Don’t Eat High Fructose Corn Syrup? You’re Both Snobby and a Racist

No one ever points out the alarming similarities between the rise in the national obesity epidemic and the increased use of HFCSs over the last 50 years. From the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition: http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/79/4/537/F1

from wikipedia, just in case you were wondering:

Chi-Tang Ho et al. found that soft drinks sweetened with HFCS are up to 10 times richer in harmful carbonyl compounds, such as methylglyoxal, than a diet soft drink control.[19] Carbonyl compounds are elevated in people with diabetes and are blamed for causing diabetic complications such as foot ulcers and eye and nerve damage;[20][21] Furthermore, a study in mice suggests that fructose increases obesity.[22] Large quantities of fructose stimulate the liver to produce triglycerides, promotes glycation of proteins and induces insulin resistance.[23] According to one study, the average American consumes nearly 70 pounds of HFCS per annum, marking HFCS as a major contributor to the rising rates of obesity in the last generation. [24]

I don't care whether it's sugar, honey, or what -- they're putting too damn much of it in our food supply. My employers offer free soda which is great except that that means the options when I'm thirsty at work are 1) water or 2) more sweetener than my body can handle. I'm not a freakin humming bird!

Huh. I gave up HFCS a couple of years ago. I didn't realize the word was spreading so slowly.

And yet another reason not to eat that stuff!

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/fructose-sets-table-for-weight-gain-without-warning-17596.html

These commercials are so disgusting.

Also, what's with that video response. "Gnatzees"? I've never heard anyone pronounce it that way.

Glad to see so many people getting so worked up, though.

Also I just noticed the Coke ad banner at the top of the page...

I don't know how to feel about that. I know they're trying to jump onto the environmentally-friendly bandwagon with recycled... shirts... and stuff. But should Treehugger be getting money from Coke?

Digests in the liver? That is disgusting and scary.

I agree that people use way too much food that is bad for both your health and the environment. HFCS is really terrible. HOWEVER, that last video is so totally offensive to me, I may never look at TreeHugger again. What the %^&(*!#@& were you thinking? There are other, better ways to make a point. Really???? Is that the best we can do?

Can somebody actually show me a reproducible, randomized, double-blinded, controlled study that show a typical high-calorie, overly-sweetened diet of HCFS producing any physical effects not seen with the same diet over-sweetened with sucrose?

From wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-fructose_corn_syrup

"Studies which have compared HFCS to sucrose (as opposed to pure fructose) find that they have essentially identical physiological effects."

Table sugar is 50% glucose and 50% fructose. HFCS (and honey) is around 45/55. We eat lots of both chemicals all the time. Yes, eating lots of sugar is bad for you. But which type really doesn't matter. HFCS is no more an "industrial chemical" than table sugar, either...whatever that means.

the corn laby traing to convince us that sugar is the same as High Fructose Corn Syrup.
Not so, as in math 3-2=1 but 2-3 is not 1.

I liked the bit in the first ad about "no artificial ingredients". Assuming corn that's been genetically modified to survive repeated applications of Roundup is considered "natural" then yeah, I guess you're right!

We just did a video about HFCS. Check it out.

http://zaproot.com/2008/10/bye-bye-bottled-water-zaproot-060/

Damien
ZapRoot - Producer

What a bunch of ignorami over at Mothership meals!

"It's digested by the liver instead of the stomach"... WTF kind of comment is that? It betrays a complete lack of understanding about the inner workings of the digestive system!

ALL food is partially broken down and digested in the stomach, by acids. Some nutrients (e.g. glucose) can get directly into he bloodstream from there - that's why you get a sugar rush when you drink a bottle of gatorade - it has pure glucose! The rest of the food then goes into the intestines (duodenum, jejenum, ileum, bowel), during which process, some of the nutrients are delivered via the hepatic portal vein directly to the liver. Fructose can be partially absorbed by the stomach, but some of it goes into the hepatic portal and to the liver instead. Hell, if you drink enough glucose that will go to the liver too! Some other nutrients get absorbed during the small intestine (ileum), and the large intestine (colon then bowel). A lot of water gets reabsorbed in the colon, and the rest is destined for the toilet.

