Diet Or Exercise? New Study Finds Sugar Is Important In Obesity, UK

Main Category: Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Also Included In: Sports Medicine / Fitness;  Nutrition / Diet
Article Date: 10 Aug 2007 - 2:00 PDT

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Scientists at the Medical Research Council have found that eating more sugar is associated with obesity. Although this may seem obvious, previous studies, which relied on self-reporting of diet, had not shown that this was the case. But researchers from the Medical Research Council and University of Cambridge looking into the links between diet and cancer have developed a new way of objectively measuring sugar consumption. This is important in establishing the cause of the UK's epidemic of obesity: lack of exercise or over-eating.

The team developed a new way of objectively measuring sugar consumption. Their findings about how much sugar overweight people consume are published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

Until now it had been very difficult to assess food intake, particularly sugar consumption, in large populations. Data from surveys seemed to show that as weight and body mass index increased, people underestimated their total food intake, including the amount of sugar they ate.

The team has developed a new urine test which allows them to work out how much sugar large numbers of people are eating for the first time. They measure the levels of urinary sucrose and fructose (two types of sugar) in spot urine samples.

Using data from hundreds of volunteers from the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer (EPIC) study, researchers have combined information from diet self-reporting with data from the urine and blood samples. They found that obese people underestimated the amount of sugar they consumed, while overestimating the amount of vitamin C they took in each day.

Professor Sheila Bingham, who led the study said: "The spot urine and blood tests established that obese people consume more sugar and less vitamin C than their thinner counterparts, but this did not show up when asked. Although obese people may have a less active lifestyle than people of normal weight, reports about what they ate were less accurate than those from their normal weight counterparts."

The 20% of people tested who consumed the least sugar ate about 76g per day but the 20% who ate the most took in an average 207g, nearly three times as much.

Professor Bingham, from the MRC Dunn Human Nutrition Unit and EPIC study continued: "These results show what many have suspected for some time: obese people are not able to tell us what they actually eat. If we are to tackle the scourge of obesity, both exercise and diet need to be taken into account."

1. Publication details

Epidemiologic assessment of sugars consumption using biomarkers: comparisons of obese and nonobese individuals in the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer Norfolk. Sheila Bingham, Robert Luben, Ailsa Welch, Natasa Tasevska, Nick Wareham and Kay Tee Khaw. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 16(8) August 2007.

2. Definitions

Sucrose and fructose are types of sugar. Sucrose is mostly found in table sugar, sugar used in cooking, preserves, cakes, biscuits, confectionary and soft drinks, while fructose is found in fruit and fruit products.

3. Medical Research Council

The Medical Research Council is dedicated to improving human health through excellent science. It invests on behalf of the UK taxpayer. Its work ranges from molecular level science to public health research, carried out in universities, hospitals and a network of its own units and institutes. The MRC liaises with the Health Departments, the National Health Service and industry to take account of the public's needs. The results have led to some of the most significant discoveries in medical science and benefited the health and wealth of millions of people in the UK and around the world.

http://www.mrc.ac.uk

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