Thursaday May 29, 2014 (foodconsumer.org) -- Richard J. Johnson and colleagues published a review in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggesting that fructose may increase risk of a range of chronic diseases including hypertension, obesity, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus, kidney disease and cardiovascular disease.

The authors hypothesize that sugar particularly excessive intake of fructose may raise risk of cardiorenal disease mediated by a metabolite of fructose called uric acid.  The authors argue that black Americans have high rates of cardiovascular disease and renal disease probably because they are more susceptible to the effect of fructose/uric acid.

The review also suggests that testing fructose in rodents may give a misleading conclusion because rodents are able to convert uric acid into allantoin quickly with an enzyme called uricase.  When uricase is blocked, 5-fold greater increase in uric acid concentrations were observed.  High uric acid can lead to serious metabolic disorders.

If this hypothesis is current, they controlling intake of fructose and or reducing uric acid in patients with uric acid greater than 6.0 mg/dL will improve endothelial dysfunction, lower blood pressure, body weight and risk of the progression of renal disease and cardiovascular disease.  Also blocking fructokinase can help prevent cardioreneal disease. (David Liu)

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