The Official High Fructose Corn Syrup Thread

[Gaddabout]

Originally Posted by Ryanwb

I haven't seen those propoganda commercials from the high fructose corn syrup people in a while. I hope we go back to sugar products, just because they taste so much better

Amen!

[schutd]

Originally Posted by Folster

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4157

Good read. I wont argue the science or the chemistry. I have another problem with HFCS entirely.

What he doesnt address is food companies use of HFCS as a filler. Its in everything. Its not necessary to be in everything. I dont need HFCS in my mayonnaise. A good mayonnaise doesnt have ANY sugar. Food companies have us all believing everything should be sweetened. Why? It costs less to to make a product with HFCS than without it, because you can now use fewer expensive ingredients like eggs and oil and vinegar.

He also fails to mention the disastrous effects that "corn farmers" are having on the land they till, and the environment in general. Massive corn and soy subsidies have caused farmers and agri-business to move to gigantic mono-cultural fields that stip the land of its natural resources, thereby necesitating the need to use massive amounts of chemicals and nitrogen to keep the ground producing.

Pay more for sugar. End corn subsidies now. Maybe farmers will grow some fruit for a change.

[ajcardfan]

Originally Posted by schutd

Good read. I wont argue the science or the chemistry. I have another problem with HFCS entirely.

What he doesnt address is food companies use of HFCS as a filler. Its in everything. Its not necessary to be in everything. I dont need HFCS in my mayonnaise. A good mayonnaise doesnt have ANY sugar. Food companies have us all believing everything should be sweetened. Why? It costs less to to make a product with HFCS than without it, because you can now use fewer expensive ingredients like eggs and oil and vinegar.

He also fails to mention the disastrous effects that "corn farmers" are having on the land they till, and the environment in general. Massive corn and soy subsidies have caused farmers and agri-business to move to gigantic mono-cultural fields that stip the land of its natural resources, thereby necesitating the need to use massive amounts of chemicals and nitrogen to keep the ground producing.

Pay more for sugar. End corn subsidies now. Maybe farmers will grow some fruit for a change.

Now, that is a very reasonable criticism of HFCS. The politics behind changing corn subsidies would be interesting to behold. I doubt they would be successful, but it would be an interesting debate.

[schutd]

Just watched the 2007 documentary King Corn last night. If you havent seen it, I HIGHLY recommend it. Its not so much viewpoint oriented, as it is a pretty doggone fair portrayal of the LAME way this country subsidizes monocultural crop growth and where all that corn goes.

[abomb]

Originally Posted by schutd

Just watched the 2007 documentary King Corn last night. If you havent seen it, I HIGHLY recommend it. Its not so much viewpoint oriented, as it is a pretty doggone fair portrayal of the LAME way this country subsidizes monocultural crop growth and where all that corn goes.

Great flick.

[Bada0Bing]

Originally Posted by schutd

Just watched the 2007 documentary King Corn last night. If you havent seen it, I HIGHLY recommend it. Its not so much viewpoint oriented, as it is a pretty doggone fair portrayal of the LAME way this country subsidizes monocultural crop growth and where all that corn goes.

Recently watched the King Corn documentary. I had to give this film average marks because I thought it could have been much better. I totally agree about the subsidies, absolutely ridiculous.

We eliminated HFCS from our diets long ago and most processed foods in general. It took a while and bit of effort, but it was well worth it.

[schutd]

Just read the labels on my case of Mexican cokes.... GUESS WHAT???? "sugar and/or high fructose corn syrup" Jeebus. Sounds like production in MX is going the way of the States. If thats the case, theres no longer a need to hunt down Mexican Cokes. Just a heads up.

[D-Dogg]

http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2010/03/26/25626/

Researchers find corn syrup worse than sugar for weight
By Aparajita Bijapurkar
Contributor
Published: Friday, March 26th, 2010

Psychology professor Bart Hoebel’s research group found that rats with access to high fructose corn syrup experienced a greater increase in body weight, body fat and triglyceride levels than those with access to sucrose or table sugar. Though some bloggers have pounced on the research to blame Americans’ bulging beltlines on corn in the week since the research was published online in the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, members of the research group cautioned that the results are preliminary and do not necessarily carry over to humans.
In two studies, the researchers looked at the effects on rats when they ate high fructose corn syrup. The first study showed that rats fed a diet of water sweetened with high fructose corn syrup for eight weeks, in addition to rat chow, gained more weight than those who drank water mixed with table sugar.

