Fruktosaren kontsumoak eragin ditzakeen osasun arazoak: konponbidea arazo bihurtzen denean

Abstract

Obesity is considered a major health problem, reaching epidemic magnitude and being one of the main causes of early deaths worldwide. Among the main features of this chronic-metabolic disease is its relationship with other metabolic conditions, being type 2 diabetes one of the most important ones. As for obesity, caloric-restriction is commonly used as therapeutic approach for diabetes. Nevertheless, since such treatments tend to reach low success, further interventions as sucrose replacement by fructose are widely used for these patients. Indeed, insulin is not necessary for fructose metabolism (unlike glucose), which occurs without changes in plasma glucose levels. Nevertheless, since the recent increase in fructose consumption occurred concomitantly with the prevalence increase of different metabolic disorders, much attention has been paid to this sugar, now considered the problem rather than the solution. For instance, excessive and/or chronic fructose consumption has been linked to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), mainly due to de novo lipogenesis activation, hepatic fatty-acid (FA) oxidation reduction, and gut microbiota composition and intestinal permeability impairments. Paradoxically excessive fructose consumption has also been related to insulin resistance (IR), being enhanced pancreatic insulin secretion and hepatic IR as the main underlying mechanisms. Finally, according to different studies, excessive and/or chronic fructose consumption can also induce excessive visceral adipose tissue (VAT) accumulation and dyslipidemia. Altogether, although once fructose consumption was considered healthy and the “solution” for different health alterations, its inadequate consumption also involves some risks. Therefore, administrations´ intervention is necessary to develop laws to reduce or regulate fructose consumption.