Researchers from the University of Toronto Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education have found that healthy premenopausal women oxidize more of the glucose from sugary beverages than men do. In simple terms, after consuming sugar, women’s bodies used more of it right away for energy rather than leaving as much circulating in the bloodstream or storing it elsewhere.
This suggests that women may metabolize a carbohydrate-rich meal differently than men, even when both appear healthy.
“Premenopausal women have been shown to be more insulin sensitive than men, and we wanted to determine if this translated into sex differences in how the body uses ingested glucose after consuming a sugary drink,” says Stephanie Estafanos, a PhD student at KPE and lead author of the study recently published in the American Journal of Physiology.
“Specifically, we wanted to see how much of that glucose is immediately burned for energy versus handled in other ways, such as being stored.”
Although women are often considered more insulin sensitive than men, it remains unclear how these differences influence the way the body processes nutrients after eating, say the researchers who worked on the study, including Daniel West, an affiliate scientist at UHN, Anessa Koussiouris, a former undergraduate student at KPE, Professor Daniel R. Moore and Associate Professor Jenna B. Gillen.
Seeing a measurable difference in how quickly ingested glucose was oxidized (used as fuel) after a drink was particularly interesting to them because it suggests that studying metabolism under practical, everyday conditions like eating or drinking carbohydrates may help reveal physiological sex differences that are not always apparent under fasting conditions commonly used in physiology/metabolic studies.
“The findings of this study are important because blood sugar control matters for everyone,” says Gillen, who is Estafanos’ supervisor. “Poor glucose handling is linked to conditions like type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
“If men and women naturally process sugar differently, it suggests we may need more personalized approaches to nutrition, exercise and disease prevention rather than assuming that one strategy works equally well for everyone.
“It also reinforces that biological sex should be considered in health research, because men and women may not respond identically to food or exercise interventions.”
Next up for the researchers are studies exploring the physiological mechanisms underlying this sex difference. They are also investigating whether there is a difference in how women use the glucose (sugar) they ingest across the menstrual cycle, and are interested to see how this may be moderated by exercise.