La consommation de fructose est-elle associée au syndrome métabolique ?

Fructose, as a free hexose, is found in small amounts in fruits and honey. Together with glucose, it constitutes the sucrose molecule, and is consumed in large amounts with “added sugars”. In North America, it has been in part replaced by high fructose corm syrup. Several observations converge towards a role of fructose in the pathogenesis of the metabolic syndrome: consumption of sugars and fructose, (all forms) increased within the same period as the prevalence of obesity and metabolic disorders; a high fructose diet is responsible for the development of a metabolic syndrome in rodents (obesity, diabetes, dyslipidemia, ectopic fat deposition ±  high blood pressure); in human volunteers, a short-term fructose overfeeding causes metabolic alterations very similar to those encountered in obese subjects (hypertriglyceridemia, hepatic insulin resistance, ectopic lipid deposition); the amount of daily fructose consumed by one portion of our population is in the range of fructose intakes which can increase plasma triglyceride concentrations in humans, and thus increase cardio-metabolic risk. However, further studies are needed to better delineate the interactions between fructose intake and other environmental factors. In addition, intervention studies are needed in patients with the metabolic syndrome to prove that fructose plays a causal, pathogenic role.