Sunday Times 2
Sugar can trigger depression, anxiety and stress
View(s):Sugar may be sweet – but it’s effects on the body are far from it.
According to new research, too much sugar doesn’t just lead to weight gain, but also depression, anxiety and stress.
Eating a diet high in fructose as a teenager makes depression and anxiety worse, scientists found.
It also alters how the brain response to stress, they said.
Fructose is found naturally in fruits and vegetables, but is now also present in many foods bought at the supermarket, from fruit juice, to bicuits, cakes, and ice cream. The study found fructose can also alter how the brain responds to stress (AFP)
Fructose is a sugar found naturally in fruits and vegetables but is also added to processed foods and drinks – from biscuits to ice cream.
Scientists have found fructose appears to be linked to serious modern epidemics such as cancers, heart disease, hypertension, kidney damage, type 2 diabetes and even dementia.
But now researchers say it also stimulates pathways in the brain that affect how it responds to stress, which have important effects for behaviour.
It can worsen the symptoms related to depression and anxiety, they said.
These effects are particularly concerning during the teenage years, when a person’s stress response develops.
If the body’s stress response becomes too sensitive, teenagers risk growing up susceptible to high levels of stress.
Prolonged exposure to stress can raise blood pressure, suppress the immune system, increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, contribute to infertility, and speed up the aging process.
As part of the study, lead author Constance Harrell of Emory University in Atlanta, U.S., and her team gave teenage and adult rats either a standard diet, or one high in fructose.
After 10 weeks, they exposed the rats to stress, forcing them to swim or putting them in an elevated maze.
The teenage rats fed the high-fructose had a different stress hormone response to the test, including producing more of the stress hormone cortisol than the adult rats.
They showed depressed and anxious behaviour in response to the tests.
Scientists found that a genetic pathway in the brain that plays a key role in regulating the way it responds to stress was also altered as a result of the diet.
The findings indicate that eating a diet high in fructose throughout the teenage years may exacerbate depressive behaviours, researchers said.
They may also affect the way the body and brain responds to stress, they added.
‘Our results offer new insights into the ways in which diet can alter brain health and may lead to important implications for adolescent nutrition and development,’ Ms Harrell concluded.
© Daily Mail, London
| HOW THE BODY REACTS TO FRUCTOSE Although it is a simple sugar, glucose, rather than fructose is the body’s preferred energy source. Excess fructose in the body is turned into fat, which can lodge in the liver, leading to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Fructose puts an extra load on the liver, which in turn, prompts a range of problems, including raised levels of fat in the bloodstream. The sugar can also lead to insulin resistance- where the body stops detecting insulin levels in the blood – and so produces even more insulin. High levels of insulin in the blood also blocks the action of ‘hunger hormone’ leptin, which tells the brain when fat cells have enough energy. So high levels of insulin lead to leptin resistance and therefore obesity. |