Obesity linked to body's sugar production

Researchers have suggested that the cause of obesity and insulin resistance may be linked to the fructose a person's body makes in addition to the fructose they eat.

The team led by researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine claimed that fatty liver and insulin resistance may also result from fructose produced in the liver from non-fructose containing carbohydrates.

First authors are Miguel Lanaspa, PhD, and Takuji Ishimoto, MD, reported that mice can convert glucose to fructose in the liver, and that this conversion was critical for driving the development of obesity and insulin resistance in mice fed glucose.

Senior author Richard Johnson, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the division of renal diseases and hypertension at the School of Medicine, said that their study shows that much of the risk from ingesting high glycemic foods is actually due to the generation of fructose, which is a low glycemic sugar.

The study has been published in the Nature Communications.