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What's worse than sugar?

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Dear Members,

 

I got this following article from an internet site and thought it

will be useful to those who buy packaged food. High Fructose Corn

Syrup is added to a lot of food items.

 

Regards.

 

Swamy

 

----------------------------

 

What's Worse Than Sugar?

 

By Mark Francis Cohen

 

April 2004

 

 

 

No one knows if the craze for low-carb diets will lead

to a slimmer America. But it could at least take the

sizzle out of our love affair with sugar, the most

notorious carbohydrate of them all.

 

The perils of sugar have been understood for years,

but now there's evidence of a new and even more

dangerous consequence of our craving for sweets.

Dietary experts and scientists are singling out one in

particular—high-fructose corn syrup—as a reason for

the startling rise in obesity in America and a related

increase in diabetes cases.

 

" I think it's a huge problem, " says Richard Anderson,

a scientist at the federal Human Nutrition Research

Center in Beltsville, Md. " High-fructose corn syrup is

metabolized differently than other sugars, and it has

a different effect on health. "

 

High-fructose corn syrup is not the bottled stuff you

buy at the grocery store to make pecan pie or jelly.

It's an additive that's cheaper and easier to use than

sugar, making it the leading sweetener in sodas and

fruit juices. It turns up in everything from pizza and

yogurt to breakfast cereal, baby food and beer.

 

Food manufacturers began substituting high-fructose

corn syrup for sugar in the 1970s. Its use skyrocketed

in the 1990s, when people turned to low-fat foods and

forgot about calories and sugar content.

 

Today annual consumption of the sweetener tops 60

pounds per person in this country, up from only about

half a pound in 1970, the U.S. Agriculture Department

reports. Americans swallow more of it than regular

sugar.

 

" There's something important in the fact that the

increase in the use of high-fructose corn syrup

coincides with the obesity epidemic in this country, "

says George Bray, M.D., a diabetes expert and

professor at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in

Baton Rouge, La. " [The coincidence] is not easily

explained away. "

 

Others think the additive is getting a bad rap.

" There's no evidence that high-fructose corn syrup

does anything harmful to people, " says Maureen Storey,

director of Virginia Tech's Center for Food and

Nutrition Policy, which receives some of its funding

from food producers and the federal government. " It's

just a sweetener. "

 

Storey and other health experts point out that a lack

of exercise, not just calories, contributes to

obesity. " People should burn the same amount of

calories they are eating to maintain their weight, "

she says.

 

As scientists have begun scrutinizing the product, the

Corn Growers Association has established a website

(www.hfcsfacts.com) to counter criticism. The site

quotes industry advocates who say that high-fructose

corn syrup is essentially the same as table sugar, or

sucrose, because each is about 50 percent glucose and

50 percent fructose.

 

Nevertheless, sugar and high-fructose corn syrup,

which is created through an intricate process that

transforms corn starch into a thick, clear liquid, are

not the same. Anderson says, " [it] upsets me when

people say there's no difference. There's a big

difference. "

 

The syrup contains about 5 percent more fructose than

sugar does—not a great amount but significant because

fructose is sweeter and, studies suggest, digested

differently.

 

Sugar is broken down in the digestive tract and

processed in cells. The glucose stimulates insulin

production, a necessary step for converting sugar into

energy.

 

High-fructose corn syrup goes directly to the liver.

Research has shown that the liver releases enzymes

that instruct the body to store fat (and that may

elevate triglyceride and " bad " cholesterol levels).

Thus fructose may slow fat burning and cause weight

gain.

 

Other research indicates that high-fructose corn syrup

does not stimulate insulin production, which usually

creates a sense of being full. People may eat more

than they need to.

 

Anderson also says that lowered chromium levels caused

by the sweetener may be linked to type 2 diabetes, a

gradual failure to produce insulin that chiefly occurs

in adults. Obesity can also contribute to the onset of

diabetes.

 

Older Americans are especially susceptible to the

risks of sugar products. As we age our taste buds

deteriorate, but the appreciation of sweet tastes

lingers, prompting us to eat meals rich in added

sugars.

 

HERE TO STAY

High-fructose corn syrup is a high-value ingredient

for food manufacturers. It's easy to transport to

processors in tanker trucks. Unlike sugar, it isn't

vulnerable to freezer burn. It keeps foods from drying

out. It has a long shelf life. And it gives breads a

pleasing golden color.

 

And it's 20 percent cheaper than table sugar, in part

because of generous federal subsidies and trade

policies that encourage farmers to grow more corn,

says health journalist Greg Critser, author of Fat

Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the

World. Adding it to processed foods thus becomes

cheaper, and fast-food chains can afford to offer

super-sized servings.

 

" High-fructose corn syrup is the commercially

preferred, taxpayer-supported sugar of choice, "

Critser says. " [it] is not only as bad for you as

sugar, it's worse. "

 

Mark Francis Cohen is a freelance writer in

Washington, DC.

 

Weighing In on a Better Diet

 

Eating more fresh vegetables, fruits and juices and

steering clear of processed foods made with

high-fructose corn syrup and other sugars is the

obvious way to improve your diet and maintain proper

weight. Some nutrition sources:

 

• U.S. Department of Agriculture

• Center for Science in the Public Interest

• American Dietetic Association's Food and Nutrition

Information channel

• Healthatoz.com's Nutrition channel

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