Corn syrup is bad for us?

[mooeypoo]

Hey guys,

 

I've recently started a more massive phase of gym and nutrition, to lose weight (MASS!) but more to just make sure I'm back in shape. I signed up to a newsletter by Jillian Michaels (the trainer in "The Biggest Loser") mainly for training advice and such.

 

Today, the nutrition part of the mailing list included this part:

Dump the Most Evil Sweetener of All

In the late seventies, less than 15 percent of Americans were obese. Thirty years later, 32 percent of us are obese. What happened between then and now? First, the idea became popular that fat was evil and "low fat" diets were best. Whenever possible, fat was removed from processed foods and replaced with sugars and other carbs. At the same time, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) got

really

cheap and became food manufacturers' go-to sweetener. Since the days of the low-fat diet craze, we've learned not only that fat doesn't make you fat but that refined carbohydrates like sugar and HFCS

do

. Oops! A lot of damage has been done, but we can work with our hormones to teach our bodies to react to food the way they did before we overwhelmed our insulin response systems.

 

A good place to start is to get rid of HFCS. This evil sweetener is incredibly damaging to your metabolism, and it's

everywhere.

Researchers at Tufts University report that Americans consume more calories from soda and other sweet drinks (which invariably contain tons of HFCS) than from any other source.

 

You may have seen a commercial run by the Corn Refiners Association that tries to convince you that people who think HFCS is bad for you are paranoid; it suggests that most people can't even say why HFCS is bad for you. Well, here's your answer (tell your friends!): HFCS boosts your fat-storing hormones and makes you fat. Glucose (what table sugar is turned into in your body) is metabolized by all your cells, but fructose (the "F" in HFCS) must be metabolized in the liver. Because of this, HFCS somehow tricks the body into not releasing insulin and leptin, two essential hormones that are usually released after you eat. Without insulin, your body can't use those HFCS calories for energy, and without leptin, your body doesn't know it's full. Plus, unlike table sugar, HFCS doesn't stop levels of ghrelin, your hunger hormone, from rising. If you eat or drink HFCS, you'll actually continue to consume more calories, even 24 hours later, than you would had you just eaten plain table sugar. HFCS also increases triglycerides (a type of blood lipid), which prevent leptin from signaling the brain to stop eating.

 

I have zero tolerance for HFCS. For me, it's a code word for poison, so toss it!

 

Now, usually, I try to take these things in proper proportion - these mails are promotional, so I don't just 'eat it up' without checking. Most of the time, though, it has some fairly decent advice.

 

This time, I have to wonder -- It sounds reasonable, but the way this article is written, it has a bit of "conspiracy" scent to it, so I'm not sure how far to take it.

 

How bad corn syrup really is? Is HFCS that damaging, and is it really that much "everywhere"?

 

 

Thanks

 

~moo

[john5746]

One of my first doctors believed this to be true. I'm not sure, but I think it more important to reduce refined carbs in general and try to ingest more fiber, especially with refined carbs. I don't think replacing HFCS with sugar would be nearly as effective as a reasonable diet and exercise, but that's just my opinion.

[CharonY]

Actually the mail in the OP is wrong in several ways. I have no time to comment on the all at the moment, though. What is true, however is that a high amount of high-fructose corn syrup is bad for you (wouldn't have thought that, would ya?). But surprise, before corn syrup was used, other sweeteners, especially sucrose (a disaccharide of fructose and glucose) was used. And in most studies the effect of corn syrup and sucrose is similar. In other words, it is not corn syrup per se that causes obesity, but the overall increased consumption (plus a vast number of other changes in diet and calorie burning).

I believe that I read somewhere that a few decades ago less sweeteners were used but that Americans have somehow gained appetite for sweeter food (and the food industry was happy to oblige).

[mooeypoo]

Don't sweet stuff increase cravings?

 

Is it really that the American population gained apetite for sweeter food, or that the fast food industry started adding that sugary stuff to increase the American public's cravings for more food..?

[Baby Astronaut]

Is it really that the American population gained apetite for sweeter food, or that the fast food industry started adding that sugary stuff to increase the American public's cravings for more food..?

I thought exactly the same.

[CharonY]

Actually it is both. They increased the amount, people bought more of it, they increased it more, rinse and repeat.

While the industry had a significant part in it especially when they started adding it into baby food, it is the consumer who showed a preference to buying it that continued the cycle.

When I arrived in the US my cravings for sweets actually dropped dramatically as the stuff here is much sweeter than I was used to.

[GDG]

The effects of HFCS are currently controversial. K.L. Stanhope and P.J. Havel, Am J Clin Nutrit (2008) 88(6):1733S-37S reported that:

 

Our laboratory has investigated 2 hypotheses regarding the effects of fructose consumption: 1) the endocrine effects of fructose consumption favor a positive energy balance, and 2) fructose consumption promotes the development of an atherogenic lipid profile. In previous short- and long-term studies, we showed that consumption of fructose-sweetened beverages with 3 meals results in lower 24-h plasma concentrations of glucose, insulin, and leptin in humans than does consumption of glucose-sweetened beverages. We have also tested whether prolonged consumption of high-fructose diets leads to increased caloric intake or decreased energy expenditure, thereby contributing to weight gain and obesity. Results from a study conducted in rhesus monkeys produced equivocal results. Carefully controlled and adequately powered long-term studies are needed to address these hypotheses. In both short- and long-term studies, we showed that consumption of fructose-sweetened beverages substantially increases postprandial triacylglycerol concentrations compared with glucose-sweetened beverages. In the long-term studies, apolipoprotein B concentrations were also increased in subjects consuming fructose, but not in those consuming glucose. Data from a short-term study comparing consumption of beverages sweetened with fructose, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup, and sucrose suggest that high-fructose corn syrup and sucrose increase postprandial triacylglycerol to an extent comparable with that induced by 100% fructose alone. Increased consumption of fructose-sweetened beverages along with increased prevalence of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes underscore the importance of investigating the metabolic consequences of fructose consumption in carefully controlled experiments.

 

However, in another study, Stanhope et al. Am J Clin Nutrit (2008) 87(5):1194-203 reported that:

CONCLUSIONS: Sucrose and HFCS do not have substantially different short-term endocrine/metabolic effects. In male subjects, short-term consumption of sucrose and HFCS resulted in postprandial TG responses comparable to those induced by fructose.

 

I'm guessing that when we evolved as a species, sweet fruits were (a) nutritious for us and good to eat, and (b) not available in unlimited supply. My hypothesis is that we evolved to enjoy sweet foods (have you ever seen a child refuse candy?), but unfortunately did not evolve a limiting mechanism.

[CharonY]

I am not sure if I missed something, but aren't these reports not actually in agreement in each other in saying that sucrose, fructose and high-fructose corn syrup elicit similar responses?

And btw. as far as I am informed sweeteners do not increase the craving per se. The foundation for this is laid far earlier, i.e. in early childhood. While there is basis preference for sweet products, a diet on sweeter baby products (or vanillin for that matter) will increase the preference for the same later on in adult life.

Edited May 5, 2009 by CharonY