A new study shows that the health of overweight children and adults would improve drastically and quickly if they reduced their sugar consumption. File photo by Curioso/Shutterstock

Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Research shows overweight children and adults can significantly and quickly improve their health by consuming less sugar.

The study, published in the August edition of The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, or JAOA, found that improved health can be seen in less than two weeks with reduced sugar consumption.


Reducing or eliminating fructose, especially high-fructose corn syrup, or HFCS, from the diet can avert obesity, fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes.

Fructose accelerates the conversion of sugar to fat. Glucose metabolizes 20 percent in the liver and 80 percent throughout the body, while fructose metabolizes 90 percent in the liver and coverts to fat 18.9 times faster than glucose.

"Fructose provides no nutritional value and isn't metabolized in the brain. Your body converts it to fat, but doesn't recognize that you've eaten, so the hunger doesn't go away," Dr. Tyree Winters, an osteopathic pediatrician focused on childhood obesity, said in a press release. "Many young patients tell me they're always hungry, which makes sense because what they're eating isn't helping their bodies function."

HFCS can be found in 75 percent of packaged foods and drinks due to the fact that it is cheaper and 20 percent sweeter than raw sugar.

Fructose starts the metabolic pathways that converts to fat and is stored in the body.

"If we cut out the HFCS and make way for food that the body can properly metabolize, the hunger and sugar cravings fade. At the same time, patients are getting healthier without dieting or counting calories," Winters said. "This one change has the potential to prevent serious diseases and help restore health."