The second study, which examined the long term effects of high fructose corn syrup consumption, followed rats over a period of six months. The rats drinking the corn syrup solution had higher abdominal body fat than the sucrose solution group.

Nicole Avena, a visiting research associate from the University of Florida who worked on the study, said that the researchers’ primary motivation was to compare sucrose to high fructose corn syrup to determine if they produce different effects on body weight.

Miriam Bocarsly ’06 GS, who also worked on the project, said in an e-mail that the studies’ results do not “immediately translate to humans.”

“It’s important to point out that this is a very specific set of studies, done in rats,” she explained, adding that “I’m not a medical doctor or clinician, I am a scientist, and we have some interesting findings.”

Avena noted that it is not possible to proportionally approximate how much high fructose corn syrup humans would have to consume in order to gain as much weight as the rats because the animals metabolize calories differently from humans. She added that the metabolic processes differ in individual humans as well.

Avena said that an adapted version of their studies could be conducted on human subjects to see if the same results would occur, though she added that such studies would be conducted elsewhere, since Hoebel’s laboratory does not conduct clinical trials.

If further research determines that high fructose corn syrup leads to weight gain in humans than other sugars do, it would provide important evidence to inform efforts to lower obesity.

High-fructose corn syrup is presently used more commonly than sucrose as a sweetener in the American diet, Avena said. Americans consume 60 pounds of the sweetener per person annually. Corn syrup is inexpensive sweetener, in part because of billions of dollars of government subsidies to corn producers.

Avena said that she hopes the Food and Drug Administration or other government agencies consider their findings and those of other studies in future planning, though she said that the research team does not plan to lobby for policy change based on its findings.

“Our information is out there for people to consider and interpret,” she said. “We are research scientists, basically, just interested in understanding why people over-eat and gain weight. There are other people out there who make policy decisions, and we hope that this study and others like it might have some influence.”

Some past studies have shown that fructose causes an increase in body weight, Avena said. Fewer studies, however, have looked at the effects of high fructose corn syrup. Avena noted that there there are some differences between the two sweeteners. As one example, high-fructose corn syrup contains slightly more fructose: It contains 55 percent fructose, whereas sucrose is broken down in the body to 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose.

Avena said that data from studies on fructose, in addition to clinical research, could help to conclusively link high fructose corn syrup to obesity, but more research is needed before definitive claims can be made.

Another line of research conducted in the Hoebel laboratory has been the study of sugar addiction.

“We have published quite a few studies showing that rats will become addicted to sucrose,” Avena said. “They’ll show signs of withdrawal, craving and brain changes that are akin to what you’d see in an animal that’s addicted to a drug of abuse.”

She added, however, that there is no current evidence for addiction to high fructose corn syrup.

For the research team, this study is only the beginning.

Elyse Powell ’11, an undergraduate on the research team, said that they plan to both replicate and follow up on the experiment.

“The ultimate goal would be to understand what makes high fructose corn syrup different from sucrose, and how these sweeteners can affect the body, brain and behavior,” Avena said.

Hoebel could not be reached for comment.

[Shane]

To bad we aren't rats.

[TheHopToad]

You would think by now somebody would figure out a way to make corn syrup with low fructose....it is 2010 afterall.

[abomb]

Originally Posted by TheHopToad

You would think by now somebody would figure out a way to make corn syrup with low fructose....it is 2010 afterall.

[BullheadCardFan]

Originally Posted by Shane H

To bad we aren't rats.

In your business you should know quite a few human rats.

[Pariah]

I was surprised (and pleased) to learn that Peeps don't have HFCS. (at least, that's what someone told me. I'm afraid to actually check, because i'm going to eat them anyway and would like to do it without the additional guilt of ingesting more crap than I need to)

[Shane]

Originally Posted by Pariah

I was surprised (and pleased) to learn that Peeps don't have HFCS. (at least, that's what someone told me. I'm afraid to actually check, because i'm going to eat them anyway and would like to do it without the additional guilt of ingesting more crap than I need to)

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/food/candy/...ection-25.html

[Brian in Mesa]

Originally Posted by Shane H

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/food/candy/...ection-25.html

Who doesn't like unpronounceable preservatives ??