Affect on weight gain and sugar water on Mice Research Paper

Affect on weight gain and sugar water on Mice - Research Paper Example Overweight and obesity are interrelated terms for many health complications. Children and adolescents also fall under this category. Many health complications such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, breast, colon and prostate cancers and depression are associated with the obesity and overweight.. Obesity is caused due to the imbalance in the energy homeostasis. Many factors such as metabolic, environmental, cultural, socioeconomic, genetic and behavioral factors are associated with the obesity and overweight. The reason for the increase in the body weight was identified as increased carbohydrate intake mainly in the form of sugars. Carbohydrate intake increases the blood glucose and insulin levels. If simple carbohydrates are taken in the food, the production of glucose is very high and it increases the blood glucose level. Undigestable carbohydrates do not increase the blood glucose level as that of simple sugar and simple carbohydrates. This sort of hyperglycemic re sponse increases the carbohydrate oxidation and contributes to the body fat gain. (Malik, Schulze and Hu). The sudden changes in the blood glucose contribute to the variation in the postprandial glucose concentration. This finally affects the metabolism of the body and induces weight gain. Our body can store 300-500g of carbohydrates as glycogen in the human body and the rest are oxidized and converted into fat. The studies have confirmed that a 480g of oral carbohydrate load did not induce the fat oxidation in the young adults. (Saris). If the percentage of carbohydrate intake is very high then the increase in the body weight will be drastic. The increase in the body weight also leads to the risk of coronary heart disease and Type 2Diabetes mellitus. Obesity is generally caused by the difference in the energy homeostasis of food intake and daily physical activity. Obesity is the nutrition related problem in the developing and developed countries. To overcome obesity, many health gu idelines are focused such as increase in the physical activity and reducing the intake of foods containing sugar and fat. Sugar is a disaccharide molecule. Sucrose, maltose and lactose are compound sugars with the general formula C12H22O11 . (Saris). Sucrose is the common sugar used in our day to day life. Sucrose contains glucose and fructose. Sucrose is the most important dietary factor for weight gain. Readily digestible food have high glycemic index( GI) with higher post prandial blood glucose and insulin concentrations than the less digestible carbohydrates. Sugar containing foods have high glycemic index and increase the carbohydrate oxidation and contribute to body weight. (Saris). Similarly high fructose and galactose content increases the body weight. The galactose and fructose are used as sweeteners in the food and they increase the blood glucose concentration on ingestion. The sweet taste of the sugar is the main reason for the preference and intake of carbohydrate rich f ood. Diet induced obesity is caused by the conversion of carbohydrates into fat deposits in the white adipose tissue and the liver. (Lowndes et al.). The energy metabolism and carbohydrate and lipid metabolism are regulated by a complex network of signaling processes. High sucrose diet can induce the expression of the white adipose tissue and mRNA of liver Lipoprotein lipase enzyme. High sucrose diet is found to increase the risks of cancer. Pancreatic cancer is the most pre dominant cancer in this case. The diet that contains high concentration of sucrose and dextrin acts as the