Rare sugars: metabolic impacts and mechanisms of action: a scoping review

Smith, Alison; Avery, Amanda; Ford, Rebecca; Yang, Qian; Goux, Aurélie; Mukherjee, Indraneil; Neville, David C.A.; Jethwa, Preeti

Abstract

Food manufacturers are under increasing pressure to limit the amount of free sugars in their products. Many have reformulated products to replace sucrose, glucose and fructose with alternative sweeteners, but some of these have been associated with additional health concerns. Rare sugars are "monosaccharides and their derivatives that hardly exist in nature", and there is increasing evidence that they could have health benefits. This review aimed to scope the existing literature in order to identify the most commonly researched rare sugars, to ascertain their proposed health benefits, mechanisms of action and potential uses, and to highlight knowledge gaps. A process of iterative database searching identified 55 relevant articles. The reported effects of rare sugars were noted, along with details of the research methodologies conducted. Our results indicated that the most common rare sugars investigated are D-psicose and D-tagatose, with the potential health benefits divided into three topics: glycaemic control, body composition and cardiovascular disease. All the rare sugars investigated have the potential to suppress postprandial elevation of blood glucose and improve glycaemic control in both human and animal models. Some animal studies have suggested that certain rare sugars may also improve lipid profiles, alter the gut microbiome and reduce pro-inflammatory cytokine expression. The present review demonstrates that rare sugars could play a role in reducing the development of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and/or cardiovascular disease. However, understanding of the mechanisms by which rare sugars may exert their effects is limited, and their effectiveness when used in reformulated products is unknown.

Citation

Smith, A., Avery, A., Ford, R., Yang, Q., Goux, A., Mukherjee, I., Neville, D. C., & Jethwa, P. (2022). Rare sugars: metabolic impacts and mechanisms of action: a scoping review. British Journal of Nutrition, 128(3), 389-406. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114521003524

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 6, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Sep 10, 2021
• Publication Date: Aug 14, 2022
• Deposit Date: Sep 6, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 15, 2021
• Journal: British Journal of Nutrition
• Print ISSN: 0007-1145
• Electronic ISSN: 1475-2662
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 128
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 389-406
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114521003524
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/6185936
• Publisher URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-nutrition/article/rare-sugars-metabolic-impacts-and-mechanisms-of-action-a-scoping-review/9F897F8CFEB966C31D123483CC12338F
• Additional Information: Copyright: © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Nutrition Society; License: This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.; Free to read: This content has been made available to all.