The Sugar That Staves Off Hunger

Sugar is sugar, right? Maybe not. Turns out that there is one type of sweetener that helps fill you up, while another leaves you craving more.

The two sugars in question: glucose and fructose. Glucose appears to quell hunger, and fructose seems to ramp it up.

Sweet, and Then Some
The sugars may affect your appetite differently because of the unique ways in which they affect malonyl-CoA, an important appetite-suppressing molecule in the brain. Glucose causes malonyl-CoA to rise, resulting in less food intake. Fructose, on the other hand, lowers malonyl-CoA, resulting in more food intake. (Get the whole story on sugar substitutes.)

How to Cut Back
To avoid the hunger-stimulating effects of fructose, researchers recommend kicking high-fructose corn sweeteners out of the diet as much as possible. But it will be tricky. They can be ubiquitous in processed foods. Read this YOU Doc's blog for some ideas on where to cut back. And try these three additional ways of turning off your appetite:

• Eat more olive oil. Read about the special appetite-controlling kind of fat in this oil.
• Quench your appetite. Find out how hunger and thirst often get confused for one another.
• Lift weights. Physical activity makes you less hungry.

Effect of glucose and fructose on food intake via malonyl-CoA signaling in the brain. Lane, M. D., Cha, S. H., Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 2009 Apr 24;382(1):1-5.