Surprisingly, the answer is yes. It is a natural sugar called allulose. It has 70% of the sweetness of table sugar, but a completely different metabolic impact. First, it enters the blood quickly to provide the same sense of sweetness as sucrose, but it also leaves the body quickly before it can be used as energy or stored as fat. But during that short time in the body, allulose activates AMPK (1) and enhances the release of GLP-1 from the gut to improve satiety (2). It doesn’t get much better than that: a sweet taste that helps you lose weight.
On the other hand, table sugar (i.e., sucrose) does just the opposite; it makes you fat and keeps you hungry. Why? Sucrose is composed of equal parts glucose and fructose. Sucrose can’t enter the blood, but it is rapidly broken down by enzymes in the mouth into the simple sugars, glucose and fructose. The body very rapidly absorbs these two simple sugars.
The average American consumes about 70 grams of sugar daily. This is about 2-3 times more than the recommendations by the American Heart Association (AHA). In my opinion, AHA recommendations (36 grams for males and 25 grams for females) are still too high. Why? The reason is metabolic disruption. High blood glucose inhibits AMPK activity (3, 4). It is AMPK that accelerates the burning of stored fat and reduces insulin resistance. If AMPK is inhibited, you become fat and diabetic.
Fructose is a little different since it is highly metabolized in the liver to generate uric acid, which can accelerate the development of insulin resistance (5). It is insulin resistance that makes you fat and diabetic.
Bottom line: the more sugar you consume, the more you disrupt your metabolism. Artificial sweeteners have a different set of problems, such as altering the microbes in the gut (6).
That’s why allulose stands out. It is sweet. It’s natural. And it helps your metabolism instead of disrupting it.
References
1. Lee GH et al. D-allulose ameliorates adiposity through the AMPK-SIRT1-PGC-1α pathway in HFD-induced SD rats. Food Nutr Res. 65: 0.29219/fnr.v65.7803 (2021) doi: 10.29219/fnr.v65.7803.
2. Cayabyab KB et al. The metabolic and endocrine effects of a 12-week allulose-rich diet. Nutrients. 16:1821 (2024). doi: 10.3390/nu16121821. PMID: 38931176; PMCID: PMC11207032.
3. Coughlan KA et al. Nutrient excess in AMPK downregulation and insulin resistance. J Endocrinol Diabetes Obes. 1:1008 (2013)
4. Jiang P et al. Negative regulation of AMPK signaling by high glucose via E3 ubiquitin ligase MG53. Molecular Cell 81:629-637 (2021) doi.org/10.1016/j.molcel.2020.12.008.
5. Johnson RJ et al. Sugar, uric acid, and the etiology of diabetes and obesity. Diabetes 62: 3307–3315 (2013). doi.org/10.2337/db12-1814
6. Meenatchi M, Vellapandian C. Exploring the long-term effect of artificial sweeteners on metabolic health. Cureus 16:e70043 (2024). doi: 10.7759/cureus.70043.
