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Negative impact of high fructose corn syrup on health
Negative impact of high fructose corn syrup on health
Negative impact of high fructose corn syrup on health
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The History and Advantages of High Fructose Corn Syrup
HFCS is a popular sweetener used in processed foods. It is composed of approximately 50% fructose and 50% glucose. It is made from corn starch with the use of enzymes to convert glucose to fructose. It has many advantages over cheap sugar, including, but not limited to, lower price, longer shelf life, low freezing point, and enhanced taste and texture. Corn refinement was first discovered circa 1860, and was soon followed by the development of corn syrup. Important advantages took place in the 1920’s with the use of enzymes, but it was not until the mid-1900’s when the crucial glucose isomerase enzyme was discovered. Industrial production of HFCS began in the 1970’s and today the industry is huge.
High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is a sweetener used in many consumer products. Because it is as sweet as sugar, yet cheaper, HFCS is used in many processed food products. Like sugar, it has four calories per gram and has no added artificial or synthetic materials.
HFCS is made from corn refinement. First, starch must be separated from the rest of the corn. The starch is then treated with the enzyme glucose isomerase, which converts glucose into fructose. Fructose is an isomer of glucose; both have the empirical formula C6H12O6, but in different bonding. Glucose and fructose bonded together make sucrose, commonly known as table sugar. However, they are found separately in HFCS. Supporters of HFCS claim that it causes no more harm to the body than sugar does because both HFCS and sugar have fructose and glucose in approximately one to one ratios.
There are three main types of HFCS: HFCS-42, HFCS-55, HFCS-90. HFCS-42 is 42% fructose and 50% glucose. It is the least sweet of the ...
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Kit-kats, Hershey bars, Skittles, and Jolly Ranchers. The reason these sweets, and many other products, are so popular is because of their sugar content. It’s hard to imagine that something used in nearly every food today was practically nonexistent at one point. But this is true- sugar wasn’t introduced globally until the 1500’s. Following this introduction, the trade that sprung up would come to be one of the most successful and profitable in the world. The Sugar Trade’s success was driven by many factors. Out of those several factors, the ones that promised success were high consumer demand, willing investors with a lot of capital, and the usage of slave labor.
"Welfare." Points Of View Charts & Graphs: Government Funding (2010): 1. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 5 Jan. 2014.
High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is an artificial sweetener commonly used in the United States. As its name implies, this sweetener is derived from agricultural corn. All high fructose corn syrups are corn syrups whose fructose content has been increased via enzymatic processes and then mixed with pure corn syrup. There are several different formulations of high-fructose corn syrup. The product sold in the United States (HFCS #2) has the following composition: moisture, 29%; dry substance, 71% D.S.; dextrose, 50% D.S.; ash, 0.03 D.S.; and nitrogen, 0.002% D.S. The amounts of dextrose, fructose, and other saccharides may vary slightly in HFCS #3, but the analysis is fairly consistent. HFCS #1 hasn’t been commercially sold specifically for consumer consumption in the U.S. for many years. Instead, it is used by food producers in their products.
Glucose can be used directly by any cell in the body. It easily moves into the cell where it is directly burned for energy. No such luck with fructose. It must first be transported to the liver where a wide variety of things (none of them good) happen.
Discuss the Relationship between sugar and slavery in the Early Modern Period. "No commodity on the face of the Earth has been wrested from the soil or the seas, from the skies or the bowels of the earth with such misery and human blood as sugar" ... (Anon) Sugar in its many forms is as old as the Earth itself. It is a sweet tasting thing for which humans have a natural desire. However there is more to sugar than its sweet taste, rather cane sugar has been shown historically to have generated a complex process of cultural change altering the lives of all those it has touched, both the people who grew the commodity and those for whom it was grown.
The rapid growth of sugar as a food has a long and intertwining history that originated in New Guinea. Following the production, consumption, and power that corresponds with sugar, one is able to see numerous causes and effects of the changes underway in the world between 1450 and 1750. The production of sugar in the Americas eventually led to not only the creation of the Atlantic Slave Trade, but also enhanced commerce. Consumption of sugar through rapid trade thoroughly helped to develop modern capitalism. The power that sugar generated dramatically changed the economic, social, and political fate of the nation as a whole.
