Salty french fries could style good, however they only contribute to dehydration and weight problems. William Voon/EyeEm by way of Getty Pictures
Scientific research and media protection are rife with warnings on how sugar, carbohydrates, saturated fats and lack of train contribute to weight problems. And tens of tens of millions of Individuals are nonetheless chubby or overweight largely due to the basic Western food regimen and way of life.
As an educator, researcher and professor of drugs, I’ve spent greater than 20 years investigating the causes of weight problems, in addition to associated situations comparable to diabetes, hypertension and persistent kidney illness.
All through my a few years of learning weight problems and associated well being situations, I’ve noticed that comparatively little is claimed about two important items of this very advanced puzzle: lack of hydration and extreme salt consumption. Each are identified to contribute to weight problems.
Classes realized from a desert sand rat
Nature supplies a clue to the function these elements play with the desert sand rat Psammomys obesus, a half-pound rodent with a high-pitched squeak that lives within the salty marshes and deserts of Northern Africa. It survives, barely, by consuming the stems of Salicornia – the glasswort – a plant that appears a bit like asparagus.
Though low in vitamins, the glasswort’s fleshy, succulent sap is full of water that’s wealthy in salt, at concentrations as excessive as what’s present in seawater.
Current research have offered new insights into why the desert sand rat may crave the salty sap of glasswort. Though this has not but been confirmed particularly within the sand rat, it’s seemingly {that a} high-salt food regimen helps the sand rat convert the comparatively low quantity of carbohydrates it’s ingesting into fructose, a sort of sugar that happens naturally in fruits, honey and a few greens.
This helps the animal survive when meals and recent water are sparse. It is because fructose prompts a “survival swap” that stimulates foraging, meals consumption and the storage of fats and carbohydrates that shield the animal from hunger.
Nevertheless, when the rat is introduced into captivity and given the widespread rodent food regimen of about 50% carbohydrates, it quickly develops weight problems and diabetes. But when given recent greens low in starchy carbohydrates, the rodent stays lean.
The desert sand rat, also referred to as the fats sand rat, is definitely a gerbil. It’s present in Asia in addition to Africa.
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My analysis, and the analysis of many different scientists over the a long time, exhibits that many Individuals unwittingly behave very like a captive desert sand rat, though few are in settings the place meals and water are restricted. They’re consistently activating the survival swap.
Fructose and our diets
As talked about, fructose, a easy sugar, seems to have a key function in activating this survival swap that results in fats manufacturing.
Small quantities of fructose, like that present in a person fruit, aren’t the issue – reasonably it’s extreme quantities of fructose which can be problematic for human well being. Most of us get our fructose from desk sugar and high-fructose corn syrup. Consumption of those two sugars totals roughly 15% of energy within the common American food regimen.
These sugars encourage individuals to eat extra, which may result in weight achieve, fats accumulation and prediabetes.
Our our bodies additionally make fructose on their very own – and experimental research recommend it could be sufficient to set off the event of weight problems.
Desk sugar and high-fructose corn syrup are two of the culprits that may trigger weight achieve and weight problems.
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Since fructose is created from glucose, manufacturing of fructose will increase when blood glucose ranges are excessive. This course of occurs once we eat plenty of rice, cereal, potatoes and white bread; these are carbs that quickly launch glucose into the blood quickly.
And notably, fructose manufacturing will also be stimulated by dehydration, which drives fats manufacturing.
Fats supplies water
Fats has two main features. The primary one, which is well-known, is to retailer energy for a later time when meals is unavailable.
The opposite main however lesser-known operate of fats is to supply water.
To be clear, fats doesn’t include water. However when fats breaks down, it generates water within the physique. The quantity produced is substantial, and roughly equal to the quantity of fats burned. It’s so important that some animals depend on fats to supply water throughout instances when it’s not out there.
Whales are however one instance. Whereas they drink some seawater, they get most of their water from the meals they eat. And after they go for prolonged intervals with out meals, they get their water primarily by metabolizing fats.
Maintain the fries
The function of dehydration as a contributor to weight problems shouldn’t be underestimated. It generally happens after consuming salty meals. Each dehydration and salt consumption result in the manufacturing of fructose and fats.
That is why salty french fries are particularly fattening. The salt causes a dehydration-like state that encourages the conversion of the starch within the french fry to fructose.
What’s extra, research present most people who find themselves chubby or overweight don’t drink sufficient water. They’re way more prone to be dehydrated than those that are lean. Their salt consumption can also be very excessive in contrast with lean individuals’s.
Analysis exhibits that individuals with weight problems continuously have excessive ranges of vasopressin, a hormone that helps the kidneys maintain water to manage urine quantity.
However current research recommend vasopressin has one other objective, which is to stimulate fats manufacturing.
For somebody vulnerable to dehydration or hunger, vasopressin could have an actual survival profit. However for these not in danger, vasopressin may drive a lot of the metabolic results of extra fructose, like weight achieve, fats accumulation, fatty liver and prediabetes.
Consuming extra water
So does this imply ingesting extra water may also help us drop some pounds? The medical neighborhood has usually scoffed on the assertion. Nevertheless, our analysis workforce discovered that giving mice extra water slowed weight achieve and the event of prediabetes, even when the mice had diets wealthy in sugar and fats.
There’s additionally growing proof that most individuals drink too little water typically, and growing water consumption could assist people who find themselves overweight drop some pounds.
That’s why I encourage ingesting eight tall glasses of water a day. And eight is probably going sufficient; don’t assume extra is best. There have been instances of individuals ingesting a lot that “water intoxication” happens. That is notably an issue with individuals who have coronary heart, kidney or liver situations, in addition to those that have had current surgical procedure or are long-distance runners. It’s at all times good to first test along with your physician about water consumption.
For the desert sand rat, and for our ancestors who scavenged for meals, a high-salt and limited-water food regimen made sense. However human beings not reside that method. These easy measures – ingesting extra water and decreasing salt consumption – supply low cost, simple and wholesome methods which will forestall or deal with weight problems.
Richard Johnson is a Professor of Drugs on the College of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus who has acquired funding from the Nationwide Institutes of Well being, Veteran's Well being Administration, and Division of Protection to grasp the function of fructose metabolism in quite a lot of metabolic issues. He additionally has fairness with Colorado Analysis Companions LLC that’s creating inhibitors of fructose metabolism. He’s additionally creator of Nature Desires Us to Be Fats (Benbella books, 2022) that discusses the science of fructose and its function in weight problems and metabolic issues.
