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Author Topic:   High-Fructose Corn Syrup - the Controversy
purpledawn
Member (Idle past 3484 days)
Posts: 4453
From: Indiana
Joined: 04-25-2004


Message 4 of 47 (581221)
09-14-2010 4:27 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by crashfrog
09-14-2010 1:32 PM


Too Much Sugar is Too Much Sugar
quote:
Obviously the question isn't "is HFCS bad for you", the question is "is HFCS worse than sucrose"? That's the notion driving the anti-HFCS crusade and the popularity of things like "Pepsi Throwback", the sweetened-with-sucrose version of Pepsi.
Changing out HFCS for sucrose isn't any "better" for us from what I can tell.
High Fructose Corn Syrup: Tasty Toxin or Slandered Sweetener?
I think the issue for some is that HFCS was in foods we wouldn't expect to find sugar. Foods with HFCS
Hard to moderate when it isn't just in the treats. I even found it in molasses.
The difference I found so far is where sucrose and HFCS are metabolized by the body.
Sucrose Metabolism
Fructose
Hopefully the chemists can give us a clearer difference, if any.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by crashfrog, posted 09-14-2010 1:32 PM crashfrog has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 5 by crashfrog, posted 09-14-2010 4:46 PM purpledawn has seen this message but not replied

  
purpledawn
Member (Idle past 3484 days)
Posts: 4453
From: Indiana
Joined: 04-25-2004


Message 17 of 47 (582694)
09-22-2010 9:39 PM
Reply to: Message 16 by crashfrog
09-22-2010 9:02 PM


Fructose Metabolism
quote:
Recall that fructose, or "fruit sugar", is the primary sugar in fruits so shouldn't fruits make you fat?
Have you ever heard of someone getting fat from fruit? Getting diabetic from fruit? Me neither.
That's the mystery, I guess; according to the food scare crowd, fructose (fruit) is ok, and fructose+glucose (sucrose) is ok, and glucose is ok, but 55% fructose/43% glucose gives you instant diabetes.
Taq covered that in Message 13.
Fructose Metabolism
The liver itself has a storage capacity of about 100 grams for fructose, when intake from the diet exceeds this, the liver will start to process this fructose, turning them into triglycerides and releasing them into the blood stream. This in return increases your chances for heart disease so it is definitely something you want to avoid.
The article goes on to explain that a piece of fruit contains only 5-8 grams of fructose. We don't tend to accumulate the same volume of fructose by just eating whole fruits as we do when we consume sodas, fruit juices, and foods containing fructose.
No webpage found at provided URL: Fructose - Sweet But Dangerious
High fructose corn syrup has become incredibly inexpensive and abundant, partially due to corn subsidies in the United States. So, really, the problem is more that it has become so cheap that it has crept its way into a great number of the foods we eat every day.
Is corn syrup fructose different than fructose found in other foods?
No, all fructose works the same in the body, whether it comes from corn syrup, cane sugar, beet sugar, strawberries, onions, or tomatoes. Only the amounts are different. For example, a cup of chopped tomatoes has 2.5 grams of fructose, a can of regular (non-diet) soda supplies 23 grams, and a super-size soda has about 62 grams.
So the volume is more the issue. Imagine eating enough whole fruit to equal 62 grams of fructose and then eat a meal with it.

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 Message 16 by crashfrog, posted 09-22-2010 9:02 PM crashfrog has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 19 by crashfrog, posted 09-23-2010 4:03 PM purpledawn has replied

  
purpledawn
Member (Idle past 3484 days)
Posts: 4453
From: Indiana
Joined: 04-25-2004


Message 20 of 47 (582882)
09-23-2010 6:30 PM
Reply to: Message 19 by crashfrog
09-23-2010 4:03 PM


Re: Fructose Metabolism
quote:
But not worse than sucrose.
Right?
Not if we're just talking about fructose it seems. If we get specially into HFCS as the experiment you noted in the OP, there does seem to be a difference when consuming HFCS and sucrose. I haven't found anything on just fructose (not HFCS) vs sucrose.
Concerning HFCS, I found this article and I'm not a chemist so I can't really comment on anything from that standpoint. Looking at the results something is different between those two specific sugars.
A sweet problem: Princeton researchers find that high-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain
High-fructose corn syrup and sucrose are both compounds that contain the simple sugars fructose and glucose, but there at least two clear differences between them. First, sucrose is composed of equal amounts of the two simple sugars -- it is 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose -- but the typical high-fructose corn syrup used in this study features a slightly imbalanced ratio, containing 55 percent fructose and 42 percent glucose. Larger sugar molecules called higher saccharides make up the remaining 3 percent of the sweetener. Second, as a result of the manufacturing process for high-fructose corn syrup, the fructose molecules in the sweetener are free and unbound, ready for absorption and utilization. In contrast, every fructose molecule in sucrose that comes from cane sugar or beet sugar is bound to a corresponding glucose molecule and must go through an extra metabolic step before it can be utilized.
So I guess the question is does the imbalanced ratio make a difference to our bodies?
How are the higher saccharides metabolized by our bodies?
Does the "extra step" fructose has to endure when ingested as sucrose make a difference in how the body responds to it?
Is it the combination of all the above that causes our bodies to react differently to HFCS than sucrose when it comes to weight gain?
From the tests there does seem to be a difference whether we understand it totally or not. I haven't been able to find anything on the larger sugar molecules called higher saccharides. At least nothing I can understand anyway.
The rats tested reacted differently. They still seem to be searching for the why.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 19 by crashfrog, posted 09-23-2010 4:03 PM crashfrog has not replied

  
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