Excess Sucrose and Fat Intake Exacerbates Magnesium Deficiency in Rats

Abstract

Magnesium deficiency is considered to be a risk factor for metabolic disease. Over-nutrition with sucrose and fats is the central feature of the modern dietary lifestyle, and low intake of magnesium is also frequently observed. The present experiment investigated the effect of excess sucrose and fat intake on magnesium bioavailability in rats. Male Wistar rats aged 5 weeks were given a control diet, a magnesium-deficient diet (MD) , a diet rich in fat and sucrose (HFS) , or a magnesium-deficient diet rich in fat and sucrose (HFS ＋ MD) for 4 weeks. The groups given the MD and HFS ＋ MD diets showed inflammation of the ears, one of the typical symptoms of magnesium deficiency, and the HFS ＋ MD group developed such inflammation at any earlier stage than the MD group. The plasma magnesium concentration tended to be lower in the HFS ＋ MD group than in the MD group, and the femoral magnesium concentration was significantly lower in the HFS ＋ MD group. The HFS diet did not affect the magnesium concentration in the plasma or femur, and did not induce ear inflammation. These results indicate that excess sucrose and fat intake does not affect the magnesium nutritional status of rats given sufficient magnesium, but exacerbates it under conditions of magnesium deficiency.