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

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 BMIp25 kg/m 2 , n ¼ 10; obese BMIX30 kg/m 2 , n ¼ 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 (Po0.01). 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.

Urinary fructose: a potential biomarker for dietary fructose intake in children

“…This is also indirectly confirmed by our preliminary diet experiment in adults, which shows a consistent dose response to the ingested amount of fructose administered in the form of sucrose. In this diet experiment, the urinary sucrose excretion failed to turn out as a clear biomarker for sugar consumption, which is somewhat in contrast to the suggestions of other authors, who concluded that both sucrose and fructose are excreted in the urine proportionally to dietary intake (Luceri et al, 1996;Tasevska et al, 2005Tasevska et al, , 2009Joosen et al, 2008). However, in some of these studies, either a higher intraindividual variation (Tasevska et al, 2005) or a less consistent association (Luceri et al, 1996) was seen for urinary sucrose compared with fructose.…”

Biomarkers in nutritional epidemiology: applications, needs and new horizons

“…The sucrose measured in urine is derived from dietary sucrose that has escaped enzymatic hydrolysis in the small intestine and is excreted from the general circulation, while the fructose in the urine represents a small fraction of dietary fructose and fructose derived endogenously from hepatic metabolism of sucrose (Tasevska et al 2008). Results from subjects housed in metabolic suites and fed controlled diets suggest that BMI does not aVect the validity of urinary sugars as a biomarker of sugar intake (Joosen et al 2008), which is not well estimated from dietary assessments in obese individuals ). Thus, these predictive biomarkers may be utilized for the purposes of dietary questionnaire validation or as biomarkers of exposure in the overall population.…”

Serum fatty acid profiling within distinct lipid fractions provides a more robust indicator of insulin resistance in humans than total triglyceride and fatty acid profiles

“…Joosen et al subsequently determined that body mass index does not influence the association between dietary sugar intake and urinary sucrose levels [370].…”