Background

Metabolic syndrome is characterized by the association of 3 or more risk factors, including: abdominal obesity associated with an excess of abdominal fat, insulin resist-ance, type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia and hypertension [1]. Changes in dietary habits are among the leading contrib-utors to the growing worldwide prevalence of metabolic syndrome, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. These changes are characterized by increased intake of simple sugars, particularly fructose, largely used in the food industry and sugar-sweetened drinks [2]. Indeed, several studies have pointed to the adverse cardiac and metabolic effects of a high fructose diet in animal models. Fructose-fed rats and mice show moderate hypertension and glu-cose intolerance, associated with increased levels of plasma insulin, cholesterol and triglycerides [3-5]. Our group has demonstrated that only eight weeks con