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Urinary sucrose and fructose as biomarkers of sugar consumption: comparison of normal weight and obese volunteers

International Journal of Obesity volume 32, pages 1736–1740 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Using urinary sugars as a biomarker of consumption, we have previously shown that obese people consume significantly more sugars than individuals of normal weight. However, there is concern that recovery of this biomarker may differ between normal weight and obese individuals. A total of 19 subjects, divided into two groups according to their body mass index (BMI) (normal weight BMI⩽25 kg/m2, n=10; obese BMI⩾30 kg/m2, n=9), participated in a randomized crossover dietary intervention study of three diets providing 13, 30 and 50% of energy from sugars for 4 days each while living in a volunteer suite. The mean urinary sucrose and fructose excretions in 24-h urine increased with increasing sugar consumption over the three dietary periods in both BMI groups and were significantly different between the diets (P<0.01). There was no significant interaction effect of BMI class on the mean urinary excretions of these sugars with different sugar intakes, either as absolute values or expressed as a percentage of total sugar intake. In conclusion, BMI does not affect the validity of sucrose and fructose excretions in 24-h urine collections used as biomarkers to estimate total sugar consumption.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Tommy Wood and Mahtab Sharifi for help in data collection, Valerie Church, Judith Wills and Hilary Slack for preparing the study diets and taking care of the volunteers and Professor Nick Finer for valuable discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    A M C P Joosen, G G C Kuhnle, S A Runswick & S A Bingham

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  1. A M C P Joosen
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  2. G G C Kuhnle
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  3. S A Runswick
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  4. S A Bingham
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to A M C P Joosen.

Appendices

Appendix 1

Table A1

Table a1 Study diets (10 MJ)
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Appendix 2

Table A2

Table a2 Nutrient composition (10 MJ dieta)
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Joosen, A., Kuhnle, G., Runswick, S. et al. Urinary sucrose and fructose as biomarkers of sugar consumption: comparison of normal weight and obese volunteers. Int J Obes 32, 1736–1740 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2008.145

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