New Zealand is facing serious health problems because of the large amounts of sugar added to processed foods and soft drinks, University of Otago biochemist Associate Prof Tony Merriman warned yesterday.
After completing a doctorate in biochemistry at Otago in 1993, Prof Merriman undertook postdoctoral research on the genetics of type 1 diabetes at Oxford University.
He now leads an Otago University research group focusing on the genetic risk factors of gout in New Zealand's Maori, Pacific and Caucasian population.
Prof Merriman said many New Zealanders were aware of the dangers posed by fatty food, and steps had been taken to reduce salt content in some processed foods.
But many people were still unaware that the high amounts of sugar added to many processed foods, including bread, cakes, cereals, biscuits and some muesli bars, also posed major health risks, including contributing significantly to obesity.
Soft drinks with a high sugar content and fruit drinks with high levels of fructose also contributed to ill health.
Prof Merriman and another Otago University biochemistry graduate, Prof Chris Jenkinson, of San Antonio, Texas, plan to work together exploring genetic and environmental factors behind metabolic diseases including type 2 diabetes.
They plan to seek research funding from the US National Institutes of Health.
Prof Jenkinson is at Otago University as a William Evans Visiting Research Fellow while on sabbatical from the University of Texas Health Science Centre in San Antonio.
There he researches genetic factors linked to high rates of adult-onset diabetes among Mexican Americans.
He noted that a recent OECD report said New Zealand had the third-highest obesity rate (26.5%), behind only the United States (about 34%) and Mexico (30%), among 30 countries.
Prof Merriman said New Zealanders now ate "about 50 times more sugar and fructose than 100 years ago".
He noted that sucrose comprised one part of fructose and one part of glucose.
Unlike glucose, the metabolism of fructose was not regulated in the body, resulting in the uncontrolled production of uric acid in the blood.
This increased the chances of gout in people who had inherited genetic variants that resulted in lower excretion of uric acid in the urine.
Gout had been rare in Maori people 100 years ago, but increasing consumption of fructose was partly why the condition was now "very frequent".
Too much fructose was a likely contributor to other metabolic diseases and was known to increase bad lipids and boost appetite-promoting hormones, he said.
