For some Greenlanders, eating sugar is healthy:
"Adult Greenlanders with the genetic variation have lower BMI, weight, fat percentage, cholesterol levels and are generally significantly healthier. They have less belly fat and might find it easier to get a six pack. It is amazing and surprising that a genetic variation has such a profoundly beneficial effect," says University of Copenhagen biology professor Anders Albrechtsen.
Along with colleagues from the University of Copenhagen, the University of Southern Denmark and a number of research institutions and public agencies in Greenland, Professor Albrechtsen analysed data from 6,551 adult Greenlanders and conducted experiments on mice.
The results demonstrate that carriers of the genetic variation have what is known as sucrase-isomaltase deficiency, meaning that they have a peculiar way of metabolizing sugar in the intestine. Simply put, they do not absorb ordinary sugar in the bloodstream the way people without the genetic variation do. Instead, sugar heads directly into their intestine.
"Here, gut bacteria convert the sugar into a short-chain fatty acid called acetate, which in previous studies has been shown to reduce appetite, increase metabolism and boost the immune system. That is most likely the mechanism happening here," explains Mette K. Andersen, an assistant professor at the Center for Metabolism Research at the University of Copenhagen and first author of the study.
The reason for this widespread genetic variation among Greenlanders is due to a diet that has stood out from that of the rest of the world for millennia.
[...] While the variation has clear health benefits for adult Greenlanders, it is problematic for their children.
"Younger carriers of the variation experience negative consequences due to their different type of sugar absorption. For them, consuming sugar causes diarrhea, abdominal pain and bloating. Our guess is that as they age, their gut bacteria gradually get used to sugar and learn how to convert it into energy," explains Torben Hansen, a doctor and professor at the University of Copenhagen's Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research.
Journal Reference:
Mette K. Andersen, Line Skotte, Emil Jørsboe,et al. Loss of sucrase-isomaltase function increases acetate levels and improves metabolic health in Greenlandic cohorts. Gastroenterology, 2021; DOI: 10.1053/j.gastro.2021.12.236
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 23 2021, @07:36PM
when you can't absorb the sugar. You may as well just not eat it in the first place?
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday December 23 2021, @08:03PM (5 children)
I guess it'll make you at least look better [schlockmercenary.com]. Interesting though that gut bacteria again are significant actors in run-time [sic] human health.
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Thursday December 23 2021, @08:57PM (4 children)
Acetate is not a plastic. Although there may be some technical distinction that I don't understand, acetate is just acetic acid, i.e. concentrated vinegar.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 24 2021, @12:12AM (2 children)
Not just acetic acid.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 24 2021, @01:21PM (1 child)
Acetate contains lead and acid, that's whats in vinegar? Basically they are feeding people battery fluids?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 24 2021, @01:48PM
bruh
(Score: 2) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Friday December 24 2021, @12:17AM
The only thing missing is that acetate is what you have left when the hydrogen atom goes away from acetic acid, which is sort of what acids are all about.
Couldn't be a plastic being only two carbon atoms long. Plastics are polymers.
(Score: 3, Touché) by jelizondo on Thursday December 23 2021, @08:44PM (1 child)
Around here is usually very easy to get six pack and it does get converted into acetate [nih.gov]
by the liver.
What? You mean abdominal muscles? Well, write that, not "six pack"! Morons.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday December 24 2021, @06:25AM
Your liver converts bottles into acetate?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday December 23 2021, @09:11PM (1 child)
Isn't this just basic arctic living? Consume food with a lot of or high energy such as anything fat. Suger might be secondary, it has energy and it taste fairly good. They are not clubbing seals and such cause it's just so much fun. After all the place is cold and miserable and you need all the energy and warmth you can get.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 23 2021, @09:26PM
I'm gonna club this baby seal, to make a better deal! 'Cause I'm CRAZY!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 24 2021, @08:24AM (1 child)
Sounds like lactose intolerance. So hurray you can't digest sucrose but you get sucrose intolerance? How's that healthy again?
It's only healthy if you stick to consuming small amounts of sucrose and don't do it regularly? Then d'oh that's the same for most of the rest of us.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 24 2021, @01:31PM
From TFA:
> Imagine being able to swap out broccoli for sweets, Ben & Jerry's or some other sugary treat and achieve the same health benefits. This is fact not fantasy for about two to three percent of the Greenlandic population.
This mutation turns sweets into broccoli.
(Score: 2) by Username on Friday December 24 2021, @08:34AM (1 child)
So the nordic types are usually tall and skinny because of genetics. I would have never guessed.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Tokolosh on Friday December 24 2021, @03:52PM
This kind of privilege is an abomination. It must be stopped. I'm calling for quotas and less diversity.