The purpose of this study was to determine whether different types of carbohydrate diets with or without exercise changes energy metabolism at rest and during exercise.
To minimize differences in food and energy intake between experimental groups, mice were pair-fed. After 1 week of adaptation, 40 male ICR mice (6 weeks old) were randomly divided into four groups: Sta. (high fat + high starch), Scu. (high fat + high sucrose), StaEX. (high fat + high starch + exercise), and SucEX. (high fat + high sucrose + exercise). StaEX. and ScuEX. groups underwent training by running on a treadmill five times a week. After 10 weeks of training, energy metabolism was measured for 24 h and during a 1 h exercise period.
The final body weight showed no significant difference between the groups. However, the weight of abdominal tissues (epididymal, perirenal, and mesenteric adipose tissue) in training groups was markedly decreased following 10 weeks of training. Results of all energy metabolism (24 h at rest and during 1 h of exercise) showed no significant interactions between diet and exercise. A brief summary of the results of the energy metabolism is that the metabolism related indicators over 24 h were more affected by the dietary pattern than the exercise but during the 1 h of exercise, training had more effect on energy metabolism than diet.
Our findings confirm that: (a) the type of carbohydrates included in the diet influence the metabolic responses over 24 h, (b) training had more effect on energy metabolism than diet during 1 h of exercise, (c) both results; abdominal adipose tissue weight and fat oxidation during exercise are suggestive for a beneficial effect of moderate physical activity on weight maintenance.
Child obesity has become a significant health issue in Korea. Along with the adaptation to a Western diet over the past decades, the dietary patterns of the Korean population, especially Korean children and adolescents, have gradually been changing. The Western diet includes not only a diet high in processed or fast foods, but also physical inactivity
In this study, we used two types of carbohydrates, sucrose and starch. Sucrose, the scientific name for sugar, is a disaccharide, which is a combination of two monosaccharides
Although there is increasing interest in understanding the relationships between different types of dietary carbohydrates and appetite regulation, energy metabolism, body weight, and body composition, little is known about the impact of the consumption of different types of carbohydrates on metabolic responses, at rest and during exercise, in childhood. Most previous studies have focused only on the effects of diet
Prospective clinical studies on a high fat-high sucrose diet would be unethical because of the known detrimental metabolic consequences of this diet in humans. Therefore, we employed an animal model to examine the effect of a high-fat diet combined with different types of carbohydrates on energy metabolism. Five-week-old male ICR mice (n = 40) were purchased from Orient Rio Company (Seongnam, Korea). All mice were kept in a specific pathogen-free (SPF) environment (humidity; 50% and temperature 23 ± 1 °C) and housed in conventional cages (n = 5 per cage) under a standard 12 h light/dark cycle. Food intake and body weight were measured daily for 10 weeks.
During the one-week adaptation period, general clinical symptoms were observed and mice were selected and randomized according to the weight range. After adaptation, mice (6 weeks old) were randomly divided into four groups: Sta. (high fat + high starch), Scu. (high fat + high sucrose), StaEX. (high fat + high starch + exercise), and SucEX. (high fat + high sucrose + exercise). StaEX. and ScuEX. groups underwent training by running on a treadmill five times a week. After 10 weeks of training, energy metabolism was measured for 24 h at rest and during 1 h of exercise.
All experimental procedures were approved by the Animal Experiment Research Center of Konkuk University and Ethics Committee of the Konkuk University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (Permit Number: KU17114).
We designed studies to test the metabolic flexibility of mice to adapt to high fat and high sucrose or high starch diets through changes in substrate utilization. To clarify the influence of different types of carbohydrates on energy metabolism, mice were fed a high sucrose or a high starch diet containing identical amounts of proteins and lipids. Diets were matched for macronutrient and micronutrient content and the energy content of the two diets was identical (
HF+Hsta gm% | kcal% | HF+Hscu gm% | kcal% | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Corn starch | 40 | 39 | 5 | 39 |
Sucrose | 5 | 40 | ||
Casein | 24 | 21 | 24 | 21 |
Corn oil | 21 | 40 | 21 | 40 |
Total | 90 | 100 | 90 | 100 |
Density(kcal/g) | 4.7 | 4.7 | ||
Vitamin mix. | 1 | 1 | ||
Mineral mix. | 4 | 4 | ||
Cellulose | 5 | 5 |
The exercise group used a treadmill for small animals. All mice in exercise groups (n = 20) were first introduced to running for 3 days. The mice were then trained five times per week for 10 weeks by gradually ramping up the speed and time under the following training conditions: 15 m/min, 8° slope, 50 min/day for the first two weeks, then ramped up to 25 m/min, 8° slope, 60 min/day, at approximately 70–75% of the maximum oxygen uptake for the last four weeks.
Details of the experimental group design and training program are shown in
One week before the end of the experiment, the RMR was measured by indirect calorimetry, using an open-circuit device based on methods reported in previous studies
After 10 weeks of training, energy metabolism was measured for 1 h using exercise metabolism chambers
Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS 23.0 for windows (IBM Corp., Armonk, USA). Values are means ± standard error (SE) of the indicated number of experiments. A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) method was applied to determine the interaction and main effect with diet and exercise. A Tukey’s post-hoc analysis was conducted if significant interactions or main effects were obtained. A priori, the level of significance was set at 0.05.
To clarify the influence of a high fat diet with different types of carbohydrates and/or exercise on basic metabolism in mice, the data of mice at Sta. (HF + Hsta), or Scu. (HF + Hscu) with/without exercise for 10 weeks were compared.
