dramatic results; after following a sugar restricted diet for just 9 days, participants’ metabolic health dramatically improved. According to the study’s lead author, “This study definitively shows that sugar is metabolically harmful not because of its calories or its effects on weight; rather sugar is metabolically harmful because it’s sugar”.

In additional to the health benefits demonstrated, study participants’ satiety was also impacted. Participants reported feeling as if they were consuming much more food than prior to the study, when in fact they were eating the same number of calories as before. The only difference was that their food had significantly less sugar.

“This study demonstrates that ‘a calorie is not a calorie.’ Where those calories come from determines where in the body they go. Sugar calories are the worst, because they turn to fat in the liver, driving insulin resistance, and driving risk for diabetes, heart, and liver disease.”

Source:
http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2015/10/136676/obese-childrens-health-rapidly-improves-sugar-reduction-unrelated-calories