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Articles on Metabolic diseases

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Fruit bats have honed their sweet tooth through adaptive evolution. Keith Rose/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Why don’t fruit bats get diabetes? New understanding of how they’ve adapted to a high-sugar diet could lead to treatments for people

Fruit bats can eat up to twice their body weight in fruit a day. But their genes and cells evolved to process all that sugar without any health consequences − a feat drug developers can learn from.
Around 25-30% of obese people have no metabolic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease, or significant risk factors. WitthayaP/Shutterstock

Clue to why some people are healthy and obese

Some obese people may be able to remain metabolically healthy despite their size because their bodies produce low levels of a certain molecule, according to a study published today in the journal Cell…
An excess of the one of the two amino acids in the artificial sweetener aspartame is a significant concern for people with phenylketonuria. Hugo Wetterberg/Flickr

Why artificial sweetener can be dangerous

When you buy a diet coke, or any other consumables containing the artificial sweetener aspartame, you’ll see a warning against consuming the product if you have phenylketonuria, an inherited metabolic…
Evidence suggests that up to 30% of people who are obese are perfectly healthy. Rudd Centre for Food Policy

Appearance vs. reality: the perfectly healthy obese

No one can claim to be unaware of the risks of obesity in this day and age. Almost every day there are discussions in the media about the risks of carrying excess fat. But research shows the link between…

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