How your brain could be KILLING you: Scientists discover it produces a sugar linked to heart disease and diabetes - and junk food makes it worse.
Fructose is known to have deadly effects on the body, raising the risk of diabetes.
But scientists long thought it only enters the body through eating specific foods.
However, a new study has found that the brain produces levels of the sugar too.
The organ converts it's own energy supply - glucose - into fructose, they found.
Fructose doesn't just enter your body through the consumption of fruit juices, biscuits and chocolate.
Scientists now claim that the brain produces levels of it too - and it could slowly be killing you.
The organ converts it's own energy supply into the sugar, which is known to have deadly effects on the body, according to the first study of its kind.
And this, experts say, backs up that those with junk-food heavy diets are at greatest risk of diabetes, heart disease and obesity.
Researchers from Yale University scanned the brains of eight healthy people while they received glucose on an IV drip.
Using a special type of imaging, they were able to measure the concentrations of sugar in their brains.
After just 10 minutes they noted an increase in glucose levels in the brain, LiveScience reports.
And a short delay later they discovered higher levels of fructose in the organ too.
They believe the high concentration of fructose was due to reactions in the brain known as the polyol pathway.
This turns glucose - the body's energy source - into another sugar known as sorbitol. From here, it is then converted into fructose.
Blood samples were also taken to measure the concentration of sugar for the study published in the journal JCI Insight.
They discovered that fructose levels also increased slightly, but took nearly an hour-and-a-half to register.
Dr Janice Hwang said: 'In this study, we show for the first time that fructose can be produced in the human brain.
'By showing that fructose in the brain is not simply due to dietary consumption of fructose, we've shown fructose can be generated from any sugar you eat.
'It adds another dimension into understanding fructose's effects on the brain.'
Fructose is commonly used in the food industry, and research last month found it becomes damaging when artificially added.
It is neutralised when present in fruit and vegetables - but turns rogue when imported into other products, according to Spanish scientists.
Source:Dailymail/Health