Rare Sugar Allulose Might Control Blood Glucose Levels

Highlights

• Allulose is a rare sugar syrup (RSS) developed from High fructose corn syrup has anti-obesity and anti-diabetic effects.
• Allulose, is naturally found in fruits and vegetables but in minute quantities and is 70 percent as sweet as sucrose.
• Uncommon sugars that are emerging in the market could give a ray of hope to consumers, and mainly diabetics.

  
  Sucrose is the natural sweetener most labels refer to when sugar is on the ingredient list. It's abundant, and manufacturers figured out long ago how to extract it on a large scale from sugar cane and other sources.

  ‘Rare Sugar Syrup allulose maintains glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, by enhancing nuclear export of hepatic glucokinase. This enzyme facilitates conversion of glucose to glycogen to be stored in the liver.’

  Rare Sugar - Allulose
  
  Allulose and other low-calorie, natural rare sugars could help regulate glucose levels. Allulose, which is 70 percent as sweet as sucrose, and other rare sugars also can be found in fruits and vegetables but in very small amounts.
  
  Recently, however, researchers discovered an industrial way to produce allulose in large quantities from high-fructose corn syrup, which contains about equal parts glucose and fructose.
  
  Preliminary animal studies have suggested that allulose and other low-calorie, natural rare sugars could help regulate glucose levels.Tomoya Shintani and colleagues wanted to confirm that allulose -- and potentially other rare sugars -- yield these results and to take a step toward understanding why.
  
  Testing Allulose in Mice
  
  To investigate, the team of scientists gave three groups of rats plain water, water with high-fructose corn syrup and water with rare-sugar syrup (RSS) containing glucose, fructose, allulose and other rare sugars for 10 weeks.
  
  The rats drinking RSS-infused water gained less weight, had less abdominal fat, and had lower blood glucose and insulin levels compared to the high-fructose corn syrup group.
  
  The study also showed that the liver cells' nuclei in the RSS rats exported to the cytoplasm higher amounts of glucokinase, an enzyme that reduces blood-sugar levels by helping convert glucose to its stored form, glycogen. Although further testing is needed, the researchers say, the findings suggest that rare sugars could be a good alternative sweetener.
  
  Key Findings
  
  

  • RSS significantly suppressed body weight gain and abdominal fat mass.
  • Glucose tolerance test revealed lower blood glucose levels and lower levels of insulin.
  • The amount of hepatic glycogen was more than three times higher in the RSS group than that in the other groups.
  • After glucose loading, the nuclear export of glucokinase was significantly increased in the RSS group, compared to the water group. These results imply that RSS maintains glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, at least partly, by enhancing nuclear export of hepatic glucokinase.

  Reference
  

  1. Tomoya Shintani et al., Rare Sugar Syrup Containing D-Allulose, but not High Fructose Corn Syrup, Maintains Glucose Tolerance and Insulin Sensitivity Partly via Hepatic Glucokinase Translocation in Wistar Rats, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (2017) http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jafc.6b05627.
  
  
  Source: Medindia

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