Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Original Article
  • Published:

Urinary sugars biomarker relates better to extrinsic than to intrinsic sugars intake in a metabolic study with volunteers consuming their normal diet

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 63, pages 653–659 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Sugars in diet are very difficult to measure because of the unreliability of self-reported dietary intake. Sucrose and fructose excreted in urine have been recently suggested as a biomarker for total sugars intake. To further characterize the use of this biomarker, we investigated whether urinary sugars correlated better to extrinsic compared to intrinsic sugars in the diet.

Subjects/Methods: Seven male and six female healthy participants were living for 30 days in a metabolic suite under strictly controlled conditions consuming their usual diet as assessed beforehand from four consecutive 7-day food diaries kept at home. During the 30-day study, all 24 h urine specimens were collected, validated for their completeness and analysed for sucrose and fructose.

Results: The mean total sugars intake in the group was 202±69 g day−1. Daily intake of extrinsic, intrinsic and milk sugars contributed 60.1, 34.4 and 5.5%, to the total sugars intake, respectively. The individuals' 30-day mean sugars excretion levels were significantly correlated with the 30-day means of extrinsic sugars (r=0.84; P<0.001) but not with the intrinsic sugars intake (r=0.43; P=0.144). In the regression, only extrinsic sugars intake explained a significant proportion of the variability in sugars excretion (adjusted R2=0.64; P=0.001); daily excretion of 100 mg sucrose and fructose in urine predicted 124 g of extrinsic total sugars in the diet. Using fewer urinary and dietary measurements in the analysis did not change the overall trend of the findings.

Conclusions: In this group of volunteers, sucrose and fructose in urine better correlated to extrinsic than to intrinsic sugars intake.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1
Figure 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bergmeyer HU (1974). Methods of Enzymatic Analysis. Academic Press: New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bingham S, Cummings JH (1983). The use of 4-aminobenzoic acid as a marker to validate the completeness of 24 h urine collections in man. Clin Sci (Lond) 64, 629–635.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bingham S, Luben R, Welch A, Tasevska N, Wareham N, Khaw KT (2007). Epidemiologic assessment of sugars consumption using biomarkers: comparisons of obese and nonobese individuals in the European prospective investigation of cancer Norfolk. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 16, 1651–1654.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bingham SA (2002). Biomarkers in nutritional epidemiology. Public Health Nutr 5, 821–827.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brody T (1999). Nutritional Biochemistry. Academic Press: London. (Chapter 4; p 211–12).

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen PY, Popovich PM (2002). Correlation: Parametric and Nonparametric Measures. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Deane N, Smith HW (1955). Fate of inulin and sucrose in normal subjects as determined by a urine reinfusion technique. J Clin Invest 34, 681–684.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Department of Health (1989). Dietary Sugars and Human Disease: Report of the Panel on Dietary Sugars. H.M.S.O.: London. Report No.: 37.

  • Elmer AW, Krasowska M, Ptaszek L (1939). Sucrosuria. A rare metabolic error. Acta Med Scand 101, 596–608.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Englyst KN, Englyst HN (2005). Carbohydrate bioavailability. Br J Nutr 94, 1–11.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gaby AR (2005). Adverse effects of dietary fructose. Altern Med Rev 10, 294–306.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Haber GB, Heaton KW, Murphy D, Burroughs LF (1977). Depletion and disruption of dietary fibre. Effects on satiety, plasma-glucose, and serum-insulin. Lancet 2, 679–682.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Henderson L, Gregory J, Irving K, Swan G (2003). The National Diet and Nutrition Survey: Adults Aged 19 to 64 Years (Volume 2—Energy, Protein, Carbohydrate, Fat and Alcohol Intake). H.M.S.O.: London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaaks R, Riboli E, Sinha R (1997). Biochemical markers of dietary intake. IARC Sci Publ 103–126.

