Sugary Drinks Can Tweak The Way Your Body Burns Fat

We don’t need to learn rocket science to know that sweetened drinks – especially ones with added sugars – are terrible for our system and can pack an alarming amount of fat on our body. However, did you know that these aerated beverages are guilty of ay more – they can tweak the way your body burns and/or stores fat? A new study throws some light on the matter.

The Study

During the study, researchers picked 27 young healthy people who were then asked to add a sugary drink to their special protein-rich meal. These people and their activities were observed in special isolated rooms called “room calorimeters.” These rooms were fully equipped with a bed, a toilet, a sink and some other furniture, and equipment to measure the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide along with temperature and air pressure.

The participants spent two 24-hour periods in theses rooms. Each period started at 4pm, and each participant had dinner at 5pm in the chamber. This was then followed by fasting until breakfast the next morning.

Each meal, which was served with a sugary beverage (containing either natural or synthetic sweeteners), given to the participants contained 15% protein. If the naturally sweet drink was served at breakfast, the participant received the artificially sweetened drink at lunch, and vice versa. This allowed the researchers to understand if there was any difference between how the meal was metabolized when it was combined with sugar, versus without sugar.

The Inference

Based on the measurements gathered from the isolated rooms, the experts inferred the foods the participants ate affected their metabolism, including how many calories they burned and how they broke down fat, protein and carbohydrates.

The researchers observed that pairing the participants’ meal with a sugary drink retarded their bodies’ fat-burning ability decreased by 8% as compared to when the meal was served with an artificially sweetened drink.

“We were surprised by the impact that the sugar-sweetened drinks had on metabolism when they were paired with higher-protein meals,” lead study author Shanon Casperson, a research biologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, said in a statement.

Moreover, the new addition to their meal also increased their food cravings post the meal. “This combination also increased study subjects’ desire to eat savory and salty foods for four hours after eating,” Casperson added.

Source: Live Science