High Fructose Corn Syrup: Good or Bad?
“Don’t eat that, it has high fructose corn syrup”. It causes weight gain, they say. Is high fructose corn syrup as bad as it is portrayed to be? What the between difference in using HFCS and table sugar? HFCS and its alleged link to weight gain is a major controversy in America. There has even been court cases about this matter.
Terms
Let’s review some terms before we start:
• Glucose- a simple sugar. It’s a by-product of photosynthesis.
• High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) - a combination of corn syrup and an enzyme that is converted into fructose. Combination of glucose and fructose
• Table Sugar- or sucrose is crystallized sugar cane or beet juice made up of glucose and fructose.
• Fructose- sugar normally from fruit
• Obesity-
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The overconsumption of calories is one of the many factors that lead to weight gain. Sugar is in just about every product. Along with any other nutrient, it should be consumed in moderation. While a little won’t hurt, it is important to keep in mind that sugar and HFCS have no nutritional value. Focus on maintaining a well-balanced diet along with exercise and you’ll do just fine.
References
1. Lowndes, J., Sinnett, S., Pardo, S., Nguyen, V.T., Melanson, K.J., Yu, Z. Lowther , B.E. and Rippe, J.M. (2014).The Effect of Normally Consumed Amounts of Sucrose or High Fructose Corn Syrup on Lipid Profiles, Body Composition and Related Parameters in Overweight/Obese Subjects. Nutrients. 6, 1128-1144.
2. Lowndes, J., Sinnett, S., Yu, Z. and Rippe, J.M. (2014).The Effects of Fructose-Containing Sugars on Weight, Body Composition and Cardio-metabolic Risk Factors Nutrients When Consumed at up to the 90th Percentile Population Consumption Level for Fructose. Nutrients. 6,
According to the article, Too Much Can Make Us Sick (http://www.sugarscience.org/too-much-can-make-us-sick/), “Heart disease. Diabetes. These chronic conditions are among the leading causes of death worldwide. Increasingly, scientists are focusing on a common set of underlying metabolic issues that raise people's risk for chronic disease. It turns out that the long-term overconsumption of added sugars is linked to many of these dysfunctions.” This means that people living today, have a lot more trouble with diseases because of our unhealthy sugar intake compared to the
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.
The metabolism of fructose in the liver is complex, but there are two important results. Fructose is more readily turned into fat. Fructose metabolism signals the liver to increase fat storage. A calorie is not a calorie. Table sugar (sucrose) is a two unit sugar, one glucose and one fructose melded together. Therefore a high level of added sugar in the diet is also a high level of fructose.
My hypotheses stated that when an egg is placed in corn syrup or distilled water, osmosis will occur. They also said that when an egg is placed in corn syrup, the osmosis will occur from the water in the egg to the corn syrup while when the egg is placed in water, the osmosis will occur from water outside of the egg into the egg itself. The final part of my hypotheses states that the egg’s mass will decrease when it is placed in corn syrup, but when an egg is placed in water, its mass will increase. My reasoning when constructing my first hypothesis was that the structure of the corn syrup is too thick to travel through the cell membranes of the egg, but the water in the egg will be able to travel through the egg’s membranes and into the corn
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.
High fructose corn syrup was invented by Richard O. Marshall and Earl R. Kooi in 1957” (Production of HF...
Many researchers at various Universities say that high fructose corn syrup is the same as sugar and there is no evidence to suggest that it is linked to an increase in obesity. In “Fat Land” by Greg Critser, he talks about America’s obesity problem, which included high fructose corn syrup as a topic of discussion. Critser states that when Coca-Cola switched from sugar
“there’s a fundamental difference between the sugar that you find in fruits & vegetables and the sugar that you find in a large Mountain Dew. The sugar in a lot of these carbonated drinks is highly concentrated simple sugar, the kind that will spike your blood glucose levels, reduce your insulin response over time (leading to Type 2 diabetes) and almost immediately get stored in your body as fat.” There is a difference between sugar from nature and sugar that is processed. Sugar that is processed is highly concentrated because of this it tends to increase your blood glucose levels higher than natural sugar. With high
Artificial sugars are much more damaging to the body than people believe. In an article titled, "Sweeteners" by Roger French, he notes that, "People who consumed diet soft drinks [that contained artificial sweeteners or sugars], were more likely to gain weight than those who consumed naturally-sweetened drinks (Sweeteners)". This occurs because artificial sweeteners, in a sense, fool the body into thinking it needs less energy, but late...
As one of the main external causes of obesity and overweight, the level of sugar within the body is based on the amount of sugar concentration within the body’s bloodstream. Sugar concentration found within the body is usually attained from the consumption of food, such as sweets, fruits, bread, pasta and grain. The sugar from the food consumption is broken down by the body in order to give energy for the body which allows it to function. The energy broken down from the sugar is used to help the body to carry on with daily functions such as moving or thinking.
Maple sugar is made from maple syrup, which was being used and processed into sugar long before the arrival of Europeans in North America. At the end of winter, the Native Americans would boil the sap of the maple tree to remove moisture and produce sugar that they could use throughout the rest of the year. It is commonly accepted among historians that the Europeans learned about harvesting and processing maple from the Native Americans.
The movie brought up how consuming an ounce a day is fine, but an average person consumes much more. I was amazed how an average person today consumes 70-80 g of fructose corn syrup a day, while a child consumes nearly 120-150 g a day. Fructose is a fruit sugar that has a severe metabolic process where people can become very addicted. I did not know a lot of information about this food ingredient, but I now know it is time to pay more attention for it to be listed on my food
A. Well, According to the dictionary “High Fructose Corn Syrup is a sugar that is processed with corn syrup that is sweeter than the normal cane sugar”…..
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...
The primary use for sugarcane is to process sugar, which can then be used in an infinite number of products. The type of sugar produced by sugarcane is called sucrose. This is the most important of all the sugars. Sucrose is used as a sweetening agent for foods and in the manufacture of cakes, candies, preservatives, soft drinks, alcohol, and numerous other foods. Although the use of sugar in the human diet is controversial, sucrose supplies about 13 percent of all energy that is derived from foods (Escalona, 1952).