‘
When fighting obesity, high fat foods are often the primary target, but sugar-laden “diet” foods could be contributing to unwanted weight gain as well, says a new study from the University of Georgia, U.S. Researchers found that rats that were fed a diet high in sugar but low in fat — meant to imitate many popular diet foods — increased body fat mass when compared to rats that were fed a balanced rodent diet. The high-sugar diet induced a host of other problems that included liver damage and brain inflammation.
“Most so-called diet products containing low or no fat have an increased amount of sugar and are camouflaged under fancy names, giving the impression that they are healthy, but the reality is that those foods may damage the liver and lead to obesity as well,” says the study’s principal investigator, Dr. Krzysztof Czaja, an associate professor of veterinary biosciences and diagnostic imaging in UGA’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
ADVERTISEMENT