Excessive intake of fructose may cause Type II diabetes

This paper was published in Endocrine Reviews 2009 Feb;30(1):96-116

Study title and authors:

Hypothesis: could excessive fructose intake and uric acid cause type 2 diabetes?

Johnson RJ, Perez-Pozo SE, Sautin YY, Manitius J, Sanchez-Lozada LG, Feig DI, Shafiu M, Segal M, Glassock RJ, Shimada M, Roncal C, Nakagawa T.
Division of Nephrology, Hypertension and Transplantation, University of Florida, P.O. Box 100224, Gainesville, Florida 32620-0224, USA. johnsrj@medicine.ufl.edu

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19151107

Johnson puts forward the hypothesis that excessive fructose intake of more than 50 grams per day may be one of the underlying causes of metabolic syndrome (a precursor to type II diabetes) and type II diabetes. Johnson chose the amount of 50 grams per day of fructose as excessive because studies show that obesity rates rise as fructose consumption rises above this amount.

Major sources of fructose are sugar (sucrose) and high fructose corn syrup which were all but absent from the diet in previous eras, but which are now in many, many food products.

Johnsons research unearths the following:
(a) A 30% increase in fructose consumption over the last 30 years has coincided with large rises in the rates of obesity and diabetes.
(b) The ingestion of excessive fructose induces features of metabolic syndrome such as high fasting blood sugar levels, high triglyceride levels, high blood pressure, abdominal weight gain and low levels of the beneficial high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol.
(c) Fructose raises uric acid levels which are implicated in the development of the metabolic syndrome.

This paper shows that type II diabetes may result from the excessive intake of fructose.