How Sweet It Is
Well, with all this hifaluting research blogging on ticks and mites and fairy tales, I thought I'd throw another villian into the mix: corn syrup. This is very scary stuff.
You may notice, if you start looking at labels, this curious ingredient which is usually abbreviated as "HFCS" on just about everything in your pantry and refrigerator. It stands for High-Fructose Corn Syrup. It's a 2.6 billion dollar industry, it has replaced sugar as the most common sweeter (being 20% cheaper to make and distribute); it is made from genetically engineered enzymes, is sweeter than regular sugar, and acts differently in the bloodstream and liver than sugar.
The high fructose content in HFCS doesn't stimulate the pancreas to create insulin or stimulate leptin production the way normal sugar does, which means the brain doesn't get the signal these messengers typically carry to turn down the appetite. It forces the liver to dump more fat in the bloodstream increasing the level of triglycerides.
Of course it's merely coincidence that in the 1980s, when HFCS started to be introduced in mass quantities, that the heretofore stable obesity rate in this country started a dramatic climb and by 2000 had doubled when HFCS had replaced sugar as our primary sweetener.
Nah, couldn't be a connection there.
The fact that a single 12oz soda can have up to 13 teaspoons of HFCS and that soda consumption has doubled since then is probably a coincidence. The fact that it's in everything from hotdog buns to ketchup, breakfast cereals and so called health foods is just because it's more convenient to manufacture and transport has a longer shelf-life and supports a very profitable conglomerate. What more could we ask for?
Other reading: The Murky World of HFCS
You may notice, if you start looking at labels, this curious ingredient which is usually abbreviated as "HFCS" on just about everything in your pantry and refrigerator. It stands for High-Fructose Corn Syrup. It's a 2.6 billion dollar industry, it has replaced sugar as the most common sweeter (being 20% cheaper to make and distribute); it is made from genetically engineered enzymes, is sweeter than regular sugar, and acts differently in the bloodstream and liver than sugar.
The high fructose content in HFCS doesn't stimulate the pancreas to create insulin or stimulate leptin production the way normal sugar does, which means the brain doesn't get the signal these messengers typically carry to turn down the appetite. It forces the liver to dump more fat in the bloodstream increasing the level of triglycerides.
Of course it's merely coincidence that in the 1980s, when HFCS started to be introduced in mass quantities, that the heretofore stable obesity rate in this country started a dramatic climb and by 2000 had doubled when HFCS had replaced sugar as our primary sweetener.
Nah, couldn't be a connection there.
The fact that a single 12oz soda can have up to 13 teaspoons of HFCS and that soda consumption has doubled since then is probably a coincidence. The fact that it's in everything from hotdog buns to ketchup, breakfast cereals and so called health foods is just because it's more convenient to manufacture and transport has a longer shelf-life and supports a very profitable conglomerate. What more could we ask for?
Other reading: The Murky World of HFCS
This is very interesting. Thanks for the info
ReplyDeleteInteresting, wonder what would happen if we fed it to ticks?
ReplyDelete