Drinks sweetened with fructose, sucrose up hepatic lipogenesis

Beverages sweetened with either fructose or sucrose seem to increase hepatic de novo fatty acid (FA) synthesis, a recent study has found. Interestingly, glucose-sweetened drinks do not have such an effect.

The researchers conducted a double-blind, randomized trial including 94 healthy men, who were assigned to daily consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) with moderate levels of fructose (n=23), sucrose (n=23), or glucose (n=22), or to an abstention control group (n=24).

FA and triglyceride synthesis, free FA oxidation, and lipolysis were all assessed via tracer analysis. The trial lasted for 7 weeks.

The median fractional secretion rate, as a measure of the activity of the FA synthesis pathway, was significantly elevated in the sucrose (20.8 percent per day; p=0.0015) and fructose (19.7 percent per day; p=0.013) SSB intervention groups relative to controls (9.1 percent per day). Those in the glucose arm, on the other hand, saw no such difference (11.0 percent per day; p=0.16).

Absolute secretion rates were also significantly increased after both the fructose (p=0.055) and sucrose (p=0.008) SSB interventions relative to the control group.

In terms of FA uptake from the plasma, the researchers looked at peripheral lipolysis but found no significant impact by SSB consumption.

“[O]ur study provides evidence that daily consumed fructose-containing beverages induce profound alterations in hepatic lipid metabolism, manifested as an increased basal lipogenic capacity,” the researchers said. “We hypothesize that this metabolic switch towards a higher lipogenic activity in the liver may pave the way for further changes affecting metabolic health.”