Next, we determined whether diet and exercise changed the weight of abdominal tissues at the end of the experimental period. The weight of epididymal and perirenal adipose tissue were significantly decreased in the exercise groups (epididymal; StaEX, P = 0.004 and SucEX, P = 0.000
The two-way repeated measures ANOVA of the oxygen uptake showed a significant time (P = 0.000) and group (P = 0.000) related effect, but no group-time interaction (P = 0.627,
The two-way repeated measures ANOVA for RER showed a significant time effect (P = 0.000) and a group-time interaction (P = 0.000), but no group effect (P = 0.725,
The two-way repeated measures ANOVA for fat oxidation showed a significant time (P = 0.000) related effect, but no group effect (P = 0.071) or group-time interaction (P = 0.619,
The two-way repeated measures ANOVA for carbohydrate oxidation showed a significant time (P = 0.000) and group related effect (P = 0.000), but no group-time interaction (P = 0.203,
The two-way repeated measures ANOVA for total energy expenditure showed a significant time (P = 0.000) and group (P = 0.000) related effect, but no group-time interaction (P = 0.808,
The two-way repeated measures ANOVA for oxygen uptake during a 1 h exercise period showed a significant time effect (P = 0.000) and a group-time interaction (P = 0.043), but no significant group effect (P = 0.267,
The two-way repeated measures ANOVA for RER during 1 h of exercise showed significant time (P = 0.000) and group effects (P = 0.01) and a group-time interaction (P = 0.000,
The two-way repeated measures ANOVA for fat oxidation during 1 h of exercise showed a significant group effect (P = 0.014) and a group-time interaction (P = 0.000), but no time effect (P = 0.063,
The two-way repeated measures ANOVA for carbohydrate oxidation during 1 h of exercise showed a significant time effect (P = 0.000) and a group-time interaction (P = 0.000), but no group effect (P = 0.088,
The two-way repeated measures ANOVA for energy expenditure showed only a significant time effect (P = 0.000), there were no group effects (P = 0.332) or a group-time interaction (P = 0.083,
Along with the adaptation to a Western lifestyle over the past decades, the dietary patterns of Korean children and adolescents have been gradually changing. A Western lifestyle includes not only a diet rich in lipids and sugar, but also physical inactivity. Although there is strong evidence that the amount and type of fat in the diet can have strong effects on metabolism, the type of carbohydrates influencing metabolic responses in a diet is also of great interest. Hence, the long-term goal of this study was to understand the relationship between type of carbohydrates, weight, and energy metabolism, and to prevent childhood obesity and related diseases. To achieve this, we used an open circuit calorimetry system to investigate the influence of a high fat diet with different types of carbohydrates (sucrose or starch) with/without exercise on energy metabolism at rest and during 1 h of exercise in mice.
Our results showed that high sucrose did not cause greater obesity than starch. Unexpectedly, there were no significant differences between the groups in the final body weights. It is consistent with a previous study by Sakamoto et al., (2012) that demonstrated no change in body weight following similar, prolonged periods of high sucrose feeding
We then investigated the effect of the sucrose diet on energy metabolism using indirect calorimetry to compare each mouse after 10 weeks of experimental treatment. As expected, mice on a high fat–high sucrose diet consistently displayed a higher oxygen uptake and RER, indicating an increase in carbohydrate oxidation at rest compared with that of the Sta. diet. This implies both an initial switch to carbohydrates as the major energy source and continued adaptation to further increase carbohydrate use. However, in contrast to the results of the present study, Burchfield et al. (2018) showed that RER and oxygen uptake of mice on a high fat–high sucrose diet decreased with increasing time on the diet
Fat oxidation in the Scu. diet was lower than that in the Sta. diet. However, there were no differences between the Suc. diet with exercise and the Sta. diet groups. This indicates that exercise helps to maintain the fat oxidation capacity in the Scu. diet. Although the differences did not result in significant weight reduction, total energy expenditure was increased in the Suc. diet with or without exercise. Small differences of just a few kcal/day can lead to substantial differences in body weight in the long term. Taken together, our findings indicate that energy metabolism over 24 h was more influenced by diet than by exercise.
The expression of some genes controlling energy homeostasis are regulated by epigenetic mechanisms that may play a role in body weight regulation. It is well recognized that sucrose stimulates the sympathetic nervous system and leads to an increase in brown adipose tissue (BAT) activity and mass
During 1 h of exercise, we did not find any changes in oxygen uptake and energy expenditure in any of the experimental groups. In agreement with our results, most previous studies
A limitation of this study is that the above results alone cannot prove that sucrose is not harmful. The greatest difference between sucrose and starch is probably the blood glucose and insulin response, and there may also be differences in some genes controlling energy homeostasis. Hence, future research should focus on the influence of high fat diets with different types of carbohydrates and/or exercise on more functional aspects, including glucose, insulin in blood, and UCP1, PGC1a, GLP-1, and FGF21 in the adipose tissue.
Our results showed that high sucrose did not cause greater obesity than starch. The weight of adipose tissue decreased markedly in exercise groups. Dietary sucrose increased energy expenditure during a 24 h period by increasing carbohydrate oxidation. Long-term exercise training increased fat oxidation during 1 h of exercise, regardless of diet. On the basis of these results, our study demonstrates that: (a) the type of carbohydrates included in the diet influence the metabolic responses for 24 h, (b) training had a larger effect on energy metabolism than diet during 1 h of exercise, (c) both abdominal adipose tissue weight and fat oxidation during exercise for 1 h showed the beneficial effects of moderate physical activity on weight maintenance.
This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2016S1A5B5A07918098). The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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