Abstract: The use of high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener in various food and drink products has drastically affected the American people in the last three decades. Dominating 55% of the sweetener market because of its industrial benefits, HFCS’s increased use has caused dramatic effects in its consumers, including upsetting normal hormonal functions, destroying vital organs, nerves, and throwing off the body’s mineral balance. As the use of HFCS increased, the rates of obesity, diabetes, and related health problems have escalated, resulting in a nationwide epidemic.
Obesity in America has risen dramatically in the last forty years. Many believe high fructose corn syrup is to blame for this and other health related issues like diabetes and high blood pressure. High fructose corn syrup was invented by Richard O. Marshall and Earl R. Kooi in 1957 (Production of high fructose corn syrup). Scientists have done tests and many reports and found many statistics showing the same thing: once high fructose corn syrup (or HFCS) was added to food and beverages in 1975, obesity rose without warning. The U.S. has the highest obesity rate in the world: “roughly two-thirds of adults and one-third of young people in the U.S. are now overweight or obese” (McMillen). That’s a massive amount, and it’s growing at a steady pace with little sign of ending any time soon. We also eat more mass produced food than any other country in the world. High fructose corn syrup has taken over the food market and has found its way to almost all of our food and drinks.
"The Sugar Act (Molasses Act)." The Civil War. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2011. .
HFCS is being used for almost every food product in the food industry. However, if we look at HFCS from a limited point of view we just see it as something present in our food and not the health factors behind it. HFCS can be habit forming since it is a sweet replacement for sugar and in his article Peretti mentions that David Kessler said “sugar, through its metabolisation by the gut and hence the brain, is extremely addictive, just like cigarettes or alcohol.” People enjoy the taste and because of this they consume large quantities, which lead to health factors such as: obesity, diabetes, heart problems, infertility, liver problems, and so on. Our limited perspective may cause us to lose sight of how much of a risk HFCS possess. In my case I use to think that my family gained significant amount of weight only through fatty foods and...
Works Cited Mish, F. C. (2003). The 'Standard Subsidy. Retrieved from http://www.lmerriam-webster.com/dictionary/subsidy Vogel, S. (2001, February 14). Farm income and costs: farms receiving government payments. Retrieved from: http://www.cds.org/item/ http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/farmincome/govtpaybyfarmtype.htm Farm bill resources -.
After viewing this documentary to the best of my ability I have learned numerous facts about corn and its pros/cons. Corn is stored in a silo and when an overflow occurs mountains of corn are made outside of the silos. This corn grown in the Midwest is in almost all of the food in every supermarket ranging from steak sauce to syrup to lasagna. Majority of its use is as a sweetener in the form of corn syrup or high
There are three main types of simple sugars to look out for; Glucose, which is produced when, starches and carbs are broken down by the digestive system, this is one of the body’s preferred sources of energy. Next is Fructose, it’s common in fruit and also packaged treats you can find in a store. When too much is consumed it can in a sense flood your bloodstream and enter your liver which processes excess sugar into fat! This is of course leads to weight gain, especially around the abdomen, where your liver is located. Last is Sucrose, most-commonly known as your table sugar that most people add to their cereals or coffee. With that these three types of sugars are the most-commonly consumed ones throughout the states. Another way to recognize there are to think, anything that ends with ‘ose’ is considered sugar. An easy way to remember it by is to think ‘ose’ is gross!
Center for Disease control and Prevention. (2014, July 7). Nutrition. Retrieved from Center for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.bam.gov/sub_foodnutrition/index.html
Maize also has uses beyond being used as a food source or being turned into oil. Maize’s main use is for food, but it can be used in creative ways. For example the popped kernels of maize, commonly referred to as ‘popcorn’ is seasoned and coated in different ways in order to make the ethnic foods of Vietnam and Peru. Corn is also used to create basic alternative medicines and herbal supplements using the corn silk, but this use is not often capitalized on. The starches from maize are a major source of material for products like plastics, fabrics, and adhesives. Also a by-product from the maize ‘wet milling’ process called ‘corn step liquor’ is of a major use to the biochemical industry because it is a perfect culture to grow many kinds of m...