So yeah, go ahead and believe some idiot who doesn't even have a rudimentary understanding of the digestive system. Nothing gets "digested" by the liver you idiot! Nutrients get metabolized by the liver. metabolism and digestion are 2 completely different processes. Either you understand this or you don't. If you don't, you have no business lecturing the public on nutrition. Go get a biochemistry degree!

What a bunch of ignorami over at Mothership meals!

"It's digested by the liver instead of the stomach"... WTF kind of comment is that? It betrays a complete lack of understanding about the inner workings of the digestive system!

ALL food is partially broken down and digested in the stomach, by acids. Some nutrients (e.g. glucose) can get directly into he bloodstream from there - that's why you get a sugar rush when you drink a bottle of gatorade - it has pure glucose! The rest of the food then goes into the intestines (duodenum, jejenum, ileum, bowel), during which process, some of the nutrients are delivered via the hepatic portal vein directly to the liver. Fructose can be partially absorbed by the stomach, but some of it goes into the hepatic portal and to the liver instead. Hell, if you drink enough glucose that will go to the liver too! Some other nutrients get absorbed during the small intestine (ileum), and the large intestine (colon then bowel). A lot of water gets reabsorbed in the colon, and the rest is destined for the toilet.

So yeah, go ahead and believe some idiot who doesn't even have a rudimentary understanding of the digestive system. Nothing gets "digested" by the liver you idiot! Nutrients get metabolized by the liver. metabolism and digestion are 2 completely different processes. Either you understand this or you don't. If you don't, you have no business lecturing the public on nutrition. Go get a biochemistry degree!

First...table sugar isn't good for you so comparing it to HFCS doesn't score any points. Table sugar stripped of all of it minerals, bleached, and then delivered to your food doesn't do any good for you. I don't think we need to get into biochemistry on that one because it's been dealt with ad nauseam elsewhere.

Having it in moderation is nearly impossible when you find HFCS in most of your foods. I don't think and average of 9 heaping teaspoon equivalents per 8oz soda/juice constitutes moderate. The "doing things in moderation" argument softens disagreements but isn't always true or the right course of action. Sometimes things can just be bad for you and should be removed from the diet. Genetically modified HFCS like most genetically modified food is an experiment without precedent on the global population. Hybrids and genetically modified foods are NOT the same thing.

Fools will eat like fools. The best you can do is argue for accurate labeling (GMO/etc) so you can decide to eat what you believe to be good for you and the ones who love HFCS's and GMO foods can do the same.

When most of American society is made up of a bunch of mass-consumerist TV believers, this is exactly what happens and false claims are made without anyone caring that they are false. I think it would be best for the future of this society to do away with mass consumerism; it has caused nothing but urban and social decline for the past 50 years.

Ummm... I don't know if anyone here clued into this, but the google ads bar right next to this story link directly to the corporate propaganda being exposed here.

What ads? Switch to Firefox and get Ad Blocker Plus then you won't be annoyed by corpaganda any more.

That approval matrix is great, I've never seen that before but I like it!

Yeah these ads stink of BS and I'm happy people are realizing this.

Unfortunately there are a lot of people who still need to be educated on the issue. The corn refiners association really shot themselves in the foot here - they've brought the HFCS issue to the forefront

false advertisement? most definitely. please do visit hfcsfacts.com to witness the absurdity---FDA claims that hfcs is a "natural" product because it is made from corn when actually is goes through extensive enzymatic processing. "natural" would be sucrose: containing 50/50 ration of fructose/glucose, where as hfcs can contain up to a 80/20 ratio of fructose/glucose. this uneven ratio causes leads to abundance of unbound fructose.

"Pure fructose contains no enzymes, vitamins or minerals and robs the body of its micronutrient treasures in order to assimilate itself for physiological use. Research indicates that this free fructose interferes with the heart’s use of key minerals like magnesium, copper and chromium. Among other consequences, HFCS has been implicated in elevated blood cholesterol levels and the creation of blood clots. It has been found to inhibit the action of white blood cells so that they are unable to defend the body against harmful foreign invaders.8"