I had an enjoyable debate on the mechanism driving obesity with Layne Norton. At one point Layne argued that while the animal data was impressive, that the clinical trials were generally negative. He then emailed me the papers supporting his claim. However, almost all were funded by the sugar industry and were poor quality. Here are excerpts:
“Study quality was poor for at least 60% of the trials” (Effect of fructose on body weight in controlled feeding trials: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Ann Intern Med 2012)
“There were a limited number of subjects in the included studies, the majority of which were also of poor design and poor study quality” (Effect of Fructose on Established Lipid Targets: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Controlled Feeding Trials. J Am Heart Assoc 2015))
“Study quality was poor in 46% of the trials. Most of the low-quality scores were attributable to a lack of or poor description of randomization, nonconsecutive or poorly described patient selection and absence of blinding.” ( Effect of fructose on markers of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD): a systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled feeding trials. Eur J Clin Nutr 2014)
“Several limitations exist within the analyses. First are the inconsistent results between similarly designed trials.”( Effect of fructose on postprandial triglycerides: a systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled feeding trials. Atherosclerosis 2014).
Watch the video here.