Princeton Researchers say High-Fructose Corn Syrup Does Make You Fat — Let’s see how long before the PR folks for the corn industry block this information.
A Princeton University research team has demonstrated that all sweeteners are not equal when it comes to weight gain: Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.
In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides. The researchers say the work sheds light on the factors contributing to obesity trends in the United States.
Found by Rasvan via Twitter.
@pat
Give me real citations…links, please. All I find are “back wash experts” saying, “Oh but these people are confused” and then they something even more confusing. The Corn lobby is huge, and if you look into some of these so-called experts, you will find a money trail back to a grant, or actual hiring by one of the corn lobby arms (which, by the way, is always somehow linked to Archer Daniels Midlands, the huge price-fixing giant who seems to dominate corn (and grains) in the United States (so large,and so menacing, in fact, that they have blocked the Wiki article on them). (Maybe because of statements such as this — cached –ADM’s receipt of federal agricultural subsidies have come under criticism. According to a 1995 report by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, “ADM has cost the American economy billions of dollars since 1980 and has indirectly cost Americans tens of billions of dollars in higher prices and higher taxes over that same period. At least 43 percent of ADM’s annual profits are from products heavily subsidized or protected by the American government. Moreover, every $1 of profits earned by ADM’s corn sweetener operation costs consumers $10, and every $1 of profits earned by its ethanol operation costs taxpayers $30)
They toss around money to get what they WANT. ADM’s lobbying and campaign contributions have encouraged the continuation of the United States federal sugar program (of trade barriers and price supports) by Congress, costing US consumers roughly $3 billion a year
HFCS is foisted upon us by the likes of this mega corporation. So beware when you worry about “demonizing” of the product..it’s justified.
As for the problems with it:
The recently concluded Princeton study says exactly the opposite of what you are claiming:
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/
The Journal of Nutritional Medicine
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/79/4/537
Regarding demonizing food…oh wait! Its been found to have mercury in a “high number” of samples, too:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/26/AR2009012601831.html
http://www.ehjournal.net/content/8/1/2
A Duke study links HFCS with liver damage:
http://triangle.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2010/03/15/daily44.html
Oh! More reading material for you:
http://www.westonaprice.org/The-Double-Danger-of-High-Fructose-Corn-Syrup.html
#30, @raddad, @PatRD:
What do you think of the video in #31? Could all the evils of HCFS he talks about, be equally applied to the naturally occurring fructose in fruits?
(based on hcfs == honey or glucose+fructose+bond)
What are your thoughts on Stevia or sugar alcohols? I don’t know of any studies on these, but just because it’s natural like fructose, are there other problems with it?
Background (from a c. 1985 economics telecourse) : High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) was invented by a chemist, the mother of HFCS, who worked at Royal Crown. She would eventually work at PepsiCo. HFCS was invented as a cheaper substitute for sugar in soft drinks.
Mountain Dew Throwback is a bigger improvement over regular Mountain Dew than Pepsi Throwback over Pepsi. Even the bubbling was noticeably different.
The Dr. Pepper plant in Dublin, TX has only used pure cane sugar for its sweetener – and can put Dr. Pepper in 8 oz. bottles.
A follow-up experiment would be to alter the concentrations of fructose to glucose in HFCS – 65%:55%, 50%:50%, etc.
Fructose like glucose is a monosaccharide with a C6H12O6 formula.
The pictures of the syrup remind me of the drink given to patients for the glucose tolerance test.
#62, I don’t have time to watch all 1.5 hrs of the video, but I watched enough to get the gist of his message. People are fatter today than in the past. Robert Lustig is pointing the finger at HFCS. I’m a chemist, but I don’t work in nutrition, so I’m not sure if he is correct. However, I’m skeptical just because HFCS is made of two naturally occurring sugars. If fructose in HFCS causes obesity, then we should also avoid most fruits. Fructose is fructose no matter the source.
Why the epidemic of obesity? My personal opinion is that people are, in general, more affluent than in the past and the relative cost of food is lower so more is consumed.
One last thing. Some people have expressed concerns about mercury in HFCS. One thing I learned very early in my education is that there is no such thing as absolute chemical purity. I can guarantee you that there is mercury in everything you might eat including HFCS. You could also find small amounts of gold, uranium, lead, etc. The important question is not if it is there (it is), but how much.
I call corporate whore on PatRD.
64,
YES FRUCTOSE IS IN FRUIT, but so is Fiber.
TONS of fiber..
Watch the video.
More about the study is coming out. The are some conflicting results.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2010/03/high-fructose-corn-syrup-hfcs-sugar-princeton-study.html
#65
I agree. But, I think he’s a cheap one..
High Fructose Corn Syrup just doesn’t taste good. The food industry doesn’t seem to care about taste, because we keep voting with our dollars.
If you want to avoid HFCS, shop at ALDI. Apparently a lot of their food sticks to european food safety standards, so corn syrup is not used in many of their packaged food. Its better quality stuff and yummy in comparison to american-standard packaged foods.