tooth has contributed to the spiraling rates of obesity, recent studies indi- cate that HFCS is more to blame than mere cane sugar. Researchers at Texas Southwest-
ern Medical Center found that fruc- tose is turned into fat by the body more quickly than other sugars, such as cane sugar. They also found that when fructose was eaten with a fatty meal — for example, a fast-food meal of a cheeseburger, fries, and soft drink — the fat is much more likely to be stored rather than burned. “Fructose is metabolized in the
liver, and really can’t be metabolized outside the liver,” says Crandall, chief of the cardiac transplant program at the Palm Beach Cardiovascular Clinic in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. “Plain sucrose, which is regular sugar, enters into cells freely throughout the body, but fructose has to be broken down in the liver. Fructose is really never used as energy by the body, because you have enough sugar stores onboard already, so the liver breaks it down and stores it as fat.” He adds that it also bypasses the
normal mechanisms that turn off hun- ger, unlike regular sugar, which turns off hunger signals in the central ner- vous system. In addition to causing overeating,
the sweetener can increase weight gain even when no extra calories are consumed. Researchers at Princeton University found that rats fed HFCS
U.S. HFCS Consumption and Child Obesity Rates
50 40 30 20 10 0
’72 ’78 ’88 ’99 ’01 ’03 ’07
— HFCS consumption per lb/per person — Percentage of children 2-19 yrs. obese
Obesity Over Time
Percentage of obese adults, ages 20 to 74:
23% 13% 15% ’62
’80 ’94 ’00 ’04 ’08 ’10 SOURCES: Anita Dehlinger DelPrete;
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
gained 47 percent more weight than rats who were fed an equal number of calories, but no corn syrup. British researchers found that if
fructose is present when children’s fat cells mature, more cells become belly fat. A large waistline increases the risk of many health problems includ- ing cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and certain can- cers. They also found that fructose decreased the body’s sensitivity to
Is It Making Us Dumb as Well as Fat? I
but UCLA professor of neurosurgery Fernando Gomez-Pinilla offered these words of warning: “Eating a high-fructose diet over the long term alters your brain’s ability to think and remember information.” — S.H.
AUGUST 2012 | NEWSMAX 19 31% 33% 34% 36%
insulin — a characteristic of Type 2 diabetes. In addition, a study pub- lished in February’s Journal of Nutri- tion found a correlation between diets high in HFCS and markers for cardio- vascular disease in teens. Not every study has produced the
same frightening results, and the Corn Refiners Association (CRA) staunchly defends its product. “There is no meaningful difference in how the body metabolizes table sugar and high fructose corn syrup,” they declared in a press release. An industry request to rename HFCS “corn sugar” was rejected by the FDA in June. Dr. David Brownstein, board-cer-
tified family physician and editor of the Natural Way to Health newsletter, brushes aside the CRA’s assurances. He is convinced HFCS is one of the biggest health problems today. “It’s directly related to obesity,
diabetes, metabolic syndrome, heart disease and a whole host of other dis- eases,” he tells Newsmax. Should the government control the
use of HFCS? “Usually, I’m not a big fan of Big Brother telling us what to do or not to do,” Brownstein says. “However, there are instances where we need government protection. Right now, we have a country where two- thirds of us are overweight, one-third of us are obese. In this instance, I think the government should take action and remove high-fructose corn syrup from our food supply.”
n addition to its association with obesity, high-fructose corn syrup may have another effect: A new UCLA study found that when rats were fed a fructose solution
in place of their drinking water for six weeks, their ability to think and remember was hampered. Specifically, it affected their ability to navigate a maze. More research is needed to determine how the human brain may be affected,
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