| " WASHINGTON - Pick up a processed food these days -- from bread and cereal to salad dressings, soft drinks and soups -- and you're likely to find a common ingredient: high-fructose corn syrup." " Call it the stealth sugar, because food makers must list it as an ingredient but are not required to say how much they use in a product." " High fructose is sweeter and cheaper than ordinary table sugar. As a liquid, it's easier for food and beverage makers to use, especially for sweetening beverages. No wonder it has edged out the former leading sweetener, sucrose or ordinary table sugar. Since its introduction in 1966, consumption of high-fructose corn syrup has grown to about 60 pounds per person per year." " That rise has closely paralleled the obesity epidemic -- a fact that has led some scientists to ask if there might be a link between the two." " Some aren't so sure. Michael Jacobson, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and a vocal critic of soft drinks, which he dubs "liquid candy," doesn't see high-fructose corn syrup as a particular evil. As far as Jacobson is concerned, it makes no difference whether beverages or foods are sweetened with table sugar or high-fructose corn syrup: He says that they both contribute plenty of added sugar and calories." " First, you need to know a little sugar 101. Made from cornstarch, high-fructose corn syrup is a thick liquid that contains two basic sugar building blocks, fructose and glucose, in roughly equal amounts. Sucrose, most familiar to consumers as table sugar, is a larger sugar molecule that breaks down into glucose and fructose in the intestine during metabolism." " In the body, both sugars start a cascade of biochemical reactions. Glucose increases production of insulin by the pancreas, which enables sugar in the blood to be transported into cells, where it can be used for energy. Also boosted: leptin, a hormone that helps regulate appetite and fat storage. Glucose halts production of ghrelin, the so-called appetite hormone. When ghrelin levels drop, hunger declines." " Fructose, on the other hand, doesn't stimulate either insulin or leptin production and doesn't suppress ghrelin as glucose does. It might also promote fat synthesis. That's why some scientists, including Peter Havel of the University
... read the whole article |