New textbook provides facts and dispels myths on sugar/fructose consumption

Rippe Lifestyle InstituteApr 1 2014

A new textbook,  Fructose, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Sucrose and Health, published this month by Springer Press, under their Humana Press imprint, provides one of the most comprehensive scientific analyses on the closely-watched issue of caloric sweetener consumption.  It represents the most up-to-date review of relevant scientific data that seeks to provide facts and dispel myths for audiences that often receive conflicting information about sugar/fructose consumption.    

Chapters in the book discuss the effects of both nutritive and non-nutritive sweeteners on appetite and food consumption, as well as the physiologic and neurologic responses to sweetness.  Chapter authors are world class, practice and research oriented nutrition authorities. They provide practical, data-driven resources based upon the totality of the evidence to help the reader understand the basics of fructose, high fructose corn syrup and sucrose biochemistry.  The textbook also examines the short-term and long-term consequences of consuming these sweeteners in the diets of young children through to adolescence and adulthood.

"The issue of sugar and fructose consumption is one of the more prominent health issues currently being debated and there is quite a bit of misinformation and hyperbole in this issue," said the textbook's editor, James M. Rippe, MD, Founder and Director of the Rippe Lifestyle Institute and Professor of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Central Florida. "We were fortunate to get some of the best minds in the field of nutritional science to provide unvarnished, scientific facts about this issue in hopes of providing greater public understanding and a strong foundation for future scientific research in this field."

Some chapter highlights include:

• "Added Sugars and Health" by John L. Sievenpiper, MD, PhD., McMaster University : "Concerns raised by fructose's unique biochemistry and the ecological and animal studies linking added fructose to various diseases have not been supported by higher level evidence. Evidence from prospective cohort studies and controlled feeding trials when taken together has not shown convincing evidence of harm of added fructose-containing sugars over and above that of other carbohydrate sources of energy in the diet."
• "Are Sugars Addictive?" by Rebecca L. Corwin, Ph.D., RD, Pennsylvania State University and John E. Hayes, Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University: "We and others have argued against the idea that food addiction is widespread and functions as a driving force behind the current obesity epidemic. Even the idea that a small segment of the population, such as those with Bulimia Nervosa or a subpopulation of those with Binge Eating Disorder, is addicted to food is questionable and should be approached with caution."
• "Sweeteners and the Brain" by Athylia Paremski and Miguel Alonso-Alonso, MD, MPhil, Harvard Medical School: "Cognition can influence food intake at multiple stages. High-level cognitive inputs, such as the sight of a word, can modulate the activity of brain regions that are involved in processing sensory characteristics of a particular food, such as taste and smell, and the resulting reward value. There is also data suggesting that cognitive suppression of hunger and craving elicited by cues of palatable food engages the activity of a distributed brain network comprising lateral and dorsomedial parts of the prefrontal cortex. Additionally, it is well-known that branding can have a profound impact in the way a food product is perceived, specifically in the case of a sweetened beverage."
• "Non-Nutritive Sweeteners" by John D. Fernstrom, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine: "The influence of non-nutritive sweeteners on incretion secretion and action is still an unfinished area of investigation, but human studies in which NNS are covertly added to the diet for as long as 18 months, uniformly show that chronic NNS ingestion does not stimulate food intake or cause weight gain."
• "Sweeteners and Diabetes" by Adrian I. Cozma, HBSC, University of Toronto; Vanessa Ha, M.S.; Viranda H. Jayalath, M.S. (candidate); Russell J. de Souza RD, Sc.D., McMaster University; and John L. Sievenpiper MD, PhD., McMaster University: "Much of the evidence cited in support for a role of sugars in the increasing prevalence of obesity is derived from weak animal and ecological studies that establish associations, but not cause and effect relationships… the current evidence fails to show a clear link with, or between, sucrose and fructose and the increasing incidence of diabetes.