Sweets? Treats? No, Thanks — We’ll Have Salmon

Pastries in the morning, a bite of chocolate in the afternoon, soda at dinner time, and perhaps a scoop of ice cream each night — any of that sound familiar?

We’re fools if by now we don’t know that overindulging on sugar is unhealthy. Countless studies show it can lead to diseases like Alzheimer’s, heart disease and diabetes.

New research from UCLA, however, suggests that eating foods high in an omega-3 fatty acid known as docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA, seems to reverse the harmful changes produced by fructose.

In other words — you may want to start dishing out some wild salmon (farmed salmon doesn’t contain the same levels), walnuts, flaxseed, and fruits and vegetables to combat your sweet tooth.

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“DHA changes not just one or two genes; it seems to push the entire gene pattern back to normal, which is remarkable,” said Xia Yang, a senior author of the study and a UCLA assistant professor of integrative biology and physiology, in a statement.

It’s important to note, the researchers said, that while DHA occurs naturally in the membranes of our brain cells, it’s not in a large enough quantity to help fight diseases. We need more of it through our diet.

To test the effects of fructose and DHA, the researchers trained rats to escape from a maze, then randomly divided the animals into three groups. For the next six weeks, one group of rats drank water with an amount of fructose that would be roughly equivalent to a person drinking a liter of soda per day. The second group was given fructose water and a diet rich in DHA. The third received water without fructose and no DHA at all.

[lz_bulleted_list title=”High Fructose Foods” source=”http://nutritiondata.self.com”]Carbonated beverages|Honey|Condiments|Most tree fruits|Fruit juices|Molasses|Baby food[/lz_bulleted_list]

Six weeks later, the rats were put through the maze again. Those given only the fructose navigated the maze about half as fast than the rats that drank only water — indicating the fructose diet had impaired their memory. The rats that had been given fructose and DHA, however, showed very similar results to those that only drank water — suggesting the DHA had eliminated the fructose’s harmful effects.

Other tests revealed the rats receiving a high fructose diet had much higher blood glucose, triglycerides and insulin levels than the other two groups. 

Previous research has also shown that fructose damages communication between brain cells and increases toxic molecules in the brain, and that a long-term high-fructose diet diminishes the brain’s ability to learn and remember information.

“Food is like a pharmaceutical compound that affects the brain,” said Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a UCLA professor of neurosurgery and of integrative biology and physiology, and co-senior author of the study.

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Gomez-Pinilla recommends avoiding sugary soft drinks, cutting down on desserts, and generally consuming less sugar and saturated fat. While DHA appears to be beneficial, it is not a magic bullet for curing diseases. 

DHA may not be, but Dr. Matthew Potthoff, PhD, an assistant professor of pharmacology at University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, is optimistic about his recent discovery. Pothoff has also been studying the effects of a high fructose diet — specifically, what causes us to consume so much it knowing how toxic it can be for our health.

“Our cravings for sweets result from coordinated actions on the brain,” Potthoff told LifeZette. “When we consume sugars, reward pathways in the brain become stimulated and promote sugar intake or cravings.”

Potthoff was the co-senior author of a recent study, published in Cell Metabolism, which discovered how a liver-derived hormone called fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) actually sends a signal to the brain to suppress the preference for sweets. The more sugary treats we ingest, the more FGF21 is created. There are those, however, with a mutation in the FGF21 gene who do not get the brain message to stop.

Artificial sweeteners also present a problem, as they do not prompt production of the hormone. Pothoff says that is why diet sodas often backfire — they can cause people to reach for something with actual sugar, defeating their intended purpose.

The team concluded that FGF21 decreases appetite and intake of sugar. However, FGF21 does not reduce intake of all sugars (sucrose, fructose, and glucose) equally. FGF21 also doesn’t affect the intake of complex carbohydrates.

Pothoff’s team is encouraged by their findings, and they continue to look into the possibility at some point of an FGF21 supplement that could help lower the desire for sugar and be that magic bullet. Further studies, he said, are needed.