  • Lineback DR, Jones JM (2003). Sugars and Health Workshop: summary and conclusions. Am J Clin Nutr 78, 893S–897S.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Luceri C, Caderni G, Lodovici M, Spagnesi MT, Monserrat C, Lancioni L et al. (1996). Urinary excretion of sucrose and fructose as a predictor of sucrose intake in dietary intervention studies. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 5, 167–171.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Macdonald I, Keyser A, Pacy D (1978). Some effects, in man, of varying the load of glucose, sucrose, fructose, or sorbitol on various metabolites in blood. Am J Clin Nutr 31, 1305–1311.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Menzies I (1974). Absorption of intact oligosaccharide in health and disease. Biochem Soc Trans 2, 1042–1047.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nelson M, Black AE, Morris JA, Cole TJ (1989). Between- and within-subject variation in nutrient intake from infancy to old age: estimating the number of days required to rank dietary intakes with desired precision. Am J Clin Nutr 50, 155–167.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Poppitt SD, Swann D, Black AE, Prentice AM (1998). Assessment of selective under-reporting of food intake by both obese and non-obese women in a metabolic facility. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 22, 303–311.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pryer JA, Vrijheid M, Nichols R, Kiggins M, Elliott P (1997). Who are the ‘low energy reporters’ in the dietary and nutritional survey of British adults? Int J Epidemiol 26, 146–154.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schatzkin A, Kipnis V, Carroll RJ, Midthune D, Subar AF, Bingham S et al. (2003). A comparison of a food frequency questionnaire with a 24-hour recall for use in an epidemiological cohort study: results from the biomarker-based Observing Protein and Energy Nutrition (OPEN) study. Int J Epidemiol 32, 1054–1062.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Southgate DA (1995). Digestion and metabolism of sugars. Am J Clin Nutr 62, 203S–210S; discussion 211S.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tasevska N, Runswick SA, McTaggart A, Bingham SA (2005). Urinary sucrose and fructose as biomarkers for sugar consumption. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 14, 1287–1294.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wareham NJ, Jakes RW, Rennie KL, Schuit J, Mitchell J, Hennings S et al. (2003). Validity and repeatability of a simple index derived from the short physical activity questionnaire used in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. Public Health Nutr 6, 407–413.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Welch AA, McTaggart A, Mulligan AA, Luben R, Walker N, Khaw KT et al. (2001). DINER (Data Into Nutrients for Epidemiological Research)—a new data-entry program for nutritional analysis in the EPIC-Norfolk cohort and the 7-day diary method. Public Health Nutr 4, 1253–1265.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • WHO (2003). Diet, nutrition and the prevention of chronic diseases: report of a joint WHO/FAO expert consultation. WHO Technical Report Series, No. 916 World Health Organization: Geneva.

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank our diet technicians Judith Wills and Valerie Church for preparing the study diets and taking care of the volunteers. This study was funded by grants from the World Cancer Research Fund and the UK Medical Research Council.

Author information

Author notes

  1. N Tasevska

    Present address: 3Current address: Nutritional Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, 6120 Executive Boulevard, Suite 320, Rockville, MD 20852, USA.,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. MRC Dunn Human Nutrition Unit, Wellcome Trust/MRC Building, Cambridge, UK

    N Tasevska, S A Runswick & S A Bingham

  2. Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    A A Welch, A McTaggart & S A Bingham

Authors
  1. N Tasevska
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. S A Runswick
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. A A Welch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. A McTaggart
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. S A Bingham
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to S A Bingham.

Additional information

Contributors: NT was involved in the study design, processed the dietary data, did the statistical analysis, interpreted the data and drafted the article. NT and SAR recruited the subjects and were responsible for data collection and urine analysis. AAW set up the dietary software. AMT contributed to the dietary data analysis. SAB obtained the funding, initiated and supervised the project, designed the study and revised the article. SAR, AAW and AMT commented on the article. None of the authors had a conflict of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Tasevska, N., Runswick, S., Welch, A. et al. Urinary sugars biomarker relates better to extrinsic than to intrinsic sugars intake in a metabolic study with volunteers consuming their normal diet. Eur J Clin Nutr 63, 653–659 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2008.21

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2008.21

Keywords

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links