Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
    • Front Matter Portal
    • Journal Club
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
  • Submit
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • PNAS Staff
    • FAQ
    • Accessibility Statement
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Site Map
  • Contact
  • Journal Club
  • Subscribe
    • Subscription Rates
    • Subscriptions FAQ
    • Open Access
    • Recommend PNAS to Your Librarian

User menu

  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Home
Home
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Special Feature Articles - Most Recent
    • Special Features
    • Colloquia
    • Collected Articles
    • PNAS Classics
    • List of Issues
  • Front Matter
    • Front Matter Portal
    • Journal Club
  • News
    • For the Press
    • This Week In PNAS
    • PNAS in the News
  • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Information for Authors
    • Editorial and Journal Policies
    • Submission Procedures
    • Fees and Licenses
  • Submit
Research Article

Differential effects of fructose versus glucose on brain and appetitive responses to food cues and decisions for food rewards

Shan Luo, John R. Monterosso, Kayan Sarpelleh, and Kathleen A. Page
  1. aDivision of Endocrinology and
  2. cDiabetes and Obesity Research Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089; and
  3. bDepartment of Psychology and
  4. dNeuroscience Graduate Program, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089

See allHide authors and affiliations

PNAS May 19, 2015 112 (20) 6509-6514; first published May 4, 2015; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1503358112
Shan Luo
aDivision of Endocrinology and
bDepartment of Psychology and
cDiabetes and Obesity Research Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089; and
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
John R. Monterosso
bDepartment of Psychology and
dNeuroscience Graduate Program, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Kayan Sarpelleh
aDivision of Endocrinology and
cDiabetes and Obesity Research Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089; and
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Kathleen A. Page
aDivision of Endocrinology and
cDiabetes and Obesity Research Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089; and
dNeuroscience Graduate Program, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: kpage@usc.edu
  1. Edited by Todd F. Heatherton, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, and accepted by the Editorial Board April 8, 2015 (received for review February 18, 2015)

  • Article
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Significance

Fructose compared with glucose may be a weaker suppressor of appetite. Here we sought to determine the effects of fructose versus glucose on brain, hormone, and appetitive responses to food cues and food-approach behavior. We show that the ingestion of fructose compared with glucose resulted in smaller increases in plasma insulin levels and greater brain responses to food cues in the visual cortex and left orbital frontal cortex. Ingestion of fructose versus glucose also led to greater hunger and desire for food and a greater willingness to give up long-term monetary rewards to obtain immediate high-calorie foods. These findings suggest that ingestion of fructose relative to glucose activates brain regions involved in attention and reward processing and may promote feeding behavior.

Abstract

Prior studies suggest that fructose compared with glucose may be a weaker suppressor of appetite, and neuroimaging research shows that food cues trigger greater brain reward responses in a fasted relative to a fed state. We sought to determine the effects of ingesting fructose versus glucose on brain, hormone, and appetitive responses to food cues and food-approach behavior. Twenty-four healthy volunteers underwent two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) sessions with ingestion of either fructose or glucose in a double-blinded, random-order cross-over design. fMRI was performed while participants viewed images of high-calorie foods and nonfood items using a block design. After each block, participants rated hunger and desire for food. Participants also performed a decision task in which they chose between immediate food rewards and delayed monetary bonuses. Hormones were measured at baseline and 30 and 60 min after drink ingestion. Ingestion of fructose relative to glucose resulted in smaller increases in plasma insulin levels and greater brain reactivity to food cues in the visual cortex (in whole-brain analysis) and left orbital frontal cortex (in region-of-interest analysis). Parallel to the neuroimaging findings, fructose versus glucose led to greater hunger and desire for food and a greater willingness to give up long-term monetary rewards to obtain immediate high-calorie foods. These findings suggest that ingestion of fructose relative to glucose results in greater activation of brain regions involved in attention and reward processing and may promote feeding behavior.

  • fructose
  • glucose
  • fMRI
  • food cue
  • decision making

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: kpage{at}usc.edu.
  • Author contributions: S.L. and K.A.P. designed research; S.L. and K.S. performed research; S.L., J.R.M., and K.A.P. analyzed data; and S.L., J.R.M., and K.A.P. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. T.F.H. is a Guest Editor invited by the Editorial Board.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1503358112/-/DCSupplemental.

View Full Text
PreviousNext
Back to top
Article Alerts
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on PNAS.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Differential effects of fructose versus glucose on brain and appetitive responses to food cues and decisions for food rewards
(Your Name) has sent you a message from PNAS
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the PNAS web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Neurobehavioral effects of fructose vs. glucose
Shan Luo, John R. Monterosso, Kayan Sarpelleh, Kathleen A. Page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 2015, 112 (20) 6509-6514; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1503358112

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
Neurobehavioral effects of fructose vs. glucose
Shan Luo, John R. Monterosso, Kayan Sarpelleh, Kathleen A. Page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 2015, 112 (20) 6509-6514; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1503358112
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley

Article Classifications

  • Biological Sciences
  • Psychological and Cognitive Sciences
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 112 (20)
Table of Contents

Submit

Sign up for Article Alerts

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Abstract
    • Results
    • Discussion
    • Materials and Methods
    • Acknowledgments
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Figures & SI
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

You May Also be Interested in

Setting sun over a sun-baked dirt landscape
Core Concept: Popular integrated assessment climate policy models have key caveats
Better explicating the strengths and shortcomings of these models will help refine projections and improve transparency in the years ahead.
Image credit: Witsawat.S.
Model of the Amazon forest
News Feature: A sea in the Amazon
Did the Caribbean sweep into the western Amazon millions of years ago, shaping the region’s rich biodiversity?
Image credit: Tacio Cordeiro Bicudo (University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil), Victor Sacek (University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil), and Lucy Reading-Ikkanda (artist).
Syrian archaeological site
Journal Club: In Mesopotamia, early cities may have faltered before climate-driven collapse
Settlements 4,200 years ago may have suffered from overpopulation before drought and lower temperatures ultimately made them unsustainable.
Image credit: Andrea Ricci.
Steamboat Geyser eruption.
Eruption of Steamboat Geyser
Mara Reed and Michael Manga explore why Yellowstone's Steamboat Geyser resumed erupting in 2018.
Listen
Past PodcastsSubscribe
Birds nestling on tree branches
Parent–offspring conflict in songbird fledging
Some songbird parents might improve their own fitness by manipulating their offspring into leaving the nest early, at the cost of fledgling survival, a study finds.
Image credit: Gil Eckrich (photographer).

Similar Articles

Site Logo
Powered by HighWire
  • Submit Manuscript
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS Feeds
  • Email Alerts

Articles

  • Current Issue
  • Special Feature Articles – Most Recent
  • List of Issues

PNAS Portals

  • Anthropology
  • Chemistry
  • Classics
  • Front Matter
  • Physics
  • Sustainability Science
  • Teaching Resources

Information

  • Authors
  • Editorial Board
  • Reviewers
  • Subscribers
  • Librarians
  • Press
  • Site Map
  • PNAS Updates
  • FAQs
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Rights & Permissions
  • About
  • Contact

Feedback    Privacy/Legal

Copyright © 2021 National Academy of Sciences. Online ISSN 1091-6490